If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
This is one of my favorite sayings. Along with “Never assume, the universe is full of dead people who lived by assumption”, “There can be only one” and “May the force be with you”.
SO why did I ignore it and “upgrade” the blog theme???
Ah, well, as it clearly didnt work very well – we have been told it was blocking access to at least 3 regular readers, and I noticed that visitor numbers dropped sharply (I choose to assume you didnt all get bored of me!) – we thre that one away and went back to what he had before.
So here ya go!
Good Old Avalon’s Guide back in blue and looking a lot nicer actually I think.
Thanks for sticking with it and many thanks to those who took the time to let me know they had problems. Hopefully this has fixed it.
Hxx
Website admin & links
Now that life has slowed down enough for us to organise a couple of holiday breaks, we’re also doing some website admin this week, which means that you might see a few changes.
We’re also going to fix up the broken links where we can. Not everyone keeps their pages static, so apologies if you read something that suggests there is a link and you can’t find one. Just drop us a line if you want to know where the link went and we’ll set the lolcatz searching again.
We’ve got a full website testing suite setup and running. i.e. I check stuff on Opera, Firefox, Chrome & IE8 plus Safari & Opera on my iPhone, to make sure it all looks proper. However, if we miss something and you find stuff just doesn’t show up as you expect, please let us know.
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Avalon’s Guide is on Sale :)
I am down to my last few copies of Avalon’s Guide, and at this stage am not planning to do another reprint due to the costs involved. So to clear the shelves of the last remaining books – I have decided to drop the price – which also helps with the crummy exchange rate.
So now instead of getting a copy posted to the UK for $46.00, it will cost just $31.00.
Once those have all gone, you will still be able to buy Avalon’s Guide, but only as an E-Book, which is also dropping to $12.00.
Share away.
We have just added some easier to use sharing options to the blog, so rather than having to a/ notice and b/ bother to use the Share This option, you can now just click on the nifty little buttons.
You can “like” on Facebook or share to Facebook or Twitter if anything I waffle on about grabs your attention.
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2 years old today.
Yep – I have managed to blather on about all sorts for a whole 2 years now. You’d think I would actually run out of things to say. But no – I seem to keep going. And going.
According to wordpress there have been:
- 590 posts
- 1075 comments
- Last year I had 38,000 visits to the site, this year I have had 50,000 visits
- Racism in New Zealand is now the most viewed post I have written – second is the post on How to make clotted cream.
- My busiest mnth for writing was July 2009, where somehow I managed to write 46 posts. I had a quiet month in June and July this year, with only 13 and 14 posts each month.
- There have been a whopping 28,439 spam comments posted to the blog.
I think its time for a glass of bubbles.
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Upgrades to Avalon’s Blog done :)
Filed under: The Book and Website, The Family Sponsorship Saga
Hubby has reminded me just how much he loathes coding – and was only calmed down my copious amounts of Tea, Chocolate and Top Gear yesterday while he battled to do the things I wanted him to do to the blog.
Mostly it was a case of de-cluttering and tidying things up. It’s amazing how this thing has evolved, and as it does so, widgets get added, things move, I join more blog directories, and before you know it – theres no room for me to write anything anymore!
The main changes are:
- The Family Sponsorship Saga posts have all moved up to the top menu, so they aren’t taking up room on the side.
- I’ve created one picture of the Book with both Book and E-Book prices on to create more room and we have a smaller Buy Now button.
- Ive moved the Really Useful Immigration Links into the Links page, rather than having them sitting with the BlogRolls.
- Ive tidied up and shorted the list of Categories, to make it easier to find posts.
But the main alteration is that the Amazon Store is now up and running, and can be found on the top Menu. This is something I always wanted to do, because I spend so much of my own time devouring books, and this is a great way to have a list of all the books that helped me on my journey – both to emigrate and to become a budgeting freak. Ill be adding books from time to time, but theres a pretty good starting list there: both books about New Zealand and books about personal finance. And yes, I will get paid if you click through from the Amazon Store page and you buy anything during that session. It takes you through to Amazon, and you will be buying through Amazon, not through me.
I get about 5% on any purchases you make, so please feel free to make use of the store and help me cover the cost of running this website.
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Changes to AvalonsGuide on the way.
As its still absolutely chucking it down in Wellington, meaning we aren’t going for a nice long walk around the bay, or heading to one of the beaches for a nice coffee, we have decided to get our butts in gear and make some changes to the website.
Ive been trying to get this done for a while now, and even have a proper Amazon.co.uk aStore ready to go – but it does require the tech wizarding skills of Hubby to get a load of this done. Apparently the aStore requires changes to the CSS file – and I don’t even know what a CSS file is – let alone how to change it! Blogging is great as long as all you need to do is sput forth with your opinions – but as soon as you need to do something – Argghhh!
So anyway – feel free to comment and let me know if theres things that you particularly don’t like about any of the changes we make – cos I’m happy to bear them in mind as the website evolves.
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Trying to post “Avalon’s Guide”: a frustrating day.
I have just sent this email to NZ Post – hopefully I will get a nice result. It’s usually really easy to post our books out – but not yesterday. BTW – if you bought the book – it IS on its way to you – we posted it today 
I would like to relate a very frustrating day I had yesterday, trying to do a rather simple thing: buy 2 prepaid Worldwide A4 padded envelopes.
First off, i should tell you that this is a regular thing, as I sell a book mainly to UK or US buyers. My normal Post Shop is Carterton, where I have absolutely no problems. I live rurally, so I pay a little bit extra to get the pre-paid bag, so when an order comes in – I can post the book in my own box, rather than having to traipse 14km into town, buy postage and post it there and traipse 14km back. The extra cost far outweighs the time and petrol costs of going into town to post a standard padded bag.
I started the morning in Greytown, on my way to Wellington (theres a shortcut that bypasses Carterton – my first mistake as it turned out). I went into the post shop, and saw that they only had Large envelopes. There were no other customers, so I asked the lady behind the counter if they had any of the smaller ones in stock. I was rather brusquely told “No!” I was a bit taken aback, but she then waved in the general direction of the PostBags and said – thats all we’ve got. I think I must have looked a bit upset at the way she spoke, becuase she then told me that the “grey ones” were cheaper. I was surprised, becuase we’ve checked this at Carterton, and its only been about 50c difference. So I asked how much cheaper. She then (again, brusquely) said “I don’t know – you’ll have to weigh it”.
At which point I gave up and worked out, figuring id find some pre-pay bags in wellington later, which would save having to be spoken to like that.
I had a lot to do in Wellington, so it was quite late in the day before i found a Post Shop that didn’t have a huge queue, and went to the new one on Manners St. There were two staff and one customer. I went to the back of the shop, picked up the two Worldwide postbags i wanted, and went to the counter. I put them on the counter. The man behind the counter just stood there with his arms by his side and stared at me. He did not pick the bags up. Then as i was getting my purse out of my bag, he asked me what I was sending. I was a bit concerned at this point as he still hadn’t picked the bags up, and was still stood back from the counter starting at me. I told him at was for a book. He then demanded to know if I had the book with me. I told him no, and was now getting annoyed. By the time he then asked my where I was sending it (uh – worldwide?) I had had enough. I told him not to bother, picked up he Postbags (which he had still not made a move to scan and sell to me, and put them back on the racks. As I did, he called out to me that “the grey ones are cheaper”. I called back to him to tell him that no, they weren’t.
By this point, I an exceedingly frustrated, upset, and getting angry. All I want to do is buy some prepaid postbags.SO I can post a book to a client in the morning from home.
On our way home, we decided on one last ditch attempt to buy some postage from a postshop, and took a detour to Lower Hutt Westfield. I just couldn’t face being told by anymore staff that for whether reason I was not going to get my postbags, so I sent my Husband in. I figured at this point I was starting out grumpy, and I didn’t want to be rude to anyone. Not that such consideration entered into the heads of the staff I had dealt with so far.
But the EftPos machine wasn’t working – cash only. Now while thats not the fault of the staff in the shop – it really did make the whole thing take on a tinge of farce, and was a rather fitting end to a bad day in New Zealand Post Shops.
So what did we end up doing?
Well, as we had had to make a detour, we popped into Warehouse Stationary in Upper Hutt. We were asked if we needed any help, and had a discussion about what we needed to do (rather than being rudely told what I had to do). We bought at Padded Plastic A5 envelope of the kind i wanted, for $1.39. I got home, packed up the book, and later on today – i need to make a 28km round trip to pay for the postage to actually send it. Because I cant just walk to the end of the drive and stick it in the postbox in a PostagePaid bag.
So, given my day yesterday, could i please make the following requests of your company?
1/ Could you please train your staff and business owners and explain to them that some of their customers may be looking for items that they have already costed as being the most cost effective solution for themselves and their businesses.
2/ Could you also train your staff that telling people “the grey ones are cheaper” is firstly, not always true as it depends on the weight, and secondly is not a useful conversation. At no point was I ever asked if I had considered using the gray bags,or if i would like to check if they were a better option – I was just told they were. When they in fact are not.
3/ Could you specifically explain to the staff in the Manners St shop that not picking up the goods someone has passed over the counter, and staring at them while keeping your arms at your side is truly bizarre behavior, and comes across as exceedingly rude and confrontational. And demanding to know what they are postings and where just makes the situation worse.
4/ Could you also explain to all your staff that a lot of New Zealanders do not in fact live near a Post Shop, and there is a reason why you sell pre-paid bags, and also explain the concept of Rural Post services. Just because I was buying in Wellington or Greytown does not mean I am a five minute walk away and can bring items into post everyday.
5/ Finally, given that I had to waste a great deal of time and petrol running round trying to post something that should have been straightforward, would you please send me a couple of A4 PrePaid Worldwide PostBags to make up this?
Thank you very much for your time.
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The UK State Pension – what happens to it when you emigrate.
Filed under: Avalon's Money Thread, Cost of living, Retirement, Pensions and Kiwisaver, The Book and Website
This is something that I’ve actually had a lot of emails about recently, so I thought I would write a little about it and there seems to be some really whopping great misconceptions out there.
The main thing you need to understand is that you cannot double dip on your state pensions. You do not have the right to take a UK state pension and add it to any New Zealand superannuation you may be entitled to.
You just can’t.
If you choose to take the UK pension you are entitled to – it gets taken straight off any Superannuation you would get. There is a chapter in Avalon’s Guide explaining the nuts and bolts – but this is the bit you need to understand.
- If you are currently receiving the UK State Pension, the amount of pension you will get is frozen at the level it is when you become a resident of New Zealand.
- If you emigrate, and then later become eligible for the UK State Pension, the amount is frozen at the level it was when you left the UK.
- Any UK State Pension that you do get will be taken off any New Zealand state Superannuation you may be entitled to.
- This means that you cannot claim the UK state pension and add it to the New Zealand Superannuation.
- You can continue to contribute to the UK State Pension while you are resident in New Zealand if you wish.
- Any contributions that you make will increase your UK State Pension.
- Remember though that any increase you do gain will simply decrease the amount of New Zealand Superannuation you are entitled to.
As far as I’m personally concerned, I have not been expecting a state pension for the UK government since I was about 20 years old. The pensions system in most western countries is bankrupt, and there just isn’t the money to keep paying it.
You should also be aware that the National Insurance you pay in the UK is not being used to fund your retirement. It’s paying for the pensions of the people currently receiving a state pension. Your pension needs to be paid by future taxpayers. Thus the problem – there aren’t anywhere near enough people to pay it. The number of pensioners is growing, and the number of taxpayers isn’t growing anywhere near as fast.
And it’s no better here in New Zealand. As Gareth Morgan (an investment provider and somewhat annoying “guru” and “commentator”) says in his book Pension Panic:
If you think the government is going to keep you in the style to which you have become accustomed once you’ve retired, think again – unless you’re on the breadline now.
I just wanted people to be aware that this information is out there, and while I probably wasn’t able to think of everything that should go in a book about finances and emigrating to New Zealand, I really did think of most things. If you want to be prepared and not face these shocks, then read it. It may not always be fluffy – but it will mean you are prepared.
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You can now review Avalon’s Guide on Amazon.
We finally managed to wade our way thorough the process to get Avalon’s Guide on sale through Amazon UK.
Which means you can now write a review of my book. Good, bad or indifferent – did you like it or hate it? Hopefully you didn’t hate it.
So please feel free to rate the book and leave a review here.
You will notice that the book is vastly more expensive via Amazon, which is basically down to the fact that what they pay us doesn’t even begin to cover the cost of posting stock to them. The price is not changing via our website.
You can also review the book on Fishpond.co.nz
Fishpond is the New Zealand equivalent of Amazon, selling books and DVD’s. Avalon’s Guide is on sale for a more reasonable $35.99.
Join Avalon’s Guide on Facebook.
We now have a fan page on Facebook, through which you can get immediate updates to the blog sent directly to your Facebook feed.
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