Home owners: get ready for financial changes ahead

Mortgage rates are likely to rise after today's Official Cash Rate increase to 2.75% and some are predicting further rate rises from the Reserve Bank later in the year year.

There is also the uncertain impact of the Emissions Trading Scheme on prices from 1 July, and the 2.5% GST increase in October. On the positive side, there are tax cuts coming in October.

If you're a home owner with a floating rate mortgage, one of the decisions you'll be facing over the next few months is whether to shift to a fixed interest mortgage, or not.

To see the impact mortgage calculators. And when you know the effect of other changes such as the impact of ETS and tax changes, update your budget to reflect them using our Budget calculator.