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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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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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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The life and times of a corporate ant.
PS: I have no idea who to credit this to – but they are a pure genius, and they have my sincere gratitude for a thousand laughs this evening!!!
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Still making the most of redundancy.
I know that this is usually an incredibly stressful time for most people – but we doing our best to make the most of the situation. We are finding a sense of humor (sometimes slightly dark it has to be said), and making the most of the enforced time off is making it easier to cope with.
When Hubby was last made redundant – from Unisys – he created this “De-motivational” poster to send to his friends who hadn’t been booted. (They have the same slightly warped sense of humour).
Well, we were having one of our relaxing days out the beach earlier last week, and thought it was time to make an updated poster.
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Contracting Vs Employment.
The great thing about redundancy is that you get to look with fresh eyes at your options. This is a big mind set change though, and a lot easier said than done.
While I’ve toyed with the idea of becoming a licensed immigration adviser (!), doing some barrista training, or just bumming on the beach for a few months working to improve my currently non-existent surfing skills, a gainful occupation is called for.
So becoming an MP is out too.
Three years ago when I was out of Unisys, the focus was very much on ‘finding a job’. Salaried employment with a company. We’d started looking at property investment at the time, so were fixed on needing a salary in order to get a mortgage. While having read through the Robert Kiyosaki Rich Dad series (highly recommended), I wasn’t convinced starting a company was for me. I’d also never been out of work – apart from a couple of months directly after graduating, and the month moving from the UK to NZ. In the latter case, I had a job to come to. Being ‘out of work’ was an unsettling experience for me.
Avalon was used to being self-employed as a locum pharmacist, and used to setting her own hours, working where and when she wanted. But we always felt that one of had to have a “steady paycheque”.
This time round looking at the wider options, rather than just looking at a job, is different. How you may ask?
Three years ago;
There was the allure of a role at IBM to go to. A bit like returning to a childhood home, somewhere I felt was just right. A company I knew well, believed would not have a glass ceiling to potential achievement, where I’d be working with other ‘top talent’ that I could look up to and learn from. It started out like that, unfortunately with a few key people leaving, it changed a lot.
I didn’t know many people in Wellington. Not many people knew me. Or at least it seemed like that.
Plus there was all the stuff about needing a regular income to get a mortgage etc. and feeling that we needed the “security” of knowing how much was coming in each month.
Now;
We’ve got the companies already set up to handle contracting and consulting work, with some good advice from lawyers about ensuring they were flexible. Although they were set up for property investing, one of our companies is set up specifically for trading activites – including selling the book and contracting work.
With five years NZ experience under my belt, I’m more confident about my skills in the market place. To the point where my UK experience is relegated somewhat on the CV.
The networking helps a lot, feedback from people at this point is that senior managers in companies elsewhere in NZ & Australia have heard of the good work I do, (even though I’ve not necessarily heard of them by name) and want me to come in for an interview. So that’s all good. There are options on the table.
I’ve got it clear in my head that people are going to have a bee in their bonnet about high salaries. And while we’ve joked about doing three days work for the laughable salaries on offer, it was always a bit of a joke. Working part time is an entirely viable option. After all, if I only need to work an average of three days a week at a decent contract rate to maintain my current income level, why would I work five days a week to take home 30% less??? Just to be in a ‘secure’ job, with a ‘good’ company.
Now I should say, I don’t think that a salary of $100k is laughable in itself. Yes I know a number of people who would jump at any job paying that money. However, it’s laughable when you look at the experience, skills & qualifications that companies are asking for. The level of job they are expecting you to do, the amount of work ($$$) they want you to bring in for the company, for which your ‘compensation’ will be a pittance.
You wouldn’t expect any decent brain surgeon to only work for $60k a year. They’re going to have your life in their hands, and you want them highly skilled, with up to date training. To have lots of experience. Not just read a book on the topic, sat an NCEA in anatomy and be pretty handy at sharpening a meat cleaver. If you want that experience, you have to pay for it. Simple really. I may not always like paying money for a plumber, electrician, solicitor, mechanic etc., their skills are just as valuable to them as mine are to me, they’ve invested in training, have experience and fundamentally can do a professional job that I’m not trained to. So I pay. Lots.
Contracting allows me to invest properly in advancing my skills. Now of course, I’m paying for the training, plus travel costs and I don’t earn money while I’m being trained. So you’d think that a big draw back – except it isn’t. While an employer will cover all those costs, and pay you while you’re on the training – that assumes that they understand the need to invest in you, your skills and your career. Which is worth precisely $0 to you if they wont pony up the money.
Contracting allows me to pick and choose a little more what I want to work on, and if I want to work on it. While I had the flexibility originally with IBM, identifying opportunities, working with the client to close them, and then deliver them myself or hand on to a colleague – that was another thing that changed. I’m sure there probably won’t be a constant stream of interesting things to work on when I’m contracting. If I judge things well, keep money aside for any dry work periods, I wont have to accept the first piece of work which comes along when I’ve got nothing on the radar for a couple of months. Which gives me the time to identify something better, discover new clients, or invest in my education a bit more.
Interestingly, while it is the fact that we have come to New Zealand that has screwed up my career from a training and advancement point of view – it is also the fact that we came here that has allowed the huge shift in thinking that means I will now look at freelance work. We have met so many people with what can only be called “entrepreneurial spirit” and a willingness to work outside the box. We know so many more people who are their own bosses, who spend thousands of dollars a year training themselves. It a very odd parallel world sometimes.
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Discussions on LinkedIn
I was recently invited to put forward some blogs to BusinessBlogs and PropertyBlogs, both owned by Marc and Donna who also run the PropertyTalk Forum. As I am a huge fan of PropertyTalk, I was chuffed to bits.
Besides – its always nice to know when someone thinks you are actually worth reading.
Like many Kiwis, Marc and Donna are huge believers and users of social media and networking (and I’m slowly but surely becoming used to it myself – though I still can’t stand Twitter). Marc published my blog about the CV differences and the affect on Hubbies Career, to a LinkedIn group:
New Zealand Business and Professional Network
As a result of that, theres quite and interesting discussion going on about what I said, and one of the posters has formed a sub-discussion about how to try and improve things.
While one or two comments are of the “well if you don’t like it go home” variety, most tend to agree that this is indeed happening, and is a problem we need to solve. I wish I knew how to.
Immigration procedures are something that can be fixed, with enough will and someone in charge who is prepared to make some tough changes. While getting INZ to publish their complaints procedure was in itself a very small change – it was something that got done – and it will make a difference.
Unfortunately – Tall Poppy Syndrome is there because of human nature and personal attitudes, and that’s a lot harder to change.
If you are on LinkedIn, I encourage you to join the group and have a look at the discussion. If you are not on LinkedIn, I encourage you to consider it. I really do feel that willingness to network is one of the things that sets Kiwis apart in a very positive way. It can certainly seem a bit “ott” for us reserved Brits – but it has been hugely beneficial to us since we came here. At the very least – Hubby is getting some interesting options to think about because he takes time to Network.
You can find me on LinkedIn at
http://nz.linkedin.com/in/avalonsguide
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Is this why so many people leave New Zealand?
You know – despite all the ups and downs of the past few years – we still really love living here, but lately I have had cause to realise just what it has cost us to do so. Not just in terms of damage to our health and sanity dealing with Immigration New Zealand, but in a direct cost to Hubby’s career.
As part of being made redundant from IBM, Hubby of course has to review and update his CV. At IBM you have to do this regularly anyway –it’s one of those “mandatory time wasting exercises” they make the staff do regularly. It’s just a pity no one at IBM NZ actually bothered to read his. Hubby has had to make some fairly major changes to it this time: partly because much of his UK work history is basically irrelevant now as it was over 5 years ago, but mainly because he is looking to move from being an employee to be a contractor.
Our opinion is that if as an employee he has to deal with tossers who resent his salary, managers who lie ever 5 minutes and want him to take the blame for their ineptitude, and he’s going to get scammed out of bonuses and benefits – what’s the point? You may as well contract, be in control, get paid more, and have more flexibility.
But that means a different kind of CV, hence the re-write.
So, take a look at a section of his CV for the past 3 years
Client facing work has focussed on the Government and Finance sector recently, where he has lead the delivery of a number of key engagements. He has undertaken the assessment and development of enterprise wide information risk frameworks for multiple clients, including with one media organisation to develop their five year risk management strategy. Capability implementation engagements have included a major bank, where he led the delivery of a project to completely update and revamp their email security management systems. This success lead to follow on engagements to implement the same solution with another bank, a financial services organisation and a utility company.
(Okay – I know that’s complete gobbledygook for us non-techy peeps). But compare and contrast with working for the same company in the UK.
Customer projects included a University outsourcing and infrastructure migration program, BS7799 security assessments for financial and telecommunications clients, various Government projects and multiple MSS bids. These ranged from small (NZD) $50k consultancy engagements, $45m+ dedicated security infrastructure projects through to $250m+ outsourcing engagements. Hubby contributed to the CBI Business guide “Protecting your business,” published December 2001 and various IBM technical white papers on security.
Numerous presentations were made to customer audiences at conferences, breakfast briefings and focus groups. Presentations to IBM groups ranged from the annual UK Technical conference, to an elective presentation at the 2001 IBM Services Institute which had to be run three times and drew over 250 people. The presentation was so popular it was re-run the following year as a plenary session for 500+. Other presentations included IBM UK Technical Consultancy Group symposium, and security Special Interest Group meetings of the British Computing Society.
For three years Hubby was a member of the IBM UK Technical Council, a group of 60 technical leaders brought together to work in multidisciplinary teams solving business wide, customer and IBM technical challenges.From July 2003 Hubby was also the lead instructor for IBM world wide CISSP education, and tutored a total of 200 students through to the CISSP exam. By the end of 2004, 97% of students had passed the exam first time.
Bit of a difference huh?
And that ignores the fact that IBM have actually had him doing donkey work for the past few months anyway. Yes – the guy who managed to do that in the UK has been – wait for it – filling in spreadsheets for the past few months.
I think there are two warnings here; one for potential immigrants: you run the risk of trashing your career in order to get that “lifestyle”. On the face of it, from where you are now that may not matter to you – but be prepared to take an honest look at how you would feel. I, for example, walked away from my career as a Pharmacist quite happily when we emigrated, and don’t regret it for an instant. But Hubby has missed out on numerous opportunites for training, conferences and speaking engagements because IBM wouldn’t invest in it or him, and he’s not happy to do that. If he freelances – we can pay for the conferences and the training (one course booked already for November in Sydney that IBM wouldn’t pay for last year when it was run in Wellington, and a trip to AusCert on the Gold Cost in May all sorted). It’s a great feeling not having to be beholden to needing to get 20 signatures for flight approval. He now just needs mine.
The other warning is for New Zealand companies: there are two reasons New Zealand is losing skills – you pay crap salaries and your managers resent the few people who get paid decent salaries. Pack it in and get over it! It’s small minded and you are pushing out all the people that New Zealand needs – not just the immigrants who get sick of it and go home where they don’t have to put up with it, but born and bred kiwis. More of them leave New Zealand than Immigrants, so it’s not just a bad attitude towards immigrant salaries (though too many of you also con immigrants into taking artificially low salaries because they are immigrants).
There’s actually an article in the herald today that backs this up – 53% 0f employees here move on within 2 years, at huge cost to your company, because you will not allow them to progress their careers.
Until NZ companies get rid of this slack “Tall Poppy” syndrome, you will not keep your best employees. Those are the ones that make money for you – rather than those who “manage” the ones who make money for you right out of the company.
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The Power of Networking; Social & Drinking
It took coming to NZ five years ago before I really started doing the coffee (well, tea – Earl Grey) socialising thing.
Just over 18 months ago I joined Facebook, about a year ago I joined LinkedIn. I’d sort of avoided the whole internet social networking thing up until that point – being paid to think about risks of identity theft meant I’d kept a low profile. But Avalon was on there, and kinda cajoled me into it. You try arguing with her is all I can say!
In the last couple of weeks I’ve come to benefit from all the networking.
- You’re very welcome – Avalon
As soon as I came out of the first ‘your role is possibly redundant’ meeting, having been ambushed with the news that I had 3 days to consider my options – I was not crying in my tea – I was on the phone setting up coffee meetings for the next morning with other people who do similar jobs in different companies. We all know each other, regularly meet up and we all keep an eye on what’s happening with different companies.
So in less than 24 hours, I’m finding out what options are available, and getting new names to contact about possible jobs. (And somehow I still managed to find the time to fix yet another management screw-up and get an important piece of work done to meet a deadline while 5 managers who were not losing their jobs were nowhere to be found. Some things never change.)
The day I had my official ‘your role is definitely redundant’ meeting, there was an article about redundancy rumours in the paper. This meant Avalon could officially blog about it, without revealing anything that wasn’t public knowledge.
So that evening two things happened, Avalon’s blog post was published, it automatically fed through to LinkedIn and Facebook page via a nifty widget, plus lots of other sites like Technorati. I also updated my LinkedIn status with just five words.
Within an hour I’d had contact from someone about contracting work.
Another contact having read the blog put me in touch with their companies recruitment specialist.
By the morning three emails arrived to meet up for coffee. Two more emails followed that afternoon.
I had a call from someone pointing me to three different jobs he knew were going in the field, and checking whether I knew the people who were recruiting. (The next day he rang back about a role at his current organisation too).
That evening a former manager, currently travelling in Europe, had made contact. He’d find something.
The coffee chats resulted in two further options for contracting work.
Emails were asking if I wanted a job in Sydney, or Melbourne.
My as yet not updated CV was heading off to a variety of contacts in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Christchurch, Auckland, Singapore and of course Wellington – all of whom know someone who is interested in my skills & experience. This included a couple of people who are moving on to new jobs of their own choice, and are putting me in touch with their soon to be former employers. That’s quite a recommendation, “I’m leaving, but here’s someone good enough to replace me”.
And this is before I actually update my CV and proactively send it out to recruitment agencies, or respond to job adverts that I actually see on TradeMe or Seek.
All within two days of formally being told my services are no longer required by my current employer.
Who funnily enough, is competing in the market place for exactly the same custom from the same clients that most of the opportunities I’ve been told about are also looking to win.
Then one of Avalon’s contacts also wants to hear from me – he can put me in contact with a lot of his fellow business owners.
It’s now taken me two weeks to get my CV updated properly. I firmly believe it’s worth getting feedback from others on your CV, and taking the time to look at it with a fresh mind and different perspective. It may seem a little superfluous, since I’ve already had all these meetings and I’m likely to find out from people I know that roles are available.
You never know though, a friend of a friend who has just been passed your CV could be that fantastic new opportunity you didn’t realise you were looking for.
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