Arghhh – having to pay interest on the credit card!
Filed under: Avalon's Money Thread, Cost of living, Interest Rates, Credit Cards & Mortgages in NZ
Well, for the first time in five and half years – I cannot pay off the whole balance on our credit cards, and we will be paying interest.
This is quite depressing.
I guess I should be happy that its only likely to be a few months where we have to pay, and that we have been able to organise our finances so well for so long that we haven’t had to do this thus far while we have lived in New Zealand. But still – its damned annoying.
Especially since the interest rate is a whopping 19.95%
So – from here on in – hard nosed budgeting and spending restrictions to get us back on track as fast as possible.
Why has this happened?
Some really big bills I’m afraid. Despite the emergency fund, which I still have some left of, we have had some really big expenses come through and no income. The emergency fund is coving our living expenses and top ups on the rentals, but it cant cover:
- Some large medical bills.
- Set up costs for Hubby’s contracting business.
- Legal fees
- Buying furniture for an apartment in the city. (and yes – even though we have 2 houses worth of furniture – it still turns out we need a few things – that was a depressing moment!)
Hubby has income coming in now, but almost all of it is paying the setup costs: new computer, travel, phones, internet bills, city pad – it all adds up.
And at least this time I actually know what I’m doing. I know how to work through the budgets, I know how to cut costs, and I know how to stick to the harder decisions. One thing I am sure of – that debt is not going to be there long. Ill be paying money into it as soon and as often as I can.
I’m just not sure how to cut my coffee budget
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An amusing reply
Mum and dad recently sent out a “we have been here a year” email to their friends back in the UK.
This was a reply to that email:
No Clotted Cream
No Scones
No Gold Top
No Frozen Veg
15 miles to the nearest shop
No proper Weetabix
Good bread though for Dad, but he cant eat it.
Prices going up
VAT on food.
Dismal weather
Tragic deaths.
No bloody wonder you enjoyed the English elections????
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Moving back into Wellington.
Filed under: Cost of living, Jobs & Work, Property & General Investing
The one thing you can pretty much be sure of when you emigrate, is that things don’t always go quite to plan.
Hubby’s redundancy has thrown a bit of a spanner in the works, in that he can’t work at home. The contracts he’s on mean he has to be in the office, so it’s getting difficult to maintain a life in the Wairarapa and keep stress levels down. So we have been renting a Studio apartment in town, which he lives in during the week, sometimes with me there as well.
Unfortunately its too small for both of us, so we were stuck with living apart most of the time, and that’s just not exactly the “lifestyle” we were after when we emigrated.
So we have bitten the bullet and rented a full size two bed apartment in the centre of the city. We actually own an apartment in the same block, but its tenanted – and besides – it would actually cost us a lot more to live in our own apartment.
I say full size because New Zealand cities (Particularly Auckland and now Wellington is following) are notorious for “shoe box” apartments. That’s fine if you are renting studios or 1 beds for just a single person, but I saw some brand new 2 bed apartments the other week that were about half the size of ours (and only a bit less in price). It pays to be aware of this if you are renting – don’t rent anything without seeing it first – you will probably get a shock.
So we are going to actually become the kind of “trendy wellingtonians” who live in the city during the week, and descend en masse to the Wairarapa at the weekends. Because I know full well that I cant live in town full time – its too crowded and noisy for me. I intend to make the most of city living – it will be nice to get back to going to the movies regularly for example, but I know I need to be able to get away from it as well.
And to be honest we live in such a stunning place – I just don’t really think giving up the big house in the country with the pool is an option.
So – I may be writing some slightly different blog posts – more stuff about Wellington and less about living in the back of beyond.
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Taking IBM to Employment Court
We’ve written previously about IBM redundancies and how they completely ignored what should be done in NZ.
‘cos it’s just business.
And also about how they refused to attend mediation
Since they’re a really big company and they were just doing business.
After a lot of dragging of feet on IBM’s part, and refusal to acknowledge anything was up
It’s all just business don’t I know?
We’re off to the Mediation (finally) this week.
You see, the ERA (Employment relations Authority) has the power to force parties to attend mediation. While this can’t of course ensure that a mutually satisfactory agreement is reached, it’s the first step in formal court proceedings. If we can’t agree on anything, then it’s off to court we go and everything suddenly becomes a matter of public record.
My job can sometimes be a little strange. Investigating what has happened to the IT systems of a company, spending weeks justifying why we need to invest some small amount of money on something to stop some people doing something we don’t want them too. [sorry for the very non-specifics, just best I don't use an example]
Until you find the right person in the organisation, whose job it is is to keep the Minister/General Manager/CEO ‘s name off the front page of the DomPost for anything other than good reasons.
This is often the acid test. Will what I’m doing keep the organisation off the radar of a bored journalist with nothing other than sifting through boxes of credit card receipts to occupy their time? [although I applaud the UK & NZ newspapers that have kept at this particular story, irrespective of debates about the journalists motivations. They are holding our elected representatives to account when those representatives seemed to feel they were beyond account. And after all, it's just business for the newspapers.]
And so with IBM, the mediation isn’t about right or wrong, it’s an acid test.
We have a strong case. Plus a very good lawyer, who spends a lot of time arguing for the Employer’s side so he knows what it’ll look like from the other end.
It’s the first major step in holding IBM to account for how it’s messed about with people’s lives.
Apparently dealing with the occasional employment relations matter is just a cost of doing business for IBM NZ.
As a current customer, a former employee, an existing shareholder – I personally believe there is a better way of doing business. I’m a bit funny like that sometimes.
[Added by Avalon: The budgeting has come in handy - we have managed OK this far on our savings. But although Hubby has plenty of work, there are long delays in getting paid for it, on top of having expenses in setting up a new consulting business. This is not an easy process to go through, and i personally have nothing but contempt for IBM in refusing twice to go to mediation, costing us lawyers fees and making the stress a whole lot worse. They are acting like bullies - which is par for the course in the NZ / Aus company. They have tried to force us to back down, and we have refused to be bullied. I hope one day theres a new management in New Zealand who actually run the company properly, not based on their silly personal insecurities over staff who get paid more than them.
If we settle on Wednesday, it is unlikely that we will be able to tell you how much for im afraid, but we should be able to tell you whether we settled or will be going to court. Court will cost us a fair bit of money, and theres no guarantee we would win, even with a strong case. But we will do that if IBM continue ride roughshod over us and the law. There have been a few recent cases in the papers with similar issues to Hubby's that won, so we have case law behind us.]
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What if economists ran the world?
With all this talk of politicians fiddling their expenses and paying for all sorts of entertainment with taxpayer funded credit cards, there’s some question about whether other people could run the place better.
I was listening to a Freakeconomics radio podcast (From the 24th March, you’ll find it on iTunes) the other day about how great the world would be if we ditched politicians and let economists run the world.
humpfh
Anyway, it went something along these lines;
Economists, mostly ignored.
[A small affectation normally reserved for great things like The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy.]
Milton Freedman – a great man, with high intellect and amazing theories about how to run the optimum capitalist economy.
Which the then new president of Estonia adopted whole heartedly.
And then discovered that Freedman never had any experience of putting any of these economic ideas into practice.
So undeterred by this lack of practical experience to look at, those young crazy Estonians went ahead with the reforms.
Like privitisation, abolition of import duties/taxes, and a flat tax rate for all sources of income.
Sound familiar? Like NZ’s free trade deal with China, negotiations for similar with India, and the fervent dream of a free trade deal with the USA.
And Nationals’ changes to taxation which are bringing company, trust & personal tax rates into alignment. So perhaps we’re already living in an economists dream society?
Moving on. What would an exhaulted US economist do if he got the keys to the White House?
Abolish the Education department
Abolish the minimum wage
Legalise all drugs
ohhh interesting – now you might think this is a cunning plan to then tax the sale of drugs – just like cigarettes & alcohol. But no, alas it’s only on the theory that the Govt. spends a lot of money trying to control illegal drugs, so lets legalise them and we can stop spending all that money. So scrap the DEA also.
At least we could sell tickets to wrestling matches of Economists vs Teachers.
& legalisation of prostitution
Hmm – taxation here too perhaps?
Nope – apparently it’s all about supply & demand.
Prostitutes cost a lot of money, well apparently the one’s economists visit do anyway, so if you legalise prostitution (removing the barriers to trade!) then more ‘girls’ will enter the industry, there by bringing prices down.
Next.
Change the Federal Reserve, so it only has one thing to look after. Inflation.
No dabbling in Wall St, and all the other stuff they interfere in.
Although really you don’t need the Fed to do anything, just let the free markets run things.
[that'll be the free markets that have screwed the world economy so badly in the last few years then?]
Okay, so what does Milton Freedman’s grandson think?
Well, he is off setting up island nations so that people have a free choice about which nation they want to live in. These nations would be run by business people who would hire economists [really?!], to help them setup societies that are attractive for people to live. Unlike the countries run by our current world Govts.
Hiring economists with big brains and lots of great ideas – is that really a good plan?
Well, the interview continues with this economist who decided to take charge of toilet training their young child. Applying economic theory of effort & reward, every time the child went to the toilet, they got some M&M’s.
It worked. For two days.
This 3 year old child had rapidly figured out how to get the maximum quantity of M&M’s for minimum effort.
hmm – perhaps we need three year olds running the country so they can figure out how to work all the systems we have in place to optimum effect? You sure don’t want a brainy economist in charge who can be outwitted by a three year old.
So what would happen to the world if economists were in charge?
The worlds supply of chocolate would rapidly end up in the hands of children, while the adults sat there befuddled wondering what the heck had happened.
Funnies for Hubby
Both of us are down with the most awful sore throat and colds right now. Hubby is actually a lot worse than me – utterly unable to speak. So heres some humour to cheer him up.
especially as we have less than 2 weeks till we finally get a mediation meeting with IBM, them having refused to do so twice.
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And interest rates went up.
Filed under: Banks, General Budgeting, Interest Rates, Credit Cards & Mortgages in NZ
Mr Bollard did as he was told by almost everyone that he would do and put the base rate in New Zealand up to 2.75%
I wait with baited breath to see what the banks do and how much is going to cost us all. Honestly – I do!
I thought it was worth sharing some gems from the article on stuff though – because its the kind of thing that is said so often, makes no sense, and doesn’t get challenged:
“With the domestic recovery on track, we expect the RBNZ will continue to hike the OCR steadily in 25 basis point moves at each meeting, barring a substantial deterioration in New Zealand funding costs as a result of the European soverign (sic) debt crisis.”
Um Ok, my mortgage has to go up becuase of something of that happened in Greece? I don’t live in Greece – I live in New Zealand! What next – a butterfly flaps its wings in Mexico and Im declared bankrupt???
Cameron Bagrie, chief economist at ANZ New Zealand, also expects the OCR to hit 5 percent over time.
I predict that one day I will die. I wonder if I can find someone to pay me to state the blindingly obvious. Rates go up, rates go down. At some point it will hit any number of numbers. Pick one – you too can be an economist!
“Along with ongoing growth in Australia and recovery in the United States, this has so far offset weak growth in some other export markets. Against this backdrop, New Zealand’s export commodity prices have increased sharply over the past few months, boosting export incomes.”
Sorry – even I cant turn that into plain English!
But basically – the banks will probably increase the amount of money they now want off you – cos NZ money just got more expensive. The reason they didn’t drop the rates when the OCR dropped was because Overseas money was too expensive. Either way – we get screwed.
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Why exactly should interest rates in New Zealand go up?
Filed under: Banks, Cost of living, Economics, Interest Rates, Credit Cards & Mortgages in NZ
The reserve bank meets tomorrow to tell us all whether our interest rates are going up. I’m not really sure why they need to bother because as usual the papers and so called “experts” have already told us they will be going up.
But why?
Well basically Reading through an awful lot of very boring guff, it’s because things are getting better financially for New Zealand. And what better way to celebrate than for some arse to tell us our mortgages have to get more expensive. I mean- it wouldn’t do for us to go out and try and spend some of the extra money we all apparently have burning a hole in our pockets!
I know life isn’t meant to be fair, but come on Mr Bollard. This year we are already getting an increase in GST, and due to the new emissions trading scheme the power companies are going to increase our power bills and petrol is going to have more tax on it, even Air New Zealand is upping the cost of flights to cover it. And it’s not as if the banks are charging fair mortgage rates in line with the the reserve bank anyway. The bank fixed rates are the same as when the OCR was twice what it is now. And yet it almost worth betting real money that an increase on Thursday will be a perfect excuse for the banks to charge even more.
I just don’t get it.
They giveth with one hand and they nick it straight back with the other!
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In any country you get idiots working in Immigration
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when i saw Nadene Ghouri’s story come up on my Google news alert this morning. Nadene was born and raised in Britain, and want to bring in her Kiwi husband to live with her there. They married in New Zealand a few months ago, but are planning a church blessing in the UK in a few weeks. Only her husband Sam has been refused a visa to live in the UK. Despite Sam having already lived in the UK for 5 years previously (and – as demanded of all long-suffering legal immigrants everywhere) left the UK when his previous visa expired.
Why, you ask? Is he a Terrorist? A repeat drink driver with a criminal record as long as your arm? Un-educated?
Nope. among the reasons given were that they have an overdraft, and are thus likely to try bludging off the state.
‘I am not satisfied that you or your sponsor will be able to maintain you or any dependants adequately without recourse to public funds,’ declared the immigration officer.
She said she’d reached her conclusion because my bank statements show an average overdraft of £1,000 to £2,000 each month. Sam’s accounts also show a small overdraft.
Well, I demand that forthwith – everyone with an overdraft be summarily removed from the shores of Britain – especially anyone in the immigration department (and especially especially anyone working for INZ in the UK who doesn’t have a spotless bank record).
Then theres there blindingly stupid assertion that
‘Given your history of working overseas I am not satisfied you intend to live permanently with your spouse.’
Well, it seems that what the silly bint at immigration failed to grasp was that these two people work in Journalism, and it seems they often travel abroad reporting for such fly-by-night outfits as SkyNews and the BBC. So if they had switched their brains on (assuming they had any) I think its not too far a stretch to realise that while they may both work abroad a lot, their marriage is no more false then that of a pilot, air hostess, soldier or a host of other professions.
I have actually heard of people coming to New Zealand being asked to prove thier relationship was real – despite having been married 40 years. You just cant make it up.
Besides – you cant have it both ways – refuse them because they work for a living at the same time as refusing them for being probable bludgers on the state????
Thankfully Nadene and Sam have lawyered up and are appealing the decision. They have also done what we did, and starting getting letters of support and help off other people who know them and support their decision.
I also hope that the person responsible for this blindingly stupid decision is sacked for being so thick. It offends me immeasurably that people this stupid are given jobs that are so vitally important. These are the people supposed to be protecting our borders from undesirable immigrants – not keeping out a newly married couple who can earn money, pay taxes and make a successful life together. I hope their lawyer wipes the floor with the UK immigration Department, and the case officer goes and get a less demanding job – flipping burgers for instance.
Id also be tempted to say scratch the UK and come here instead – except you might get just as unlucky and get a case officer just as stupid. It’s still pure luck. Most people get decent case officers, who treat them as people and take time to use a bit of common sense. But without doubt, some of get robots with no ability to make sensible decisions. I guess you are as likely to meet the problem going from New Zealand as you are coming in.
Finally – good on Nadene for using the fact that she is a journalist to highlight this issue. If I was the UK Immigration Department I would be asking some pointed questions as to why my staff made such a huge balls-up with the case of a BBC / Daily Mail journalist.
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It’s not just us plebs that have trouble getting into NZ.
Today the papers are talking about the fact that the amazing Richard O’Brien cant emigrate to New Zealand, despite that fact that he actually grew up here from the age of ten, and his family is still here.
Seems he didn’t get Citizenship before he left in his 20′s to go to London, and create the best dance in the history of the world (possible excepting the Hokey Cokey if you really want to argue about it).
So now – he appears to have no automatic right to apply for residency as he doesn’t fit any criteria according to his immigration advisor. (Licensed, though it doesn’t say that on their website).
Now obviously – being a Newspaper report, there are a huge number of questions that aren’t answered. I’m assuming that at the time his family emigrated there were no such thing as IRRV’s which allow you to come back to New Zealand permanently even if you have been away for many years.
As it is it seems he was trying to apply under the family residence (adult sibling) category – the same as my brother, becuase he has two siblings here. Only hes too old and yes – you guessed it – he cant apply until he gets a job offer. I somehow thing that wouldn’t be an issue. The Retirement visas don’t seem suitable – one is for sponsoring your parents and the one that doesn’t is only temporary. His son is also in New Zealand as a Student, and apparently applying for residence himself.
It also turns out that Richard O’Brien is so well thought of as a Kiwi, that theres a statue of him in Hamilton, where he used to live. It even has a Webcam! Actually I find that quite fitting.
So now hes writing to Mr Coleman the minister and asking for help. I damn well hope he gets it. New Zealand is ever so eager to lame claim to all sorts of famous people – right up till the might ask for something back. I remember at the premier for King Kong, Andy Serkis was complaining that he couldn’t get residence here either – despite being part of a set of films that NZ just wont stop banging on about because they were made here. And yet Michael Barrymore got in despite having a rather disturbing criminal record that would have ensured any normal person wasn’t allowed in.
So here’s wishing Mr O’Brien the best of luck in his plans to retire to New Zealand as a Permanent resident. He has family here, history here, and he’s claimed as a Kiwi. Cant see the issue myself!
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