What my credit card says about me.

August 13, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Cost of living, General Budgeting 

For some bizarre reason this morning, hubby had a flick through the credit card bill that arrived yesterday, and noticed that there seemed to be a marked preference for spending in a certain type of shop.

So for you amusement – here are the types of items you can see on our credit card statement.

Supermarket – 15 Items

Business stuff – 2 Items

Medicines & Health care – 2 Items

DIY – 2 Items

Health Insurance – 1 item

Clothes – 1 Item

Cinema – 1 Item

Utilities – 2 Items

Books & DVD’s – 7 Items

Online Gaming – 4 Items

Cafes and Restuarants – 21 Items

Ooops. I’m off for a coffee to drown my sorrows!

Is it worth moving money back to the UK right now? Part 1

I am actually trying to work through this myself, so I thought I would write about it as I’m going along, and see what conclusions I come to. Just so you know, I actually don’t know the answer at this point.

First the reason for thinking about it: The exchange rate is historically low, running at about $1.90 to the UK£. So basically, all being equal, now is the perfect time to sell NZD and Buy UK£. In theory you would then sell the UK£ and buy back NZD when the rate gets to more like $3 to the £.

Let’s look at just $1000.

  •  Sell $1000 and buy £526 at current rates
  • Then when the rate changes to (hopefully) $3.
  • Sell £526 and buy $1578 NZD
  • Profit: $578
  • Which makes a return of a whopping 57% which is something you are not going to get very often.

So why wouldn’t you do that?

Well there’s a few things to take into account.

1/ Interest rates on savings.

In the UK you will basically get 0% interest on savings. So the £526 is unlikely to grow in the foreseeable future.

In NZ however, you can get 3.5 – 5% on savings.

So if we assume that you get the current savings rate at ASB, then the $1000 actually earns you  $35.62 (compound interest) a year. Bear in mind that you pay tax on that.

Ok, so that means you need to be able to make at least 3.5% on the transfer back within a year to make it worth moving money to the UK.

I work out that the rate need to hit $1.967 to do that:

  • 1035 / 526 = 1.967

Which means that in no way shape or form does the interest earned in NZ outweigh the gains you can make in the UK on the exchange rate, unless you believe that the $ will never go down in value much, and we are looking at a new “normal” of $2.00 to the UK£.

2/ “Time in the Market”.

Its often said that Time in the market is more important that Timing the Market with investing. Ie – don’t buy and sell quickly, buy and hold on for dear life.

So if you can earn $35 a year on your $1000, how many years can you keep the money in the UK and wait for the seemingly mythical $3 exchange rate and still beat the interest rate?

Waiting for $3 : £1 will net you $578 , so you can wait so that’s the equivalent of  16 years worth of interest at 3.5%.

Actually that’s not totally accurate – I worked out that because of compounding, it actually takes 13 years according to MoneyChimp

3/ Will you ever get $3 to the £ again?

Who knows. According to some experts the NZ$ will never go down in value to the same level it was. These are often the same people that say house prices will never go up by the amounts they did in the past. I actually think that’s as daft as saying at the height of the property boom that house prices never go down.

It’s cycles. Money works in cycles. It always has, and I personally don’t see why it would suddenly behave any differently.

But remember, each year, the exchange rate just has to go up a tine bit – the equivalent of an extra $35 ever year to beat the interest you would earn in NZ.

Part 2: What about comparing with a mortgage?

 

NOTE: This assumes you use a Currency Transfer outfit that has no fees.  HiFX have recently dropped thier minimum tranfer to $1000 NZD  and 500 UK$ to get fee free transfers.

NOTE 2: Ok – so looks like Hifx havent actually dropped there fees. For some reason I seem to have got a free transfer – but now when I try and do it again they would charge $12 or $9 for the above transfers – with the old limits of $10,000 or £5000 to get fee-free transfers. Bugger.

Why exactly should interest rates have to go up?

July 19, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Cost of living, Economics, Jobs & Work 

I just do not get this. There was a piece on the news last night about the large and rapid increase in the cost of living over the past year. This means inflation goes up (which just tracks how much prices have risen). Which means that interest rates should go up. Because that will apparently curb our spending and bring the rate of inflation down.

Except that the costs that are going up are food, power and petrol, as well as the luxuries. (A flat white will often now cost $4.50 whereas you used to be able to get one for $3.50 or even $3 even a year ago.)

Petrol went up by 20 per cent, food by 7 per cent and electricity by 7.8 per cent as the consumer price index rose 5.3 per cent in the year to June 30, the biggest rise since 1990.

The figure includes last year’s rise in GST but, even without it, inflation would still have been 3.3 per cent, above the Reserve Bank’s 1 per cent to 3 per cent target.

Now economists believe there is a 70 per cent chance of a rise in mortgage rates before December to try to curb inflation.

So why would you increase interest rates, putting up the cost of the mortgage, in order to give people even less money to put petrol in the car to get to work and earn the money they need to pay for the mortgage?

Why would you give them less money to put food on the table?

Why would you give them less money to heat their homes?

Because news reports are also saying that money is not being spent in retail stores. In fact an article in the Dom Post this morning actually bemoans that even the Kirkaldie and Staines winter sale is a bit of a damp squib – as opposed to the usual “queuing round the block” grand event.

And of course all of this goes hand in hand with little or no pay rises for the majority of people.

I can only hope that someone at the Reserve Bank of NZ can tell the somewhat obvious difference between inflation caused by people racking up credit to buy stuff they don’t need, and inflation caused by the basics rocketing up in price. It seems a bit obvious to me, but then I am not an economist.

 

 

Banks are stepping up to help Christchurch

As soon as the government announced it’s package to help people in Christchurch, ANZ was on the TV with an advert outlining it’s 1,000,000,000 package to help affected people in the red zone.

We’ve created a $1,000,000,000 kick-start fund to provide lending to home owners living in the Government’s designated residential red zone.

A heavily discounted variable rate – currently 3.70% p.a. – will be available to eligible residents for the first year of lending – no matter where you relocate in New Zealand.
What does the fund provide?

Eligible residents will get a 2.04% discount off ANZ’s variable home loan rate for the first year of lending up to a value of $500,000.
Who is eligible?

Any home owner living in an area of Christchurch which has been designated as part of the Government’s designated residential red zone. What do you need to do to qualify?

  • You must be eligible for and take up the Government scheme
  • and deposit the net proceeds of the Government payout into an ANZ call account within two months of receiving it
  • At the point of taking up the lending, you’ll need to direct credit your salary directly into an ANZ transaction account
  • The loan must be drawn down by 31 December 2012.

Kiwibank have a similar package to ANZ:

If you accept the offer from the Government and wish to purchase or build a property elsewhere, we’re offering:
a 2% p.a. discount on our variable rate for a year from drawdown – this means that the rate will be 3.65% p.a.
no application fee for new home purchases
no fixed rate break costs or early repayment fee if you already have a Kiwibank home loan.

You’ll need to:
contribute the Government’s net payout towards the property purchase price, and
have your salary direct credited to a Kiwibank account.

The maximum loan amount is $500,000, and the loan needs to be drawn down before 31 December, 2012.

ASB have also updated there aid package, but to be honest it really is pretty weak compared to ANZ.

Westpac and BNZ haven’t released an up to date package for people in the red zone – which is a pretty poor show really. So ANZ and Kiwibank are the winners here for taking some decisive steps – good on them.

Paying off debt – still too hard for most people :(

According to a piece on the herald today, Kiwi consumer debt (that doesn’t include mortgages on property) still stands at a whopping $11.96 billion. That’s $11,960,000,000.  Now the Stats NZ population clock stands at over 4.4 million, but census information says there are 895,000 people here under the age of 15. Which leaves an “adult(ish) population of 3.5million give or take. Which means on average every one over the age of 15 would be carrying a debt of $3417 each, all at high interest rates. This is debt on credit cards, store card and hire purchase.

That’s actually quite a lot really.

And according to the article, the most that people are thinking of doing to sort this out is not get further into debt. But there are very few people thinking of paying it down.

Now for the moment, we also have some consumer debt on a credit card – expenses from setting hubby up as a contractor. As you know, we swapped this to a “low” interest credit card, saving us about  $250 a month in interest, and that is being paid off rapidly, and will be gone by the end of September. To be honest, I felt really unconformable having the debt there, and it just didn’t seem to be getting lower. So we took steps and have budgeted $2000 a month to pay the card off. Now most people will not have the income to do that, especially here in New Zealand. But the bottom line is – debt has to be paid off somehow.

It doesn’t have to be $2000 a month, but it does have to be more than the minimum payment, and having consumer debt means if nothing else – you have to stop buying things you cannot afford.

Its a pain – but its true.

Apparently the interest we are collectively paying on our credit cards (at an average of 18%) is $650 million in a year.Now shared amongst the same 3.5 million of us sharing the debt, that works out at a reasonable sounding $185 a year each.   But when you consider that you pay that for the privilege of having the debt, and you actually don’t have anything to show for it – its a bit of a waste of money isn’t it?

Believe me – that $2000 debt repayment could be much better spent on us having some fun. Though actually because I’m completely sad – once the credit card is paid off, its going to be used to pay down some of our business mortgages.  We may however be able to use 1 month of it to fund the purchase of a new laptop.  In the meantime, I gain a huge amount of pleasure from denying the banks a fair chunk of interest each month.

 

 

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Would you apply for a mortgage for someone else…

and then complain when you realise that you were scammed and the mortgage broker lied to you when they told you it was to help a British couple out whose money was locked up in the UK???

Much as I would like to help people make the move to New Zealand – the answer for me is

NO WAY IN HELL!

Because call me nuts – but isn’t it fraud to apply for a mortgage or loan under you own name, when you know its actually for someone else, especially when you are doing so on the promise of being paid money by these people when the loan draws down, and then a monthly fee from them?

This is what has happened to a couple on the Kapiti Coast. They got scammed by Kerry Brundle,  a mortgage broker. And they have finally woken up and gone to the police – along with many other victims who for some utterly inexplicable reason took out loans to give this woman money. The mortgage payments were supposed to be met by Brundle, or some other fictitious character and then the people scammed were also supposed to receive a payment when the loan was drawn down, and then ongoing payments each month. To say “Thank you”.

Mark Mason can testify to how persuasive Ms Buddle could be. He took out a $42,000 mortgage on his house in Paraparaumu in 2008 so he could lend her money to renovate her home. He has since had to sell his house to avoid a mortgagee sale.

“She said it would be good for both of us. I trusted her, she was a friend. I thought this has got to be easy – get $1000 upfront then $100 a month – for signing a piece of paper.”

Were they all barking nuts???

Why oh why oh why would you mortgage your house, risk yours and your families financial future to give money to someone else? Charity is one thing – stupidity is quite another. If you have the money and want to help people – that’s great: laudable and entirely your choice. But when you are prepared to sign loan documents under your own name knowing full well that you are lying about the loan being for you in exchange for money, I’m afraid any sympathy I have goes out the window. To me – this is what greed is – you do something which highly unethical, because someone is going to pay you money to do it.

That doesn’t diminish how much of a snake Kerry Brundle is – living like a millionaire on the money she scammed out of people. There are an awful lot of people out there pretending they have a lot of money when they don’t, so she will not be the last person to get caught for trying to live off other people’s money I’m sure.

Why do people do this?

We were prepared to take a certain amount of risk when taking out mortgages to buy our investment properties. But always – we ran the numbers, listened to advice, and remembered that if we screwed up or things got difficult – we were risking not just our home and future – but that of my Parents and brother as well. I sure as hell would never risk that to borrow money for someone else! If I give money – for any reason – it is money I can afford to give – and I give it because I want to – not because someone will pay me to do so.

 

 

 

 

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I’m a credit card tart and proud of it!

A credit card tart is someone who swaps the balance of their credit card to another card in order to take advantage of special low introductory rates on balance transfers.

This was hugely popular in the UK in the years before we emigrated, where it was not unusual to get several offers in the post each month from different providers, often with 0% interest on the balance transfer.

Now many people took these out, and ended up spending yet more money and ended up with a lot more debt. But people in the know used these rates to pay down debt faster and faster – including us.

Yet when we came to New Zealand, there was no such thing. With standard interest rates on cards at about 20%, “low” rates were about 7% at the cheapest. But now ANZ are offering 2.99% on balance transfers for 6 months.  And while most banks won’t “lend” me money (because we have investment properties), one of our mortgages is with ANZ and they have decided to take our business. I am not taking on an extra credit card – I will be canceling the ASB card as soon as I have the physical new card – I just want to take advantage of a good offer!

This is the only credit card we have with debt on it – and it is associated with Hubby’s contracting business – so this is where all the set up costs, training costs and such went.  The interest we are paying on the card with ASB is about $200 a month. On the ANZ card it will be about $30.

Not a bad saving.

Even better – one of those money saving options that results from not having to “give up” a single cup of coffee (or anything else!)

Of course the trick to being a successful Tart is to keep paying off the credit card at the same rate, and not see the $170 reduction as extra money you can spend! I will be aiming to have the balance paid off in full by the end of the 6 months introductory period, and then we can go back to not having a revolving balance on any of our cards.

So thanks today goes to ANZ bank – for not only helping me out with my finances and budgeting, but for making the process of getting the cards and transferring the balance an easy and pleasant one. I am very impressed.

 

In contrast to my opinion of Kiwibank.

 

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Well Done to ASB

It’s really nice to be able to say that a Bank has done something really worthwhile but I think ASB deserve a gold star for doing just a little more to help people in Christchurch, and show a bit of team spirit and flexibility.

We realise that some ASB customers have been significantly affected by the Christchurch earthquakes so we have updated our assistance package to reflect this. If your home is uninhabitable or your income has been significantly impacted talk to us as you may be eligible for the following discounted rates on your existing products:

Home Loans
Save on your home loan rates for up to 12 months
We’re offering up to 12 months at a reduced rate to help make things easier. That means 0.5% discount off your existing fixed rate; and/or 1% discount off your floating rate.
Up to 6 months payment holiday on a home loan
Take a break from repayments (although interest will be added to your loan during this period increasing what you owe).
No Early Repayment Fees if you repay a fixed rate home loan, where a home is destroyed or suffered major damage as a result of the earthquake.
No establishment or adjustment fees if you need to establish or restructure a home loan as a result of the earthquake.

Credit Cards
A discounted rate of 6.24%p.a. on your ASB Credit Card for 12 months. This rate is subject to change.
Immediate consideration of any requests for emergency credit limit increases and review of credit card instalment repayments

Personal Loans
Up to six months payment holiday and a discounted interest rate for existing Personal Loans for 12 months. This is set at the current housing variable rate.

Term Investments

Access to funds in ASB Term Deposit or ASB Term Fund accounts without receiving a reduced return on your ASB Term Deposit or paying any ASB Term Fund withdrawal fees.

Insurance

Our support if you’re working with IAG on claims over and above the Earthquake Commission cover.

All Christchurch customers are also eligible for a 90-day emergency overdraft facility
Borrow up to $10,000 if you have a home loan (or $2,000 if not) at a special variable rate of 1.25% p.a. below ASB’s housing variable rate. Right now that special rate is 4.5% p.a.

These discounts are actually quite significant. To help put that in context, I recently had to negotiate damn hard to get a 0.1% discount of my floating rate mortgages, and my fixed rate (only one of those with ASB) is still fixed with no discount.

And the no early repayment fee can literally save tens of thousands of dollars.

ASB have similar offers in place for businesses affected by the Quake, and this is in addition to the emergency package that they set up, along with the other banks, immediately after the quake:

ASB Christchurch Business Rebuild Fund
We’ve set up a $100 million fund for ASB SME business customers with existing loans that have been substantially impacted by the earthquake.
The fund will offer a 12 month interest free period, followed by a discount of 1.00% off your rate(s) (fixed or floating) at that time for up to two years.
Principal repayments are not required during the first 12 months.
The offer is available until 31 August 2011.

To ask about any of these options, or just chat about your situation and how we can help, please call us on 0800 272 222 between 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday.

Lending criteria applies. Interest rates subject to change. ASB terms and conditions apply.

ASB Christchurch New Business Fund

We’ve set up a $100 million fund to encourage new business in the Christchurch region.
This fund is available for both existing small to medium business customers and new businesses whose future cash flows are expected to be financially viable within 12-24 months.
A maximum amount of $1 million business lending per customer.
The fund will offer a 12 month interest free period, followed by two years at 1.00% discount on customer rate for two year fixed rate and variable rate Term Loans and Overdrafts.
Principal repayments are not required during the first 12 months.
The offer is available until 31 March 2012.

I mean – Interest free loans for up to a year? I cannot tell you how mindblowing this is in New Zealand. This is not a place that ever took up the idea of 0% on credit card transfers (though ANZ are offering 2.99% at the moment).

Im really impressed – and let’s be honest here – it takes and awful lot for me to impressed with a bank. I am assuming that the other banks will follow their lead – but ASB got there first, and they get the credit.

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You don’t save when you have debts to pay.

It is a fundemental rule of personal finance and budgeting:

Do not save while you have debt to pay off.

So why is it that the supposedly “clever” people in the savings working group want to force people to save because we have too high a level of debt? It makes no sense, in fact its the most stupid and finacially dangerous idea you could come up with. The scary thing is – they have to know this – they really can’t be that thick – so why are they suggesting it?

First of all- why is it a bad idea?

Well, its all to do with interest rates. You get less interest for saving than you pay for borrowing. For example, ASB pay you 3.65% for any savings you have, and charge you a minimum of 6.25% for any borrowings you have. (Up to 19.25% if you have credit card debt with them). So WHY would you put any money in the savings account when it can work at least twice as hard for you paying off the debt?

And because you pay tax on any of the interest that you earn – you are even worse off. The simple fact, to earn enough interest  to make it worth “saving” (or “investing” ) instead of paying off debt you need to be able to earn that 6.25% AFTER THE INCOME TAX HAS BEEN PAID. That means you need to earn about 8% interest in savings or investments.

Anyone know where you can get that?

(Actually – First Direct in the UK are currently offering 8% on thier regular savings account – but that aint gonna help most Kiwis, or expats unless you already have an account with them).

So – Forced Kiwisaver then?

Yep – thats the bee-all and end-all of everything. Open a Kiwisaver account and the economy will fix itself. You won’t be able to eat – but hey – who cares about that? We will stop using debt to buy things we can’t afford, and no one will have any money to plow into investment properties because it will all be in the stockmarket. NZ Business needs the investment – and as too many of us are not doing as we are told – we need to be forced to behave.

A classic quote in a second article today shows  the attitude of these people really eloquently I think:

“KiwiSaver has considerable potential to further help people select appropriate investment assets,” the working group report said. “At the moment this potential is not being fully realised.”

Ie – “stop thinking you know better than us – we tell you Kiwisaver is the best investment – and if you won’t believe us – we will force you to. You are too stupid to select your own shares and we really are terribly hacked off that you want to buy property – because none of us get a cut of that!”

Of course, buying shares, unless you buy in an Initial Public Offering never actually puts money into a business – it just values the business. Which means that on paper the business is worth more and can borrow more. Um – isn’t that bad and greedy when Property Investors do it? It will of course put money into the pocket of the person you bought the shares from. Much like buying a property off someone who bought it as an investment puts money into the greedy gits pocket!

The first rule of smart finances:

Pay off your debt first.

It’s the best form of “saving” there is, purely because of the cost of borrowing and the effect of compound interest. If you want to try and beat the interest rate you are paying on debts, then you tend to have to save the money in risky investments, or property (and that as we all know is BAD!) And even then – it isn’t easy – and is dependent on a lot of outside forces. Investments can and do lose money – because money always goes in cycles. Theres are booms and busts – in a boom your investment goes up, in a bust it goes down.

But one easy way to get the best return on money is paying down debt. It’s risk free, makes the absolute most of every pound or dollar, and also reduces your personal risk. Can you get a better investment for your money than that?

Does this include mortgages?

Yes and no. In general when people talk about “debt” they mean non-mortgage debt. But clearly when you end up in the middle of a financial crisis like we are right now, mortgage debt is also a huge issue for people, so I personally think you can’t forget about it that easily. And when the boffins in these working grups are whining about our debt levels – they are also talking about mortgage debt. Most of our mortgages are business related, so they are tax deductable – effectively this brings the interest rate down by about 1/3. (which would be exactly the same if we have taken out the loan to buy shares with by the way). But it should never be forgotten that they are still debts, and they cost a lot of money to service. It is in the end money we owe. To be honest – if we didnt have the investment properties then financially we would be laughing all the way to the bank because our spending is way lower than earnings right now. All our spare money is going into paying down debt and keeping our properties.

If we are forced to pay Kiwisaver contributions as well – how the bloody hell am I supposed to pay the mortgages and reduce debt levels???

I may be good with money – but I am not that good!

I will be writing another blog about this, and what the Savings Working Group actually said in full, because from the skim read I have had – there are some really good ideas in there. Just some truly barmy ones as well, and an arrogant insistance that I MUST have a Kiwisaver account.

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Are house prices in New Zealand really too high?

Or are people just wanting a Rolls Royce on a Mini Cooper budget?

Auckland first-home buyers Chelsea and David Yandell ended up paying more for their Onehunga place than they initially expected when they started out as house-hunters.

Now, they have a three-decade mortgage. “We realised that paying $350,000 in Auckland, you’d get something that was pretty crappy,” recalls Chelsea of the buying experience. So they changed their expectations and borrowed more.

“The house we bought has been finished to a high standard. It’s perfect. When we were looking, we realised we’d have to spend more. We had a look around for a few months and we had our hearts set on a couple of houses. But the places we were looking at would not have gone up in value. It wasn’t what we wanted.

“House prices are definitely too high and wages are too low for first-home buyers. We’ll be 55 by the time we pay off the 30-year mortgage. But we didn’t want to keep renting. That’s dead money. … We are now more careful with our money and set goals. If we pay a certain amount off the mortgage, we can get new blinds. We’re with KiwiSaver so we know in retirement, we will have something more than the house.”

Sorry – but there is absolutley sod all in this article that suggests that house prices are too high. Now they may in fact be too high – but not because you want a house that’s finished to a high standard. That’s just you wanting a better house than you can afford. What annoys me about this is the amount of times we get blamed for this because we are property investors, and thus automatically we are greedy. But surely the greed is in wanting something you cannot afford?

It is not the fault of high prices that these people have a 30 year mortgage – it’s that the houses they were prepared to buy could only be theirs if they took on more debt than they could manage in less than that time. That is entirely down to them, and thus their own fault.

My first house cost £84,000. I imagine that these two would have turned thier noses up at it instantly. It was old (1700′s – and 1960′s) tiny (two beds) a crappy kitchen, a coal fired stove as the only heating and it didnt work properly, and had the most disgusting wall coverings you have seen in your life, and carpets that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a crap pub. And an avocado bathroom suite! Almost all our furniture was handed down to us from other family.

But it was a great home – and when we got it done up it was a lot better than when we started. It was ours, and we could afford the mortgage on it. Im sure we could have borrowed more and got a “nicer” house – and then bleated about how much that perfect house was and how awful it was that we had to pay so much for it.  And when I was going through a divorce, I could still afford the mortgage on it becuase I had not been greedy and bought a house that we could not afford becuase I wanted something “perfect” for my first home at the age of 25!

Doing that means  that at the age of 35(ish) when we came to NZ we COULD afford the nice house in the country, with stunning views and a swimming pool. I would love to have had this at their age – I just wasn’t that daft – and I sure as hell didnt expect house prices to stay low just so I wouldnt have to bother climbing the property ladder.

I also always wonder what these people will do when they come to sell? Because at the end of the day, house prices are actually determined by two things: what the buyer will pay, and what the seller will accept. Human nature dictates that we complain that prices are too high when we are trying to buy – but refuse to accept “insulting” offers when we sell. We become the problem we just complained about.

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