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Browsing category: Uncategorized

  • June 23, 2010

    Got my first credit score…

    Late last year NZ introduced credit scoring for the first time. Before that, credit reports merely consisted of basic information about a person, along with listing credit enquiries and any defaults. Pretty boring stuff.

    Like a total geek, I was itching to find out what mine was. And I have to admit, I was a little disappointed.

    First, let me point you to the totally unhelpful Veda page, which attempts to explain the scoring system. (This is more or less what the informational brochure enclosed with our reports contained). The diagram almost implies that 600 is an average kind of score, although I’m not sure if that’s the message they meant to convey.

    One thing to note on the report is the factors which affect scores.

    • Defaults
    • Insolvencies
    • Individual credit shopping pattern
    • Age of credit file
    • Demographic stability

    See that last one? Yeah, that one that has absolutely nothing to do with ME. I can understand lumping all drivers under the age of 21 into one group for insurance purposes, but for credit reporting?

    Anyway. I am slightly annoyed that I come in at just under 600 on my Veda score (588 to be precise). I can only assume (aside from being classed in a young, risky age group)  this is due to the short length of my credit history, and perhaps the number of credit inquiries? I have nine all up: two from my internet providers, one work related one, one from another bank and the rest are all from my bank. Obviously they’ve been checking up on me without my knowledge.

    I wonder if my available credit and use of overdraft also contribute to the score. It’s not very clear to me exactly what gets reported. I know that prior to the introduction of the score, hardly anything at all was reported unless you went into default on an account. You guys in the US have all kinds of crazy criteria for this with your available credit ratio at any given time, but I highly doubt we’ve advanced to that stage yet. According to this article, credit agencies can only collect information on credit defaults, judgements and bankruptcies – data considered to give only a “negative” picture of someone’s credit history.

    As for T, his file is six months older than mine, he has slightly fewer enquiries and his one small default brings him in at 485 – just in the yellow zone, as opposed to the green.

    1000 seems so far away. But realistically, I have no need for credit, and I believe a perfect score is unnecessary. I think scoring is a positive move; I guess I’m just peeved that I barely made it into the green zone on the spectrum, especially after seeing a commenter on Lady in the Red had a 900 plus!

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  • June 21, 2010

    Followup

    I really appreciated all your thoughts on this post. Resentment and imbalance is never good in a relationship – it’s downright toxic – and it was seriously cathartic just to purge the thoughts swirling around in my head.

    One great idea raised was to simplify our expenses. I think I’ve got that pretty much down to a T. Each paycheck is split into rent, bills, groceries, and the rest (if any) divided up for fun, gas, cell phone and if needed, clothes and personal care kind of stuff. (Proper budget post coming up…well, ‘proper’ as by my definitions).

    Another asked what T does during the day, apart from comb job postings? Sleep. Sometimes cook. Go to the park to shoot hoops. Sometimes visit his sister/family (she’s a SAHM). Sometimes hang out with friends (after they finish work, or during the day – some are still students, or if it’s bad weather, because some of them work outdoors). Oh yeah, and it also affords him plenty of time to be sucked into various family crises on any given day – enough said.

    He’s also spent a fair amount of time on car-related crap – namely calling around, driving all over the city, finding parts and getting it up to scratch for our recent warrant, plus dealing with the recent accident and following up on that. Happily, our car is finally back to normal and hopefully we can keep it that way!

    Now, other income streams: One thing he’s mentioned before is getting equipment and making things like go-karts, but aside from the initial outlay, we have no garage or workshop, and that stuff has got to be done inside. And personally, I am sceptical about the market for that, although he insists there is demand. Another thing he mentioned was possibly setting up as a service to help people procure parts for their cars (ever tried it? It’s a bitch). He took part in two market research sessions last month, but I think they’re drying up a bit now. So that was helpful too.

    I’ve been trying to communicate more with him on the matter, which seems to be really helping (surprise, surprise). He feels bad about ‘living off’ me and occasionally has really down days. Either way, as one reader said, I need to deal or not deal. In my mind, I’ve set a deadline of the end of the year. Something has to change, in a significant way. And on a smaller scale, something’s also gotta change in the next couple of months. Many of you mentioned possible PT work – I totally agree. And I have been keeping half an eye on those kinds of jobs, although to be honest, his work skills pretty much only lend themselves to full time work.   He’s only been looking at FT work – aiming high? – but even PT money would help (and keep him occupied…and would be a boon if he ends up going back to study and needs a casual gig)

    As to courses, he’s already taken a foundation course so he can get university entry – that covered a lot of subjects, mainly in the arts faculty. (It didn’t set off any lightbulbs for him, but it was definitely worth it.) There’s no point rushing into any course this semester – so I’ve told him he’s got six months till the end of year, by which he’d need to settle on possible degree pathways and figure out the application requirements.

    Getting trade certified – like an apprenticeship – requires an employer to take you on. That’s something he was on track to begin before layoffs at the end of 2008. Might it be worth him taking a welding course? That gets him a ‘ticket’, which is a certification that lasts a certain amount of time, and might open up more jobs for him. Still, a lot of those will be only fixed term but it’s something to consider.

    We’ll keep trying to think of other ways he might be able to bring in some cash and see how it goes, really. One thing we both had our hopes pinned on (although we’d never admit it) was a possible apprenticeship opportunity. I think that fell flat this week, spurring him on to start talking about enlisting with the police. Next thing I know, he’s filled out the forms, got in touch with one of our friends who’s a fully fledged officer, and talking to another friend who, it turns out, wants to become a cop too.

  • June 20, 2010

    Working for The Man

    I work for The Man. It suits me just fine. I like the people I work with, the job I do, having sick leave, the occasional eats and drinks on the company tab.

    My question is: How do you feel about doing overtime?

    Most of my colleagues with the same job title are salaried. They all put in overtime (unpaid) and very few of them ever complain. For me – an hourly employee – I find it tough to imagine doing that without getting pretty resentful, pretty quickly.

    When I work overtime, you bet it goes on my timesheet. I come from a line of low-paid jobs where if you stayed 10 minutes past the end of your shift, you noted it down. You’d be stupid not to! The one and only desk job I had previously – as an admin assistant – was the same; I enjoyed the job, but it paid barely above minimum, and I was always encouraged to note down every time that I stayed late.

    Lately, though – since the raise and promotion – I’ve been feeling a bit reluctant to record extra hours worked. I guess this is because I get paid handsomely for doing the weekend shifts already, and don’t feel like I quite deserve it. Especially considering that the weekends are the quietest days, and I’m often scrounging to keep myself occupied at certain times.

    Do you find yourself putting in lots of unpaid hours? Do you prefer being salaried or hourly? Or have you ever felt like you had to work extra to prove you were worth your salary?

  • June 19, 2010

    Link love: Powered by fudge brownies and trench coats

    Oh, how I miss summer. And conversely, how glad I am we don’t get snow in Auckland. I must admit I was a little disappointed when confronted with the reality of wet, white mush on Ruapehu for the first time in ’07. I had pictured snow fights, snow men and all sorts of wintry hijinks! But it wasn’t to be. But realistically, I hate the cold. And I sure don’t want to be trekking home through snow, buying gumboots, snow tyres and chains, let alone salting the car.

    Anyway, FB’s lovely post on attaining summer-worthy feet was great escapist reading, not to mention practical!

    Meanwhile, Investing Newbie discussed drawing up a time budget – or in other words, a fancy schmancy pants way of saying to-do list on crack. While I don’t do too well with excessive organisation, I could see how this would work wonders for some.

    MPP blogged about the expense of trying new recipes and branching out in terms of ingredients. Girl, I feel the pain. BF is a total foodie, but alas, we’re forced to substitute cottage cheese for feta, and the like. Prosciutto? Prawns? Furgeddabout it. What works for us is trying one new kind of dish a week, and aiming to build the rest of the week’s menu around similar ingredients – that way you aren’t wasting anything.

    Having just bought her own place, Amanda writes about the struggle to furnish her small apartment. It’s true – the good ol’ quarter acre dream is still alive, and as she says, she’s willing to pay for quality but cheap furniture is all that’s available in the sizes she needs. What’s a girl to do? (We live in a shoebox, but we’re renting and couldn’t care less at this stage in life about our furniture. Even our cutlery is mismatched and all our furnishings have been hand-me-downs, free or close to it.)

    SP bucked the trend by having a dance-free wedding reception. You know what, that sounds freaking awesome! I actually don’t enjoy dancing and can’t think of anything worse than having all eyes on me trying not to trip over my own feet. And while we’re on the topic, I wouldn’t be averse to having a dry reception either. My parents are teetotallers, while T’s family would drink the bar empty. And what with the whole Asian flush thing, I won’t be having alcohol on the day – at the least, it would ruin the photos, if not the entire experience.

    Finally, Katie – who always seems to crawl right into my head with these kinds of posts – wrote about being that girl. Who always has a stain on her jeans or a stray lock of hair. “There’s always one little detail I’ve missed – one wrinkle left unironed, one little tiny pebble left unturned.” I envy those people who float through life, polished to perfection; but sometime in the last three years I just got too damn busy to care anymore. Finally, I’m at the stage where I can accept myself the way I am.

  • June 16, 2010

    Online surveys are finally starting to pay off

    One of my most lucrative mystery shopping companies recently made some changes to the way certain surveys were done. Result: an easy stream of income – up to $80-100 a month for little effort – is no longer worth it to me.

    So I’m focusing more on the well-paying individual surveys, which do require more work and time, but at least they’re interesting. I’m also starting to reap the rewards from online surveys; I’ve cashed in well over $100 that I can remember off the top of my head in the last nine months. There were movie passes, Rebel Sport vouchers (we bought a pricey basketball, among other things), a Warehouse voucher, free Vodafone topups, and donations to charity.

    Granted, that’s the culmination of a couple of years of survey-taking. But I’m happy with what I’ve got out of it. I’m young; I have much more time than money, and the hourly rate I can command isn’t really all that high. I’m really not sure about Donna Freedman’s assertion that you can make “anywhere from $50 to $250 a month for “work” that can be done while you watch your kids play in the yard”, but perhaps we get a lot fewer paid surveys down this way.

    You do have to put a bit of effort in, though. Most importantly, keep your profile up-to-date – living situation, education and work, shopping habits. The more accurate information they have about you, the more likely you are to get surveys.

    Donna suggests starting a dedicated e-mail address just for surveys – that’s not a bad idea, IF, and only if, you’re going to check it regularly (ie, every day). Surveys, when they come around, usually fill up quickly and you can’t afford to waste any time getting in. I’ve been doing SO many since starting FT work and being at a computer all day!

    But hey, if certain sites aren’t paying off, just don’t bother. Even if the cashout threshold is low, if you’re struggling to get past, say the $2 mark, it’s not worth the time.

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  • June 15, 2010

    When it all comes crashing down

    A couple I know has split up. A couple everyone thought was in it for the long run. The male half is with someone that none of us think is, er, worthy of him, although she’s been angling for him ever since they met. Not to sound like my mother or anything…but his old girlfriend was clever, classy, cute and dare I say marriage material? This one, not so much. She has more in common with the specimens who used to frequent my old house although to give credit where it’s due, I’m sure she’s not quite of that class. Let me just say that she’s already had brief encounters of the intimate kind with at leas two others in our circle.

    So, to my point: no relationship is infallible. Whether it’s the small things (the fact that he never returns from a trip with everything he took away, whether it’s a tube of sunblock or my digital camera), or a big, sudden, painful blowout that comes out of nowhere, cracks can appear in even the most solid foundation.

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  • June 13, 2010

    Words of wisdom: Perfect Fifths

    “Everything matters so much when you’re 16. A whispered secret is an opera. A one word text is epic. A dirty look is drama, drama, draaaaamaaaa. Every minute of every day is so intense in a way that fades with time. I knew for sure that I had gotten really fucking old when thinking about all those vitally important issues from my sophomore year only made me embarrassed for my former self.” (Perfect Fifths)

    Megan McCafferty pretty much sums up my entire teenage experience in those words.

    I think I can safely say that I officially count myself a grownup. And I’m glad.

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  • June 13, 2010

    Link love: Powered by spring rolls and ponytails

    Scribbles made a blog mix of all the songs she loved in high school. Ahh, those were the days. Stan, Iris, Drops of Jupiter – so many great songs. To that list, I’d add Under the Bridge and also (although this was just past high school, really) Bernard Fanning’s Wish You Well. Crazy video? Tick. Personal meaning? Tick. It’s the song that was playing as we drove to see BF off to army training. It’s not a song I particularly like, but it’s evocative.

    Carrie on the Cheap got engaged! And what a great story it was. Head over and read it if you haven’t already.

    Personal Finance by the Book has tips on holidaying for cheap. As always, planning is key. For me, holidays are about friends and relaxing, so accommodation and transport is nearly always shared! Ditto for food – group barbecues are always a winner.

    Frugal Babe, on the other hand, writes about building a full and refreshing life that needs no escape. Doesn’t that sound great? As she puts it:  “I would rather have 52 great weeks and no desire to escape from my life.” Holidays have never been a part of my world; my family never went on trips at all. I spent all my semester breaks since leaving home, working. Travel, for me, is more about going to different places than “escaping” life.

    Revanche shared her Martin + Osa refund victory – there’s nothing more dissatisfying than clothing that immediately falls apart. I’m not sure I would have had the stamina to chase them up myself; speaking up when salespeople don’t process the right price at the till is about as much as I can manage. Lesson? Persistence is the key.

    SS4BC ponders the meaning of financial freedom and finding the balance between saving and debt repayment – something that’s on my mind. Do I just pay off BF’s credit card balance for peace of mind and to save interest and let him repay me directly once he has a job (not to mention it’s on my own card, financial fail #2179)? I don’t know.

  • June 12, 2010

    If I wasn’t in this job…

    I’d want to read books for a living.

    In The Other Side of the Story, Jojo is a book agent. She has “readers” who read the manuscripts that wannabe authors send in, hoping to score themselves representation. Jojo, in fact, used to be a reader, before clawing her way up the ladder.

    Imagine being paid to read! Presumably you’d make peanuts – there’s sweet f-all in publishing anyway – but this is a pie-in-the-sky post anyway.

    Other possibilities – graphic designer (if I was a little more creative and less technically challenged), photographer (ditto), working at a record label, rock star. Haha.

    What would you want to do, if you weren’t currently a (fill in the blank)?

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  • June 10, 2010

    In a nutshell

    Imagine being called up and asked to give a summary of your life on the spot. No, worse. Thinking up an interesting, clever, witty bio on the spot. This is me, girl of many vague interests but no definitive ones.

    When I was put on the spot to do just that, I froze. I’m a pretty dull person. I jog. (Crap. I totally forgot to go running this week, AGAIN. DAMMIT). Bake. Sing. Blog. I don’t have any quirks! Wait, except the fact that I never play guitar standing up. I just can’t do it.

    Okay, so I can’t do anything about it now. And the odds that I’ll be asked for a bio again anytime soon are basically zero. But that day may come again. And when it does, I want to be prepared.

    So, a hodgepodge of random factoids that may or may not be usable for said bio (written in third person, because, well, why not? It’s fun):

    • Spent most of her childhood with her nose in a book; known to read while walking home from school (luckily there were no roads to cross)
    • That kid who always got 100% in spelling tests
    • Born into a family of accountants, doctors, engineers and other such intellectuals. Mother struggled to understand how she scored better on language tests than math tests
    • Dabbled in tennis, soccer, badminton, rollerblading, netball and more. Stuck with running. Can’t really go wrong with putting one foot in front of the other
    • Played violin for 10 years without ever managing to improve
    • Dreams of keeping a herb garden
    • Also dreamed of being: a bestselling author, rock star, domestic goddess and spelling bee champion

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