Time to joke, entering into extra financial burden? (4)
'financial burden?' is the definition.
(a mortgage is a loan)
'time to joke entering into extra' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'to joke' becomes 'gag' (a gag is a joke or witticism).
'entering into' is an insertion indicator.
'extra' becomes 'more' (both can mean additional).
't'+'gag'='tgag'
'tgag' going into 'more' is 'MORTGAGE'.
(Other definitions for mortgage that I've seen before include "Met aggro from agreement to hold property as security" , "Loan secured against property" , "Pledge as security" , "Home loan" , "borrowing arrangement" .)
'extra financial burden?' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'time to joke entering' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'to' says to put letters next to each other (I've seen this in other clues).
'joke entering' becomes 'mor' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
't' after 'mor' is 'MORT'.
'into' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?