The 47 Rules of money
Filed under: Avalon's Money Thread, Banks, Cost of living, General Budgeting, Interest Rates, Credit Cards & Mortgages in NZ
This appeared in the Herald on New Years Eve, written by Diana Clement. I really like her articles about personal finance, and shes well worth a read. Unlike Mary Holm, she writes about general finance and makes an awful lot of sense, rather than just bleating on about how wonderful Kiwisaver is and how bad eveything that isn’t Kiwisaver is.
She has written her 47 rules of money, apparently in line with 47 years of life. I have to agree with just about all of them – and actually practice many of them. So here they are – with an occasional comment!
General:
1 Track your spending. You can’t budget if you don’t know what you’re spending.
- Probably the single most important thing you can do with your money.
2 Needs and wants are often confused. This is perhaps the biggest financial mistake that people make.
3 Talk money with those linked to you financially. Whether it’s parents, partners, children, employers, or business associates, get financial discussions out in the open.
4 People are too quick to judge others’ financial decisions, me included. But that needs to be balanced against my next rule, number 5.
5 People will justify their bad financial decisions to the end of the earth. “I did all the right research,” one finance company investor told me as my eyebrows went through my hairline.
6 Monkey see monkey do. Children learn about finances by watching their parents, not listening to hypocritical lectures.
7 You can earn a good salary and still be poor. Budget advice services sometimes see people with six-figure salaries who still can’t make ends meet.
- This is one of the biggest fallacies many people believe about money – people who earn more cannot be poor. It just doesn work like that.
8 People can and do lose all their money. A couple of times a generation a collapse such as Black Monday arrives with disastrous effects for thousands of people. Others fall for tricksters such as the off-the-plan apartment salespeople or Ponzi scheme promoters.
9 Entrepreneurship is good. Grounded but entrepreneurial people do well financially. They may not succeed in making their fortune first time around, but often do if they persevere.
10 You can be a capitalist and still have a social conscience. I admire philanthropists.
11 You don’t have to have a high-paying job to get wealthy. I once interviewed a successful property investor who worked by day on the shop floor at Noel Leeming and made his real money after 5pm.
12 Don’t blame your parents, your children, your partner or your education. Responsibility is good when it comes to finances.
13 Even beneficiaries can save. Some people live within their means no matter how little they earn. Saving money is a choice.
14 Some people want to be poor. They think they’re poor and that they’ll always be poor and sabotage their financial future.
15 Pay your taxes on time. The IRD has a big stick.
- And endless funds (paid for by you) to chase you with!
Spending:
16 I regret frittering money on coffees and unnecessary eating out. It would be better to direct that money towards savings.
- Um, Ok – can’t agree with that one clearly!
17 Spending money on experiences is good spending. I am eternally grateful that I sold all but one of my shares at age 22 (by coincidence in August 1987) and went backpacking through Latin America. It’s good spending if the experience enriches life.
18 Braking wastes fuel. This was one of those wonderful chestnuts that it takes a few seconds to get your head around. If you drive too fast and brake regularly, you’re using petrol on wasted momentum. Driving well can save 10 per cent of your fuel bill.
19 It’s moronic to incur fines. Like the maniac driver in a big red American-style pickup truck who overtook me on State Highway 2 on December 17, just to be pulled over and fined.
20 You can get rich one dollar at a time. Every dollar is precious. Think before you spend it.
Debt:
21 Save before you buy. A bit of a radical concept in 2011, but it can change people’s financial future.
22 Interest-free hire purchase deals are for suckers. You still pay an establishment fee and the majority of people fail to clear the debt on time and pay interest anyway.
23 Credit cards make you look rich. Anyone can live well for a few years, but the debt catches up.
- I would add to this that often when you see people splashing the cash around, and you feel sorry for yourself because you can’t do the same – you might want to spend some time wondering if that’s really their money – or a credit card they can’t afford to pay off. They may not be as rich as they look.
24 The only “good debt” is mortgage debt. Provided you don’t over-leverage yourself.
25 Interest payments on personal loans, credit cards and HP are “idiot tax”. Why throw money away unnecessarily?
26 Having a credit card debt need not be the norm. A credit card limit is a safety net, not personal money to spend.
Investments and financial products:
27 Beware of investments discussed at barbecues. When the whole world is piling into an investment such as property, gold, tech shares and so on, you’ve almost certainly missed the boat.
28 Buy property young, preferably in your 20s. Move heaven and earth to get the deposit. Rent is wasted money.
29 Any offer that comes over the telephone isn’t worth having. Just ask the people who were cold called by Blue Chip, timeshare schemes, or horse betting scams.
30 Having life insurance is a good idea. Paying that monthly premium feels like dead money (excuse the pun). The payout when you die can give your beneficiaries choices at a difficult time in life.
31 An entire class of investment can crash and burn. Who remembers: Equiticorp, Chase Corporation, Renouf Corp, Judge Corp and more that collapsed like a pack of cards after the 1987 crash? Then there were tech stocks, mortgage-backed securities and finance company debentures.
32 Shares can be “safer” in the long term than bank deposits. The argument, which I first read on the Motley Fool website, is that over 10 or 20 years good share investments will keep pace with inflation, while bank deposits will be eroded.
33 KiwiSaver is good. This is a red rag to many readers. Government-led retirement programmes get people saving for their future.
- Ok – one point out of 47 – at least it’s in balance!
34 Insurance policies are full of gotchas. For goodness sake READ EVERY WORD of your policy.
35 Property investment isn’t always as safe as bricks and mortar. It can turn to custard. Mortgagee sales happen all the time – especially with investment properties.
- A lesson many people are learning the hard way – you still need to watch your money, be sensible, and understand the basics. It is NOT easy money, it is NOT guaranteed, and it is NOT always a fast road to riches. (You will also meet a lot of arseholes willing to screw you over (Mr Agile Property management AKA Eric Voice) among some of the friends you will make.
36 Markets overshoot and undershoot. If a market’s fundamentals (such as the yield on investment property) are out of historic kilter the market is probably brewing a bubble.
37 The best time to buy is just after a crash. Buy fundamentally good investments when everyone else is bailing out of the market.
- I so wish I was flush with cash right now. One of the painful side effects of buying property at the hight of the market is not having cash to buy in the crash!
38 Beware of investing just to save tax. Is the investment actually any good or is someone desperate to sell it to you?
Financial advice and salespeople:
39 Take your advice from people who have been through several cycles. Johnny-come-latelies going through their first financial cycle underestimate the risks.
40 Your money is your responsibility. Yes, employ a financial adviser, mortgage broker, accountant and other professionals, but make sure you understand what they tell you and double-check that your money is adequately spread.
- Abso-fragging-loutely. NO ONE will care as much about your money as you do. Unless they are looking to take it off you.
41 Seminar presenters aren’t always financial experts. They probably make their money from seminars, not from the actual investment they’re preaching about.
42 Credit rating agencies don’t always get it right. Some companies deceive the agencies, others are part of an industry that may not be well understood by the ratings agencies.
43 Don’t believe the get-rich-quick conmen. You should aim to get richer slowly, but steadily.
44 Government subsidies are a magnet for spruikers. Sharks swarm around government money. Just look at the people selling insulation, heating, and ventilation or those who have been caught selling KiwiSaver door-to-door.
Others:
45 Passive cash-flow rules. Finding ways to make money that don’t need your hourly input makes sense.
46 Telling the truth infuriates some readers. Suggesting that people can change their financial ways brings in a flurry of outraged emails.
47 You can learn more about money. The easiest and cheapest way to improve your knowledge is to get a book out of the library.
- Or – ahem – buy mine!
And I’m adding one of my own:
48. Have a Sanity Allowance. Pocket money is not just for kids, and it will save you a whole heap of money and arguments. Along with tracking our money and actively managing the money – this would be the most useful thing I ever learned about dealing with finances.
Are you the 99%, 53%, 1% or who cares what %?
Filed under: Banks, Cost of living, Economics, General Budgeting, Interest Rates, Credit Cards & Mortgages in NZ
The “Occupy Wall St” protest has hit New Zealand this weekend – “occupying” Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. I have tried to get my head around this – and I have to say I am failing miserably. When I started seeing “We are the 99%” posts coming up on my Facebook feed – I took a look at that and understood what they were saying.
We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we’re working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.
I get anger that banks and financial institutions had screwed up, lost an awful lot of money, got bail outs, and yet still managed to find many millions of dollars to pay huge bonuses to the people who screwed it all up, while people lost homes and jobs.
Well who wouldn’t be pissed at that? I find it astonishing that governments are bailing private companies out, but there’s not a penny for us if we hit the skids. No one bailed us out when IBM got rid of hubby. We had to manage that ourselves – as does everyone. We have friends who have lost everything – no one bailed them out.
But I am also somewhat confused about why the blame is only being shoved on the corporates – and not those of us (ie just about all of us) who have spent the past decade or 2 spending vast sums of money we don’t have (ie debt) on cars, various iGadgets,clothes, shoes, posh food, holidays and houses. We have to take some responsibility here. Blaming the big bad corporation doesn’t change the fact that as a whole the western world gorged itself on debt and consumerism. No one forced us to buy iPhones. (I wonder how many people occupying Wall St still have smartphones, and are updating Facebook with their adventures via the very items the corporations sold us, and we willingly bought with money that the banks invented for us to spend, increasing the debt balloon that they now say is the source of all ill in the world).
But what has got me really confused was this has morphed into a strange anti-government, anti-money,anti-whatever-we-can-think-of-to-be-peeved-about-as-long-as-we-can-blame-the-anyone-who-is-richer-than-us sort of movement. Everyone is supposed to have a voice – no one is considered to be worth more than anyone else. This to me is an alien concept – in $ terms of course people are worth different amount – please never let a brain surgeon work on me if you only pay them the same as the cleaner. In human terms – I will always value kindness and decency in someone more than I will value someone being an arse.
I saw this video of the “assembly” in Atlanta – I gotta say – if that’s the alternative to the current political system we have – no thanks.
I am way too independent to sit there and parrot back what I am told to say – what are we? 5? Repeat after me “You are all individuals”…
So – are you the 99%? Probably not.
Global Rich List puts your income into world wide terms. And you may be surprised at how little income it actually takes to get you into the top 1% of earners in the world. Global Rich List doesn’t work for NZ$, but just £25,000 a year or $49,000 USD gets you there. At current exchange rates that works out at $49,500 or $61,500 NZD.
The New Zealand minimum wage is $27,040 a year which (using the UK£ to work it out – £13,600) puts you in the top 10.5% richest people in the world. And yet on that how many people still have mobile phones and internet access?
The median wage in New Zealand is $49,000. That means that 50% of wage earners in New Zealand are actually among the top 1% of earners in the world.
Those of us who pay for those of you who whine about all of that… or that… or whatever.
Ok – so this made me laugh. Can’t see this lot repeating back what they are told 3 words at a time and looking gormless.
So I won’t be occupying Wellington. To be honest I am too damn busy dealing with our current financial situation, budgeting our money, saving where and I can and spending what I have spare on stuff produced by people who also earn money. Some of them earn less than me, some of them earn more than me. Some of them are worth that much, some of them aren’t. I make that decision myself, and decide for myself where I will spend money, how much to spend, and whether to take on debt. If I take on debt – I take full responsibility for that decision, and for any mistakes I may make.
And I have absolutely no idea which % I am.
I am not a number – I am a free man .
Cool Wellington – The Parking Angel.
Wellington City Council recently changed the parking rules in the city. You used to be able to park on-street free of charge after 6pm. Now – only on Fridays mind you – you have to wait till 8pm to park free. Apparently this has absolutely nothing to do with increasing income to the council. Nothing.
And its catching people out – which is what it was designed to do.
Step in the pissed of business owners fed up with their customers getting screwed by the council:
Sporting large fluffy wings, a parking angel has been floating around Blair St handing out spare change to motorists to help them feed parking machines.
But blink and you’ll miss her – this angel only appears on Friday evenings.
The angel is the initiative of restaurant owners fed-up with seeing their patrons get ticketed since parking rules changed. While free parking starts from 6pm Monday to Thursday, on Fridays drivers have to pay until 8pm.
”After seeing around $400 in parking tickets given out to people who had parked on Blair Street last Friday, it was obvious that people don’t know paid parking is until 8pm on Fridays,” Monsoon Poon owner Mike Egan said.
With the support of other restaurants on the street, Little India, Fratelli, One Red Dog and Edison Superette, a Park Wiser initiative has been launched.
The angel traverses the street, reminding motorists of the new rules and handing out change to those who are caught short. Posters have also been put up along the street.
I am just so impressed.
Yes – you do have to pay yourself a fair wage.
The supreme court has now decided that self employed people like us cannot use trusts and various business structures to artificially lower our salaries and thus pay less tax. Not that we have ever done that - we always seem to end up with scrupulously above-board accountants who insist in keeping us on the right side of the tax man. On the one hand that can sometimes be a bit annoying as we watch other people making claims that we are denied. On the other hand we can sleep easy knowing that in the event of a tax audit we have nothing to worry about.
I have seen the devastation that can be caused by bad accounting advise leading to a massive tax bill you can’t pay, and I never want to be in that position.
So what has the court decided?
..the Supreme Court has ruled that company and trust structures cannot be used to artificially reduce taxable income from “personal exertion” – a catch-all definition for the work that professionals and small businesspeople do.
So really – nothing different that what we already do. Hubby “earns” the money that comes into our business – so he gets paid the majority of that as a beneficiary income. A good portion is already taken up with business expenses, so he doesn’t get all of it, and i get a small amount for the bookkeeping work I do. Really I should get paid more, but right now the business is still growing, so we are retaining funds.
The decision was the latest in a string of court victories for the Inland Revenue Department, which are significantly recasting the legal and accounting professions’ understanding of what constitutes tax avoidance.
So even though in this case, we aren’t going to end up in the crap, the IRD are tightening up all over the place. This is where it pays to have a good but cautious accountant. While I hate paying more tax that I need to, paying less than I need to is just too big a headache to contemplate.
”The decision is helpful in pointing to some cases where avoidance would not be involved, such as the need to retain funds to make capital expenditure or where the company is experiencing financial difficulties or it would be imprudent to pay a market salary.
“As a practical matter it will be necessary for Inland Revenue to issue further guidance along these lines because it is in everyone’s interests for there to be reasonable certainty as to where the boundaries lie,” he said.
I should say so. We do seem to have a huge issue at the moment with the IRD not having to stick to it’s own understandings of the rules. There is no hard and fast rule, and the IRD have a massive amount of power (and unlimited funds) to use the courts to enforce a ruling. Even if they have previously written to you and advised you differently.
Tax – not for the fainthearted!
Do you have to pay yourself a “fair” wage?
This is a question for the self employed – and is going to be answered one way another through a supreme court case.
Hearings on the appeal by Christchurch orthopaedic surgeons Ian Penny and Gary Hooper concluded in the Supreme Court in Wellington this afternoon. The pair argue their decision to re-route income through companies and family trusts was not a tax avoidance arrangement.
In doing so, they cut their personal incomes by as much as 80 per cent from levels prevailing before the top personal tax rate rose to 39 per cent in April 2000.
While the surgeons admit these were not “commercially realistic” salaries, they contend there is no such concept in the Income Tax Act and cannot be ruled to be avoidance.
Basically – they used to earn about $500-$600,000 a year, but once they set up the structures, they “earned” about $120,000 a year, and used the structures to “pay” other family members.
Which is basically what myself and hubby do – with one major difference: we were advised that income tax law states that the sharing of income must be realistic, and in proportion to the amount of effort each of us puts towards earning the money. Which means that I cannot be paid the same as hubby, and it is his effort that earns the money.
That doesnt mean I cant get a share of it – but it has to be comensurate with the effect my work has. Now I actually do a fair number of hours each week on Hubby’s behalf – so I get a “token” salary – and overall we do pay less personal income tax because of it.
But hubby still earns personally the same amount per month that he did while working at IBM – so we know it is a fair salary for the work he is doing. And thus we wont get into lots of trouble with the tax man!
I have met many people who believe you can simply split income – with no thought to doing so with reasonbale care – it’s a bit of a Kiwi Urban Myth. I guess the outcome of this case will tell us one way or another. Could be interesting.
And I could be getting a pay rise.
Can I have my 62c back please?
Filed under: Economics, General Budgeting, Hubby's Views, Immigration Advisers, Life in New Zealand, Retirement, Pensions and Kiwisaver
I was browsing through some news articles on Kiwiblog and came across this one about Govt income & expense. Which is talking about the Where’s My Tax? website, using figures from this weeks budget.
Which is quite a fascinating resource..
Top right of the page you can switch between income (taxes) and expense (public spending) .
One of the wow! factors for me was the single biggest Govt expenditure:
NZ Super (Pension). At $2173 per person per year.
Second place goes to Treasury debt servicing, at $829 pppy Our collective revolving credit facility costs us all $829 a year. hmm, that seems like an awful lot of money doesn’t it?
Primary education comes in third at $620 pppy, that’ll be all those ‘voluntary’ contributions.
With Secondary & Tertiary education each getting $455 pppy, more ‘voluntary’ contributions then! 
DPB, at $430 pppy, comes a long way behind as the second biggest MSD expense, after NZ Super.
One of the buried slithers (actually the second smallest) on the income page is Dept of Labour, showing this income;
Yes. The effective income from immigration ‘advisers’ is 22c per year. The effective income from giving someone Residency, ten times that.
But wait, lets look at the expenses shall we?
So this is just a list of the bottom half of DoL expenses. 62c a year to run the IAA.
I don’t think these numbers are any different from what has been previously posted. Presented in a fascinating way though.
No Money? Why not buy a few top range BMWs?
It’s the end of the second year of a recession, and last week the Finance Minister Bill English said that we could actually face a “double-dip” recession. (That means its going to get worse before it gets better). And yet, because the VIP fleet that Government uses is 3 years old – we have to buy a whole new fleet. That’s 34 BMWs at $200k each. That’s $6.8million spent on replacing a bunch of 3 year old cars.
When apparently there is no money to be spent on front line services. You will be left to die if you have the bad luck to have certain types of cancer because we wont pay decent wages for oncologists – but who cares – government ministers will have a flash car to be driven around in while you die.
The Green Party has called the ordering of the cars a disgrace.
Which is way too mild – they should call it revolting and abusive.
The cars are for transporting ministers, their guests, the leader of the Opposition and occasionally judges.
We have 121 MPs. Why do we need 34 cars in the first place? And why do they need to be replaced after 3 years? I bought a 10 year old car and I’ve kept it so far for 5 years. We have had to buy a second car, but we cannot afford to replace the first one for a new model. I mean we could if – like the government – we were prepared to live with a debt that grows each week. But we are bullied, insulted and forced to cut back and save. But the people in charge get to spend spend spend.
It really is sick isn’t it.
[The green party leader] understood the cars were ordered to arrive in time for the Rugby World Cup. “People can’t even afford to go to the games.”
I am personally sick to death of money we don’t have being spent so that NZ looks like it has money when the RWC fans descend on the place. NZ is not a rich country, and beggering oursleves to try and trick tourists into thinking we are flash is just not on. They will be going home – we have to live with the pile of debt and we will be forced to save money we don’t have to get the government out of the crap.
Not impressive.
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Christmas pressie from the Reserve Bank
Filed under: Cost of living, Economics, Interest Rates, Credit Cards & Mortgages in NZ, Property & General Investing
Alan Bollard (bless his little cotton socks) has decided that the base interest rate in New Zealand is not going up this month.
“Interest rates are now projected to rise to a more limited extent over the next two years than signalled in September.
Oh Yay! Just in time for my investment mortgages to come off their fixed rates – and there was me thinking that I might have a snowballs chance in hell of reducing my mortgage payments.
Of course the reason for the hold is becuase no one has any money to spend, so the economy isn’t taking off as well as it should. I’m not sure where anyone expects us to get money to spend from right now – prices are still going up and wages aren’t. And to be honest, even if I had any money – what he’s saying is that If I spend it and “help the economy” hes going to put my interest rates up as a result.
Does this make any sense to anyone?
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And why are the IRD being so selective in who they audit and prosecute?
Filed under: Economics, General Budgeting, Jobs & Work, Property & General Investing
As I’m on a rile complaining about laws being applied unevenly and inconsistently – I thought I would mention an article this weekend about the Inland Revenue not collected overdue taxes.
Now Ive made no secret of my dislike of over-taxing people. I’m the first one in the queue to get a legal reduction in tax if at all possible. I maintain that its my money and I should be able to hold to it. Not that I think all taxation is bad – I feel its right to pay a central agency some share of income to cover infrastructure: roads, schools, healthcare, a proper welfare system for people in need – that sort of thing. My issue is with taking more and more tax becuase the government just feels like spending more and more money on things that are vote winners rather than things the country needs.
Anyway – to stop waffling!
Commissioner of Inland Revenue Bob Russell took a swing at the insolvency industry last month, criticising “friendly” liquidators for not delving deeply into the affairs of failed companies. He was reporting to Parliament on the $740 million of taxes lost to firms in liquidation.
Ok – so thats a lot of tax lost by companies going belly-up – but as the article goes on to point out – how the hell has the IRD allowed these companies not to pay the tax? If I am late with my taxes – I get into a lot of trouble – and get fines and penalties.
Of the money owing from liquidation files, 90 per cent is over a year old, confirming what many in the insolvency industry see: the IRD is slow to enforce overdue tax debt.
So this isnt because of the liquidators – its because the IRD isnt chasing late payments. But then there’s this little gem:
Importantly, there is more than $5 billion in arrears from taxpayers not in liquidation or bankruptcy.
So the commissioner is taking pot shots at an industry he claims is costing $740,000,000 in lost taxes while overseeing an IRD that has cost itself $5,000,000,000 by not doing its job properly.
But who are the IRD spending millions investigating and going after? Property Investors and Traders. Who owe a paltry $240,000,000 of that $5 billion. Not that they shouldn’t – but It would be nice if when all us property people get tarred and feathered it was occasionally remembered that we don’t actually the bulk of the owed taxes – we are just the easiest to audit and prosecute – possibly also the most popular to be tarred and feathered.
But also last week, there was a rather interesting post on KiwiBlog, about the Unite union not having paid its PAYE or GST to the Inland Revenue. Now thats a bit embarrassing – but worse was the shitty attitude to the situation displayed my Matt McCarten – the head of the union:
Unite head Matt McCarten confirmed yesterday that the union owed money to the IRD but said he had made choices to pay for union campaigns rather than clear the debt. “I don’t shy away from these decisions, I make the calls.”
So basically – this twit decided off his own back that he had better things to spend the GST and PAYE that his union has collected on behalf of the government, and that he would use that money – that wasn’t his to spend- in order to run political campaigns. Utterly corrupt – and actually illegal. Nit only that – hes been thick enough to admit in the media that hes not paying taxes because hes campaigning with the money instead.
So why would the IRD rather come after me as an individual if I paid my income taxes late (which is money I have earned and have to give them a share of) but doesnt throw the book at Mr McCarten for refusing to hand over taxes he has taken from othe rpeople – ie – its not his own money and never was. Hes stealing it.
Paying employee deductions
Employers must pay deductions to us by each due date. The money deducted does not, at any stage, belong to employers. Under no circumstances should the deductions be used for any other purpose than for payment to Inland Revenue. We will help employers who try to meet their responsibilities but will take action against employers who do not comply with the tax laws.
Failing to pay deductions to Inland Revenue is a serious offence and can result in prosecution. An employer who is convicted may be:
fined up to $50,000 and/or
sent to prison for up to five years.
The name of anyone convicted will also appear in the New Zealand Gazette.
Ha! Still a lesser sentence than giving immigration advise 
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For Shane: The problems with overseas workers.
As promised, Ive copied the comment from Shane, so that it’s easier to both write a response and for people to read it. I guess for some people, the questions could be seen as “anti-immigrant” but I hope that most people will understand where he is coming from. I believe that these points are well made, and need to be thought about.
I am writing today too see what your thoughts are on Overseas workers – work force at present,
I have just spent 3 years working on projects around Taranaki in the Oil and generating electricity sector. I am a New Zealander born and bred and also a qualified electrician.
Recently have finished work on a big project, a company laid off 40 electricians, 10 stayed on, they were all from overseas – only a couple of them have just got nz qualified electrician, but the rest work under the company electrical licence – how does this help the NZ electricians ??
It doesn’t – and as far as I’m aware that it is total contravention of what immigration is there for. In fact – I blogged briefly in March last year about a similar issue – also in Taranaki. The original article in the papers is here. The important think to understand is whether the 10 people who were kept on were on Work Visas – or were permanent residents. If they were residents, then theres really not much you can do I’m afraid – they have actually worked through the legal process and have a right to the job if they will accept the wages (see below – my hubby has the same issue with Kiwis working for low wages).
If however they are on Work Permits – I would personally suggest you contact the journalist who wrote that article. It really is the best way to get things done in New Zealand – talk to the media. If I was going to make any more complaints about the immigration Dept – I honestly wouldn’t bother – Id just talk to the press and cause a load of hassle.
You also need to consider that while these migrants have just qualified in NZ (or not) – they may have decades of experience overseas that is basically shat on by New Zealand and totally discounted. Many British electricians are forced to work for peanuts when the come here despite being highly qualified and experienced sparkies. This is because of the outdated and stupid rules that says none of that counts for squat here. Again – it may actually not be the fault of the immigrant that they get paid so poorly. I have heard many UK sparkies complain bitterly at being paid so badly here, and it’s certainly not their choice – and they aren’t doing it to go to Australia. They have given up everything to move here.
Presently i have notice big electrical companies in the area hiring overseas workers to fill jobs in this region…….
1. Overseas workers are paid less – there fore less tax to the government – how is this beneficial to our country
This has always annoyed me – and it happens to be something that I have spoken and written about ever since we came to NZ ourselves almost 6 years ago. If the Skilled Migrant system was being used properly – then overseas workers should be employed because they have skills that NZ needs – so why are they being paid less? Often we have skills that NZers don’t actually have, but are needed, yet we get paid less becuase we aren’t Kiwis? I guess in this, Ive been arguing the other side of the point from you – but thinking about it it would have the same result. Overseas workers would not be hired because they are cheaper than Kiwi’s.
To me that is wrong, and its both exploiting an overseas workforce, and as you point out – there are Kiwis who should have those jobs. Immigration is supposed to fill a Labour gap – not create unemployment for Kiwis.
2. Overseas workers send all their money offshore to support their families – how does this benefit our country
I’m going to assume here that you are not in fact talking about ALL overseas workers? I think its fair to say that most of the migrants I personally know are Brits, and I would like to assure you that our wages are sure as hell not leaving NZ – we can’t afford to do that! I wish I knew the answer to this – it happens in Britain as well – and is about as popular. You can’t ban people from doing it – and I cant see a way for the immigration dept to screen people coming here on the basis of where they spend the money they earn.
It does kinda worry me that low NZ wages are still considered high enough for some people to leave their families, come here to work, and still have enough left over to send back home.
3. Overseas worker are only here for 3 years to achieve NZ residency, then off they go to AUZ where they get better pay,
To be fair – that happens the other way as well. When migrants decide they want to go to either Australia or New Zealand, there is always the option of going to the one where you can get a job, and using that to bounce into the other. We were personally advised to emigrate to Australia first as a way of getting into New Zealand. No good for us – as I sure as hell wasn’t going to live in Aus!
Also, it is the case that less immigrants leave New Zealand to go to Australia than Kiwis.
4. so while this happens Overseas worker don’t care about working conditions, hourly rates, all they are here for is to get NZ residency and leave,
Nutters! Yeah – I feel your frustration on this one. In hubbies line of work there is often the same issue: people (often Kiwis in this case) who are prepared to accept being treated like crap, get paid a lot less than they are worth, don’t get pay rises for years on end, don’t get a bonus unless they do the jobs of 10 people. I’m not sure that would be particularly an Overseas worker issue – though again – I’m happy to accept that the kind of work you were doing would mean you are seeing something quite different to me.
I know immigration have stepped in recently and prosecuted some guys for using overseas farm labour – basically little more than slaves. It’s an extreme version of what you are talking about – but yes – a lot of farm workers were being paid a few dollars an hour, and it took a long time for them to complain about it to the authorities.
5. mean while this is driving down my working conditions and hourly rate.
Yep. Again – we have the same issue – if people are willing to work the equivalent of 10 jobs for less money and worse conditions than my hubby would – oddly enough – he’s the one that loses his job. One of the reasons I actually write this blog – and wrote the book – and before that used to write on forums, was to persuade immigrants that taking a low paid job just because it was in New Zealand was counterproductive – for everyone. We are fed a line that living here is so cheap, we don’t NEED to earn much – then once you get here on a low salary – it takes some guts to fight for more. It’s complete bollocks of course – Kiwis all know that living here is relatively expensive – but migrants don’t know that. They are being conned by Kiwi Employers into taking those crap wages and working conditions.
6. Then the companies hire overseas workers are making more money as they pay them less and charge out the same rate regardless, are hiring good accountants to hide their tax’s and make more profit.
I should declare that I’m personally a huge fan of hiring an accountant so I pay less tax (which I will continue to do until governments world-wide stop wasting taxes becuase there know theres an endless store of more funds they can steal from me). If you haven’t really read my blog before – you may not have come across that. Companies making a profit is not a bad thing – but on the one hand exploiting cheap migrant labour while on the other hand refusing Kiwis work is in my book NOT the way to do that.
7. Meanwhile i sit on the dole as a citizen of this country with a trade
8. And yes – i have rang WINZ and ask what they have in plan for Qualified, experienced trades person like myself for CHCH clean up and helping – and like all government agency’s – i have yet to hear back from WINZ…..i wonder if you can help on these questions ??
I think you may be working at this from the wrong angle to be honest. Please consider emailing that journalist – and see if theres a story here for them. You certainly shouldn’t be on the dole with a skill like this – and as I understand whats happening with immigration – they CANNOT give a work visa to a migrant if theres a Kiwi that can do the job. I know from what I was told about 12 months by a staffer at Immigration that they are turning down 95% of work visa applications. And many migrants on work visas (those are the temporary ones – different from Permanent residence) are being sent back to their home countries even if they have been here for many years.
As for Christchurch – I think thats exactly where you should be heading. I’m gobsmacked that WINZ aren’t on top of this already! But then again – maybe I shouldn’t be. In your shoes – I would actually contact the Sallie Army down there and see if they have any contacts of people looking for sparkies. Possibly even the mayors office? There has to be someone down there who can point you in the right direction.
Regarding the issue of whether you have lost your job to a migrant when the company should not be employing migrants if Kiwis are available:
Well – as Ive said above – you need to understand that theres really only an issue you can do something about if they are on Temporary Work Permits. If you know that is the case – and you choose to make a complaint and not go to the media – the address you need is:
The Manager
Compliance Operations
Immigration New Zealand
PO Box 5342
AUCKLAND
At least I think it is – I couldn’t find any clear info that covers your issue. Just be aware that Immigration don’t take kindly to people making complaints – probably you’ll get as far as you would with letters to MP’s! I still reckon the media is the way to go – but DO make sure you have your facts right about the migrants involved. Thats really important – otherwise you will do your case more harm than good.
I know thats not really much help to your current situation, but I hope I have helped in some way. And I hope you get that job soon.
Good luck 
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