Avalon’s Money Thread: How do I start budgeting?
Filed under: Avalon's Money Thread, Banks, Cost of living, General Budgeting
If you need to do this (or want to) then pretty much the first step is to look at what you already do. There are lots of ways of doing this. I always keep accounts anyway and this is by far the best method. I use Quicken, but there’s also MS Money, you could use Excel Spreadsheets, or even old-fashioned paper and pen ( if you still remember how to use them). If you don’t keep accounts now, then consider it because if you are in a tight money spot, it’s worth its weight in dollars. But in any case in order to know what you are spending, you need to list all your outgoings for the last year, or as far back as you can go.
Sit down, grab a cup of coffee and some Tim Tams, probably a calculator and a sharp pencil too, and get to it. You can get the information you need from bank statements, any receipts you have, your past 12 months bills, and pay slips (because you also need to check how much you have coming in). If you keep accounts, all the info is there (or print it off if you use Quicken)
There is actually a good spreadsheet you can put it all in at moneysaving expert:
If you don’t want to use that, list everything under as many headings as you need: things like Mortgage /Rent, Food, Petrol, Cinema, clothes, whatever headings you need. One important thing to be aware of – you need to be ruthlessly honest about how you categorise your spending. If you only have six headings – its not enough. We currently have 60 heading that we use in our budget.
The next step would probably be to “analyse” all the stuff you write down and then look at where and why you spent that money. It’s probably time for a top up on the coffee and some more Tim Tams (I think trying to budget is hard enough without worrying about calories as well). Look for things that are costing you money that don’t need to. Easy ones to start with off the top of my head are: Bank fees (have a friend who was paying $15 a month to take $20 out each time from another bank’s ATM rather than walk an extra 5 minutes to the banks’ own ATM), papers and magazines (I know they are fun but you read ‘em in 10 minutes and that’s it), library fines (again costing a fortune in some cases as opposed to getting books back on time). Doing this can be a bit depressing – the Tim Tams should help with that- but you may just spot a few things.
Look at your bills, and see if you can cut them. Are you on the cheapest electricity supply? Can you get your phone bill cheaper? (I’m just changing to Ihug, which should save me nearly $100 a month!) Are you on the best mobile plan (and if you both have mobiles, are the both Vodaphone or both Telecom because it’s expensive to call from one to the other)? If you are in the UK, use moneysaving expert to check for cheaper suppliers.
Now you have the bones of a budget. Use the headings you have from the first bit of this exercise and look at how much you are overspending. That is, are you spending more than you earn? If you have managed to work out cheaper suppliers for most of your big bills, then what’s left covers your other spending. If you need to cut spending more, then decide on what is important to you and what you can fairly easily not have without as much pain and suffering. I could probably manage going out to eat less, but if someone took my coffee budget away there would be hell to pay. By this point, you should now be getting an actual “budget” or spending plan (in the way that saying a diet is an “eating plan” is supposed to make it easier to eat a lettuce leaf and a carrot instead of chocolate cake). This is the goal to stick to, what you should aim to be spending on average on all your requirements. Changing habits is not easy but apparently it actually only takes 28 days for something to become a habit. .
And for bills: work out your average monthly bills and put that much aside into a savings account each month, so you always have money to cover them (or do this fortnightly if that’s when you get paid as you may do in New Zealand). Make sure there are no fees for your savings account. When a bill comes in, pay it, and move the money from your savings account to your cheque account to cover it.
Next I have to say that I really think the sanity allowance is a must. This is a “Bellism” which gives both of you an allowance each payday. Small but something you can spend on whatever you like, without justifying it to the other person. You want to spend it all on chocolate that’s fine . You each have to have the same amount, one of you cannot get more than the other and until you find your feet, this is where all your treats come from. We can budget for meals out and things like that, but if you can’t, use the sanity allowance for coffees, or cinema. It really up to you to decide what has to come out of that allowance and what you can afford to “Budget” for.
And something about budgets: don’t always think of it terms of “what I can’t afford because I don’t have the budget for it”. Use a budget TO BE ABLE to afford what you want. If you want to be able to go out for a meal once a month then think about what you can do to wangle the money from somewhere. For example: if you are paying bank fees, just think what that could pay for if you worked out how to stop it!
Don’t see the need for a budget as a bad thing because it really isn’t.
I found the first week was the worst, when you start to look at exactly how much money you spend and what on. It’s incredibly daunting at first but please believe me once you start, you may even find it utterly liberating. Its one thing to buy yourself a jumper and then panic because you don’t really know where the money is coming from to pay the credit card bill, but imagine what its like going out to buy a jumper because you KNOW you have the money set aside for it. You may not buy as many jumpers, but the ones you do buy; you are not going to be in a cold sweat over!
Reading through that makes it sound like I think it’s easy but I do know its not. But it’s possible. We have “Budget days” probably every 4 months where we sit down and look at ways to improve what we do (but then I’m a bit daft in the head when it comes to this ) the last day we shaved about $150 off our spending plan
Avalon’s Money Thread is a series of posts which were originally written in 2007 for an Immigration Forum. They came about by answering questions that forum members asked, about how to cope with the often difficult financial situation they face in New Zealand. They formed the basis of what was eventually to become the book Avalon’s Guide: after another year or so of drinking way too much coffee and finding out way more about taxes, money and investing that any sane person should.
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It’s a budget day today.
Filed under: Banks, Cost of living, Interest Rates, Credit Cards & Mortgages in NZ
I don’t think it’s a huge secret that we have splurged a bit this year –after being very careful with our budgets and spending for several years. There has been some work on the house to do, spoiling ourselves outrageously with a new TV and sound system, and spending a small fortune on coffee, eating out and hotel stays in an effort to deal with the stress of handling jerks at Immigration.
We have managed to do it by taking a Mortgage Holiday – basically we are so far ahead on our mortgage payments that we decided to take a break and relax for a while.
But that has to end, and we now have to get back to the serious job of telling the banks to get stuffed. So we need a budget day – to get back on track and see where we are and what we need to do.
It can be very scary having days like this – especially if you have the feeling of impending doom that goes with knowing you have spent way more than you have earned – but it’s got to be done.
So we started out by looking at what we actually spent over the last year. It’s a quick enough job for us, as we can print the information off our accounts and then just add it into our spreadsheet. You can download a copy of that from here if you want to.
(Note: sorted.org.nz has a budget sheet you can fill in, but a friend of mine used it lately and it actually wasn’t that impressive. A good alternative to mine is available on Moneysaving expert).
Honestly – it wasn’t actually that bad. Almost all of the overspend was on the “Splurge”. When we take that into account – even though I have not been as careful with money this year as usual – we were still not far off target.
Our biggest issue for the next year is that like a lot people, our fixed bills are going up, and yet our income is not. We have had to take out some extra insurances, IBM are now too bloody tight-fisted to pay for home internet for their staff, electricity – well – when did that last go down in price – and our Doctors bills went through the roof thanks to the jerks at INZ.
Oddly enough – and to my utter shock – our transport costs came down by about $400! That’s mostly because petrol has come down, and Hubby works at home as much as he can (and IBM have not yet made that against company policy).
Once we saw how bad (or not) it was – we then made some decisions about what we feel we should or could cut back on. As usual – we have checked our electricity and phone supplies, and we are not changing them right now.
We have also set a date to do a review in 2 months time to check on things. We wouldn’t normally have to do it so soon, but this is because we have been lax this year – and need to get to grips with things. For us, this is also the first time since we came to New Zealand that we will have the same spending requirements over the whole of the next 12 months. In the past, when the family have been here – they share the bills, but when we are on our own – we pay for it all. From here on in, the bills should be the same all the time, and that will actually make it easier for both us and my parents to keep on track.
Anyway – we are done – and I’m off for a coffee.
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Avalon’s Money Thread – Negotiating Wages.
I think it’s worth remembering that by and large – we are coming out here as Skilled Migrants. Which means we have skills that New Zealand needs. How many of us have skills on a list that says they are in an extreme shortage here? So why are we accepting lower wages
I picked up a piece of advise about negotiating on house prices – which (bear with me) works really well on wages to.
If you tell the company what you will accept – they will not pay a penny more (generally speaking – anyway). If you say to the company – offer me what you think I’m worth, then you get to know their top price. Bear in mind – if they don’t get you to do the job – who else are they going to give the job to? It takes a strong constitution to do this but it can be worth it – it worked out for us anyway.
When we were looking at comparison wages – we wanted 3x UK total package. It may sound like a lot – but many goods here can cost more than 3x UK prices so I personally think its only fair. We accepted way less than that (nearer 2x), but have now moved on and got almost 3x. The next move is on the way – and we aren’t looking to move down the scale!
(Edit: This is a Lot harder to do right now obviously – Ive already blogged about how Hubby didnt get the expected and promised pay rise when we was made a Permanant Employee at IBM. But bear in mind – the recession won’t least forever, and the cycle will come round again when you will be able to negotiate better wages).
I’ve often thought the biggest weapon employers have in keeping wages low is our utter reluctance to tell others what we earn. We seem to think it’s a dirty word or something. It takes some “constitution” but it’s certainly worth asking co-workers flat out what they are being paid.
We are in the fortunate situation here that Hubby’s job has quite a small “community” of people who do it – and they are often having coffee with each other (coffee – really is the source of all goodness in life
)- so they all know a/ what’s going on among the various employers, and b/ what the salaries are. OH has just been offered an op by a recruitment firm – so his first step was to buy a coffee for the guy who took the job 12 months ago when it was last offered. He knows what the guy was being paid, and what he had to do for it. Makes a big difference in deciding whether to go for it or not, and how much you would want to do the same job.
Avalon’s Money Thread is a series of posts which were originally written in 2007 for an Immigration Forum. They came about by answering questions that forum members asked, about how to cope with the often difficult financial situation they face in New Zealand. They formed the basis of what was eventually to become the book Avalon’s Guide: after another year or so of drinking way too much coffee and finding out way more about taxes, money and investing that any sane person should.
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Avalon’s Money Thread – Will you have to take a lower wage?
We also had to take a large pay cut when we first came here – but it didn’t take us long to find out that Hubby had been ripped-off because we were not Kiwi’s. Apparently the lady who hired Hubby was dancing around the office because “she had got this really great guy dead cheap!” It was pointed out to her that if he were that great – it wouldn’t take long for him to leave! But the theory is that if they hire a migrant – they have got your loyalty for at least a year. So, on the basis that we knew the value of his experience – we went shopping for better offers, and got 3! All of which would pay nearly the old UK rate!
You CAN make decent money over here. It’s just not true to say that it can’t be done. OK, so not everyone can earn big bucks, but then that’s the same anywhere. We were earning good money compared to most people in the UK, and we are here too.
I honestly do not believe that you have to earn less to be happy or that by taking a lower salary you are somehow automatically gaining a “lifestyle”. Why can’t you have both? What you may have to do is spend less than you earn!
I can and have been very happy on no money, and I’ve been miserable and very poor while earning very good money. However, I also manage to be pretty contented and happy while earning a decent and fair wage. It’s just wrong to pay a migrant less than a Kiwi for doing the same job. The same as its wrong to pay men and women different wages for doing the same job.
Any company will pay its employees the least it can get away with. (Sometimes its called exploitation – why do we accept it?) It doesn’t mean we have to take it if there’s a better choice elsewhere. I feel (imho only – its just a feeling – not based on ANY factual evidence – just what I’ve picked up) that there’s quite a con going on in convincing migrants that they will have to take massive pay cuts to come here. Whether its because you “have no NZ experience” or “we cant afford high wages here”. Fine – we have no NZ experience – but hey – we have UK experience and by and large – if you want to be a “world player” you need that experience – so pay for it! In Hubby’s job for example – NZ experience just means you know the worst way of doing the job. UK experience means you may have some idea of how it’s SUPPOSED to be done!
NZ has apparently got a booming economy and a surplus of cash (edited to add – even now that it doesnt – we can afford to pay our MP’s a salary in excess of $100k plus upto $50k in tax free “expenses”). Why should the shareholders be the only ones getting a cut? The workers should be fairly and equitably paid. I hope one day that migrants will get paid a fair wage for doing the job and not get talked into “necessarily” earning lower wages than they deserve.
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Avalon’s Money Thread – Will you be worse off in New Zealand?
Without a doubt, most people are. But it’s certainly not written in stone that you have to be financially worse off here than you were back home. We are actually better off financially here in NZ than we were in the UK. It is possible, but for my money (excuse the pun) you probably have to “Think outside the box” most of the time to make the numbers work. We have done this with a mix of watching what we spend so its less than we earn, saving to invest and getting educated about how exactly to invest and how to use the money to our advantage rather than the bank’s.
One of the things that attracted us to New Zealand was the lower taxes and the ability to accumulate assets without being constantly taxed on them (No stamp duty – no capital gains on selling a second home, etc). We had the impression that we could indeed get ahead financially better than we could back home. We already had a fantastic lifestyle in the UK. We lived in (imho) one of the most beautiful parts of the country, and the view from the house is not that dissimilar from the have here (apart from instead of a castle in the distance – we have a pool in the garden). Many of the things people do come to NZ for, we had in the UK. But we would have struggled to get a good financial base behind us. It was something we were already working towards, but felt coming here may make the difference.
We live on one salary – by NZ standards quite a healthy one, and because we are careful with our money – can’t afford to be flash. But that should pay off in a few years. We also wanted my Parents lousy pensions to go that bit further. Here it will. It will still be tight – but not as tight.
So far – it’s working out reasonably well. For all the financial problems there are in NZ (and there are lots) I have never seen the kind of “wealth creation” industry in the UK that there is here.
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No matter where you go – MP’s are the same.
It never ceases to amaze me that politicians refuse to lean from other people’s cock-ups. So many British MPs will lose their jobs in the next election because they took the mick with their expenses, and it was world news. We got all the gory details over here in our little corner of paradise, and the MPs in question may forever be known more for their moat leaning and duck islands than for any work they may actually have done for their constituents.
So I cant help but wonder why on earth New Zealand’s MPs didn’t take notice – switch their brains on, and sort things out here before they got rumbled for the same fiddle.
One thing came out of it – I now know that the word Rort means basically being on the fiddle but doing it legally.
It turns out that New Zealand MP’s also get to Rort the system. They too can get expenses for second homes, or living allowances if they work in Wellington (as many do) but also serve another constituency. They also get very generous travel allowance – even after they have left parliament.
This has been in the news lately – with an unsurprising amount of disgust being bandied about. It seems our Finance minister Bill English manages to get $900 a week in expenses because he has to live in Wellington while he serves a south island constituency. Of course – he lives in Wellington anyway – so why the hell he should get an allowance at all is beyond me. He also “appears” to have set up the home in a trust – and while this is not unusual in New Zealand – there are suspicions that changes were made to the structure of the trust to maximise the allowance. I really do not know the truth of that – but it becomes very important later on.
And well within the rules, Roger Douglas of ACT, took a holiday to the UK in which a whopping 90% of the flight cost was paid by the taxpayer. For him AND his wife! Now this isn’t because he is a sitting MP – its because he WAS – past tense.
MPs elected to Parliament before 1993 and who served three terms receive a discount of 90 per cent on their international airfares for the rest of their life.
To make the situation so much worse – Mr Douglas has been berating parliament lately for overspending. The bloody cheek of the man.
But the thing that makes this so utterly revolting is that it is still going on at a time when people who are stuck in “Palnet Electorate” to quote our illiterate friend in the Whips Office – are taking pay cuts, being refused any hope of a pay rise, cutting back to 9 day fortnights and are in fear of their jobs going bellyup. And all the MPs can come up with is that “its within the rules”. Hmmm – have we heard that somewhere before?
I have no problem with MP’s having high expenses if they need to travel for work – but I am nauseated that we have to pay for Mrs Douglas to do anything! She has never been an MP, and she shouldn’t be bludging off the taxpayer. For any reason.
Hubby gets expenses as part of his job if he has to travel. But If I choose to go with him – I pay every single expense that has to do with me. I pay for the flights, food, and any entertainment for the two of us. All IBM pays is hubbys flight and transport costs and his hotel, with a $62.50 allowance for food each day he is away which usually covers most of the cost of his food, but certainly doesn’t pay for mine – nor should it.
And the fact is that while MP’s don’t get huge salaries – they do get considerable ones, and they should not be trying to wangle more money under the covers. They also know before going into the job that it will involve travel and possibly being away from home. They need to decide if that is acceptable to them, and sort things out accordingly. The same as the rest of us plebs have to. If getting a ministerial post means a move to Wellington for the vast majority of the time – suck it up – the rest of us have to!
A standard MP gets $131,000 a year - plus an expenses allowance of $14,800 a year. Remember that when you are told that New Zealand can’t afford high wages and you have to live on the square root of diddly squat if you want to life here.
So – if you think you will get away from this nonsense when you move to New Zealand – think again. They are all at it!
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The Coffee and Cake Jobs Summit.
Filed under: Hubby's Views, Jobs & Work, Retirement, Pensions and Kiwisaver
Following the lead of Govt. and all those industry captains, we decided to hold a jobs summit, to brainstorm some ideas for what we could personally do to save NZ jobs. We did get some free sandwiches and coffee, however the cake ran out. Still – mustn’t grumble.
So what did we (semi-seriously) come up with?
1/ I’m going to stop working unpaid over time.
By my reckoning I work about 15-20 hours per week extra, for which I cannot get paid. If I and one or two other colleagues do the same – IBM would have to employ another person to do the work they currently get for free.
Result +1 job. And thats just for me – if every company stopped stealing time from its workforce – it would have a fantastic effect.
2/I’m going to work at home more often.
Brainstorming will be done in my local café, helping support local employment.
Result, $$ into the local economy and small businesses
3/ Devise a mandatory education program for grammar and spelling.
First we’ll start with journalists, magazine article writers and so on. Then we’ll broaden the program to any public service staff in local and central Govt., and finally we’ll extend the program to anyone working for any company who in any way writes a letter, document, invoice or other communication that goes out to customers.
Result – Teachers required, plus less time wasted with poor communications.
Lots of money poured into local economies as the program comes to your local town, village, beach, café.
4/Suggest the AA champions compulsory practical re-testing for a driving license every five years. Too many people don’t understand the simplest concepts like “Put your bloody foot down when you want to overtake! You Idiot!”
This may have a positive knock on effect for public transport use.
Result - Employing more driving instructors for refresher courses, and more examiners for the practical course. Fewer accidents, hence improved productivity and less time off work due to accidents.
5/ Work with my local MP to devise a law covering Redundancy Tax (as he only wants to be troubled with the making of new laws).
Any company that makes employee’s redundant, because they are shifting to a less expensive offshore factory, call centre etc. will have to pay two years full salary to all employee’s made redundant. Any company still deciding to shift overseas will also be required to make senior management redundant by the same proportion as they get rid of staff. And because it’s redundancy, the senior managers can’t be replaced – unless it’s by an executive in the same country as the jobs have been moved to.
Result: Hopefully fewer jobs lost overseas, people in jobs continue to spend money in the economy.
6/ Government departments and the Armed Forces will be forced to award contracts to New Zealand companies if there is a company on shore that can provide the goods or services needed.
Result – no more egg on the face of the government when they launch a Jobs Summit to look at ways of safeguarding Kiwi Jobs the very same day that the Army cancels a contract with a local company from Levin because they get it cheaper in China. Let China deal with keeping their unemployment down.
7/ Avalon will continue to stay at home balancing our budget and will not enter the workforce.
Result – that’s one job we don’t take from someone else who needs it more than we do. (Although this may change if IBM continues to insist on me taking a $15,000 pay cut.)
8/To promote the Maori language, I’ll conduct all my telephone conversations with Telecom NZ in Maori (once I learn how to).
So, my calls will have to be handled by someone in NZ, who speaks the language, and can’t be handled by someone in Manila.
Result – bringing back the jobs that Telecom recently off shored. Adult education class in Maori language requiring more teachers.
9/ I’ll start a petition to have the snack bar on the Wairarapa trains actually open.
Three trains total, operating between 0530 & 2000 seven days a week should mean about six jobs.
Result 6 Extra Jobs for Wairarapa Locals. The cafe cart could even be run by one of the already local cafes in the area – boosting their profits as well.
10/ I’m going to more directly align my skills with the jobs I’m being asked to do.
For example, I shall stop using the self-check in counter at the airport, and use the proper check in desk. If we all do this, then AirNZ will have to employ more ground staff. I’ll also stop carrying my own bags on the plane, and insist on checking them into the hold. More baggage handling staff needed. There’s probably a lot of scope for this sort of thing with the banks too.
Result: More staff needed, rather than companies streamlining; saving money on wages and STILL charging us more each year.
11/ I shall conduct more business via traditional letters.
This will result in more stamps & envelopes being bought, more letters for NZ Post to collect, sort and deliver. Naturally this will align with the spelling education program.
Result – staff needed to post more letters. New Post offices can be set up providing new businesses for local areas.
12/ Start a Facebook Campaign for Gordon Ramsey to be flown to NZ.
We’ll give him a bike, and he can work his way along the proposed national cycle track, stopping at all cafés & restaurants on the way. He’ll be followed by a small army of cleaners, decorators, menu designers etc. who’ll work to improve substandard establishments.
Result – people from local areas can be employed to clean up the cafés and restaurants. Its not long term work, but it could help especially in Towns where companies like F&P have already laid people off because they moved to China already.
13/ Suggest that the Govt institutes a six monthly ‘customer satisfaction program’ in relation to MP’s and dealing with their constituents.
Everyone in the country will have the opportunity to provide feedback on their MP every six months, instead of every three years. The MP will have to provide service level reports to their party seniors and their constituents. Any MP found to be underperforming will be put on a performance improvement program. Bonuses will not be given for any underperforming MP’s.
Result: lots more central and constituency staff are needed to collate the results, write reports, presentations etc.
13/ Any company who has closed factories or offices within New Zealand to make the most of sweatshop labour abroad will automatically not be able to take up a moment of any MP’s time whinging about how tough things are and will be barred for life from any measures to help the economy.
Result: That will teach them not to do it again – if they survive. If they don’t – well – they weren’t exactly doing, much for local people anyway.
14/ Any company requiring staff to take a paycut, or take advantage of a 9 day fortnight for staff, must prove that it did not make a profit in the last quarter.
Result; Less whining from companies such as F&P about how difficult it all is while STILL pocketing $29 MILLION in PROFIT.
What do you do just in case things do go to hell in a hand basket?
Filed under: Cost of living, General Budgeting, Interest Rates, Credit Cards & Mortgages in NZ, Jobs & Work, Life in New Zealand
Irrespective of what I personally believe about what is happening in New Zealand financially or with jobs; there is no denying that people are scared. I may have a gut feeling that people do not need to be – but let’s be honest – it is hard to ignore all the headlines telling us “The Sky Is Falling”. It does sound as though you will be out of a job and on the street tomorrow.
So what can you do if you want to be prepared just in case the papers get it right – whether or not they base their assumption on something as silly as what happens in the US?
Well, in a meeting with my Bank Manager just before Christmas, I was told that the bank was figuring on another 2 years of pain before things start getting better. The length of time this “recession” will last depends entirely on who you ask – so I wouldn’t place any bets just yet. But as we talked over a few things: I figured: why not plan for the worst and hope for the best.
So – in addition to making sure I put as much money as I could into our emergency fund (IBM still haven’t sorted out Hubby’s Job Contract – despite the 15 mangers signing off on it), we are doing the following:
Paying as much as we can off our Personal Mortgage as fast as we can.
Not using credit cards if we can’t pay off the balance in full each month.
Watching our spending so that we spend significantly less than we earn.
Basically – exactly the same things that we do anyway.
If you don’t do these things already – now is the time to start. If you have credit card debt – make it a priority to pay it off as soon as possible. Throw any spare money at it you can. And cut up the card so you don’t add to the problem. Remember that credit cards in New Zealand charge a stunning 20% interest. And if you don’t already keep a close eye on your spending – then start.
Apparently the “economy” needs us to spend up large to keep it afloat. Well, the “economy” can cope without my money. It hasn’t had much of it for the past few years – so it won’t miss it now. If it wants it – it can reduce my fixed rate mortgage interest – and then i’ll think about it.
Are we going to have 11% unemployment in New Zealand?
Filed under: Jobs & Work, Life in New Zealand, Retirement, Pensions and Kiwisaver
Apparently the New Zealand Institute has prepared documents telling our Prime Minister that unemployment could rise to 11%. So – the question you need to ask is: what have they based this on??? “New research published in the United States last month on recessions originating in financial crises.”
So – not based on anything concrete about New Zealand then??? But I guess its comforting to know that the very brainy people in this “Think Tank” have arbitrarily decided that we have no choice but to follow the US on it’s downward spiral. Apparently they did “extrapolate” the figures to New Zealand. Well, that’s OK then!
I wonder if the very brainy people in the “Think Tank” understand the differences between a country with 4million people in it, and a country with 250 million in it?
Now – I’m not saying that New Zealand won’t have 11% unemployment. But for crying out loud – if we are going to have Think Tanks getting everyone in a panic – could it please be over something a bit more accurate than “Because the US has it”!
So – what is the story with Unemployment in New Zealand right now?
Well, according to Stats NZ – which is a really interesting place to get the real numbers from: Unemployment is up. It hit 4.6% by the end of 2008. This was an increase from a low of 3.7% in 2006 and 2007.
Now – the really interesting thing is that until 2004 – the unemployment rate didn’t drop to less that 4.5% anyway. So although it is not great sailing at the moment – it is not quite time to be throwing ourselves over the edge just yet. According to the yearly figures at Stats NZ – in 1995 – unemployment was 10.6% – so it is possible to reach those levels. But the figures also show that the past four years have been unusual in the low rate of unemployment, with figures steadily coming down over 15 years, and now its just going back up.
If you compare the current 4.6% with 3.7% – it looks a bit bad. But did you know what if you average out the unemployment percentages over the past 15 years – its 6.8%??? So maybe 4.6% isn’t actually that bad.
In fact – we discussed this earlier – as Hubby found a graph that makes the situation look dire:
And I said – that couldn’t be right – because it didn’t match the figures on Stats NZ. Here is a graph we made using the figures going back before the record low unemployment rates:
Doesn’t look half as bad now- does it?
It’s bad for the extra people that lose their jobs of course – but I really think its worth taking a moment to understand that a lot more people were unemployed in the 13 years up to 2005 than are unemployed now.
Don’t Panic.
Just because the papers tell you it’s all going to hell in a hand basket – it doesn’t actually mean that it is.
Wehey! We Don’t Need to dip into our Emergency Fund after all!
I mentioned here that we may need to dip into our emergency fund:
IBM were only taking staff on as 2-year contractors, and that was coming to an end next April, and hubby has been trying for months to get the contract made permanent.
Finally, after a lot more hassle and way more meetings with managers than should have been needed, the approval has come through for Hubby’s contract to be made permanent.
The funniest thing? Or perhaps the most utterly annoying and frustrating thing (that had us screaming and grinding our teeth)?
15 people had to sign off on making the contract permanent:
Manager (New Zealand Based)
2nd Line Manager (New Zealand)
2nd Line Business Executive (Aus)
Finance Manager (NZ)
HR Manager (NZ)
Resource Manager (Aus)
Talent Leader (??!) (Aus)
HR Manager (Aus)
3rd Line Business Manager (NZ)
General Manager 1 (Aus)
General Manager 2 (Aus)
General Manager 3 (Aus)
Finance Manager (Aus)
Vice President of Finance (Japan).
Director of HR (China)
Notice: only 5 people on that list are actually based in New Zealand!
Maybe THIS is why so many migrants find it hard to get job offers from NZ companies. The problem we found, both here and with Unisys, is that the New Zealand company is seen as a bit of a poor relation to the Australian branch. It’s not the first time that hubbys job has been decided by people in Australia rather than New Zealand.
Anyway – as we were shoving extra money aside – we now have a few extra thousand dollars in the emergency fund. I figure it may as well stay there.
But as we don’t need it just yet – I’m going back to pouring the money into the mortgage. I was able to divert my normal mortgage payments into the slush fund because I’m years ahead on the mortgage anyway – but I have to say I’m real glad to be able to get back to killing the mortgage!
P.S. All this effort was just to get approval for the transfer. Salary negotiations are still to take place.
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