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Browsing category: Uncategorized

  • June 9, 2010

    Inspired: Food for thought from an English major

    One of the first blogs I ever discovered was An English Major’s Money. Sadly, she gave up blogging there not long after I stumbled across it – but this week (I really don’t know why) I returned to the site and literally read almost every post in her archive. On the surface, we have a lot in common. We both left uni with a coupla grand in the bank, but without student loans. We both got given $2000 upon graduation from family, and live in very expensive cities. I guess you could almost say we even both work in publishing, although very different facets. And we both lost significant amounts of money thanks to old housing situations

    On the other hand, EM came from a well-off family and was, for lack of better description, a very intellectual person. Check out her fabulous posts on grammar; unlike me, she can actually articulate just WHY a sentence is wrong, and that is why a) I majored in communications, not English and b) I no longer tutor English. Ultimately, she made the decision to go to grad school, because like a true arts major, she had a love of learning. Here, she defends English and other humanities majors, and while I don’t roll in circles where dinner parties are held and conversations on academics and literature are the norm (nor would I really want to, by and large), I can appreciate many of her points. Personally, I know grad school is not for me. I did enjoy many of my papers – theory on what shapes the news, for example, and most of all, political science – but original thinking was not my strength. I don’t feel I could add to the landscape of research out there. And BTW, when I talk polsci, I mean things like how political theories and how politics affects us on society. “In how class and money and economic history have shaped the more ethereal realms of our lives. Including how we relate to our families; including who our friends are,” as EM writes.

    But the post that electrified me was this one.

    Am I supposed to sit in my office and wait to get married and have kids and send them to college and retire, go home worrying about the balances of my accounts, watch a movie, fill in the day’s expenses into my budgeting software, go to sleep? For years?

    (Okay, so I’m not guilty of doing that. I categorise my expenses throughout the month, but I will never be the kind of person who tracks expenses daily. I struggle with balance – I have an addictive personality – and that just isn’t healthy for me. T sees me a total money geek already, just because I like to know where our money is going, and actually use the tools my bank provides – if only he knew!)

    That post spoke to me. I stayed up past midnight reading it and pondering how it related to me. Are my priorities messed up? Should I be focusing more on living my life while I’m young, and enjoying it?

    Personal finance bloggers often scoff at needing to find one’s purpose. They advise, instead, settling down at a well-paying job and keeping financial goals in mind. My priorities are different. I will make the money work, honestly I will, just as long as I can figure out what I should be doing and find a way to be doing it. This doesn’t mean that I should be reckless, and it doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t educate myself on how to deal with money, but money is not the point. It is not enough to sustain me. I need to pursue a life driven by a sense of purpose.

    I don’t honestly feel I’m living a life of intention. For me, I feel the key lies in finding a happy medium – that of a point somewhere in between an all-consuming purpose (for some, that might be quitting the 9-5 to live on a boat, or retiring by 40), and that of financial stability. I don’t want to struggle – I’ve had enough of that already, thanks – but I do want to expand my horizons, too. An ex-coworker had no desire to leave the country; all she wanted was to be able to buy a house, and have a family. I want those things too, but I need more from life. And I’m not sure how to work toward achieving this. Perhaps something like the 100 in 1001 days that so many bloggers are doing?

    Which begs the question: am I focusing too much on money, or the lack of it? What’s really more important to me in life? At some point, I need to stop dreaming of seeing other countries firsthand, and start planning. I have no concrete goals. Maybe I want to leave NZ before I’m 26 (if for no reason other than that STA Travel has special deals for students and those under 26). I definitely want to travel with T beside me, although we have no idea, financially, how that might be achieved at this rate. Right now, I suppose I’m just trying to save as much as I can, although I have since set a number for this year – $10k). I have a feeling though, that it’s never going to be enough, especially as I have a problem with spending large amounts of money, even if they were intended for that purpose.

    So yes, this concludes a very creepy, fannish post in which I have linked to a single blog more times than can possibly be healthy. If she ever stumbles across this, I hope she’ll take it as a compliment.

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  • June 7, 2010

    May roundup

    Groceries: are really high but I think this was a 5-week month, which explains it.

    Entertainment: Metallica tickets – there are some things I won’t hesitate to splurge on, and frugality be damned – and a heavily discounted pass for a fishing charter trip which will either be my birthday present to T, or something he does on a weekend and gets some money from friends to contribute to covering the cost.

    Dining -I guess there was a bit of socialising – a couple of nights out, plus the worst lunch ever after an epic afternoon of market research (we made $170 that day and spent $28 on the saddest, most pathetic Thai food ever. It enraged me, I tell you.) Didn’t exactly help the black hole of overdraftness…Clearly, I need to stop whining about having no fun budget and start walking the talk.

    Vehicle: I spent  a little more than anticipated on my bus passes, just over $100. Why? That includes extra trips into town for a networking event, plus pub quizzes wit hcolleagues from my side job (also perhaps a form of networking?) plus car parts to the tune of at least $30.

    Utilities: I always forget that we have pay TV now, and this is right on target (well, except for going over our internet and being charged extra :@)

    Medical: My eye exam plus contact lens solution.

    Clothes: Coat-slash-jacket, plus new face wash. Words can’t express how much I love and wear my last two purchases (will have to take a photo when I get my hands on a camera) – my black boots and grey jacket have already probably paid for themselves.

    This month I made an additional $163.90 in income. Although the majority of that went towards getting us out of overdraft, $20 went into the bills account and $15 to clothes and grooming (cleanser + a pack of hairties – now that my hair is getting longer, it drives me insane at night).

    Financial goals for June: Get started with Kiva (that fulfils my charity goal) and figure out a plan to deal with the CC balance.

  • June 6, 2010

    So just who the hell am I?

    There’s nothing quite like being introduced to a new person to realise just how hard it is to define yourself.

    Into fashion? Er, sure, I guess I have a passing interest – in stuff that is actually wearable, that is, as opposed to couture. (The only time I’ve ever spent any time surfing style sites was when I worked on the website of a fashion mag, combing through photos of collections and trying to write short pieces about each one – basically just an excuse to make a photo gallery).

    Music? What am I into? *pause* Everything really. Especially the eighties though. Everything from, well, Whitney Houston to Spandeau Ballet to Metallica and Guns’n’Roses. And today, everything from Muse to MGMT and the occasional Gaga song.

    I don’t really consider myself a foodie, but I love watching cooking shows and going to restaurants. I know what I like to eat and eat lots of it!

    To be honest, my biggest interests are super dorky right now. Blogging. Money. Work (or rather, furthering my career, I suppose). And travel – although going anywhere aside from home and the office isn’t on the cards at this stage. Damn, I’m boring. When my childhood best friend got in touch with me, she had exciting hobbies to share – like rock climbing.

    What is a hobby? When do you get to say you’re into “surfing” – when you’ve been once? Five times? Ten? Does shooting hoops every other week qualify me to call basketball a hobby? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

    I guess, just like I struggle to articulate what I want to do – write? edit? take photos? layout? all of the above? – sometimes I struggle to describe myself in a nutshell. I want to have interesting stories to share. I don’t want T’s lack of employment and our struggle to get by to overshadow everything, because I am starting to feel very one-dimensional.

    Right now, career and money concerns are dominating my life and I feel like I’m losing balance. And after Stephany’s poignant post on living with intention, and unsolicited advice from a colleague on finding fulfilment outside of work – doing a job well, he says, means going above and beyond in order to learn and progress, but not giving everything over to it – well, I never thought work-life balance would be a problem for me, but perhaps I’m wrong.

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  • June 5, 2010

    SOS: Costume party

    I hate costume parties. I’m lazy. And self conscious. But one of my best friends from uni is throwing one soon, and we’re all required to dress up as our favourite book characters.

    Immediately, Jessica Darling springs to mind. But she lives in Chucks and jeans. Not all that unique. Aside from that, I can only think of Lyra from Northern Lights/Golden Compass.

    So…who are your fave book characters that I too might know and love? Jog my memory!

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  • June 3, 2010

    Link love (Powered by peanut butter and ankle boots)

    What I’m reading:

    Ad Working Girl on getting down and dirty (not like that!) with the head honchos. With my new title and all, and one project in particular, I’m finding myself liaising much more with the big boss and generally participating more. Usually I’m pretty invisible – I get on with my work, especially on my weekends (I’m alone for half the shift, so I get free rein and to play music as loud as I want). But for now, I’m going to have to step it up.

    Is there anything (Spokeo) worse than Facebook, asks FB? Thankfully, I’m not an American. I have plenty out there on Google under my real name – most of the pieces I’ve ever had published, actually – but I would be pretty freaked out if my home address and what not were out there for the world to see.

    SF Money Musings struggles to get to grips with being a first-time manager. I definitely recommend reading Ask a Manager – fantastic blog for both employers and employees!

    And here, an amazing story of a courageous and brilliant journalist who worked to tell the story of Mexico’s undercover sex trafficking trade.

    A review of SATC2 that made me chuckle with the line “There’s more cleavage in this film than at a pro wrestler’s wedding”.

    Katie is searching for passion and direction. “I don’t know how people find satisfying jobs that they enjoy going to, that they feel they were made for. My husband has a pretty good idea of exactly what he wants to be doing, and the benefit of that is, he actually has something to work toward, rather than being like me and just floating around in a cloud of indecision all the time.” In my case, the situation is reversed, but I feel her pain.

    PR vs Media: In which Tiff explains that he’s just not that into you, and similarly, journalists just aren’t going to call PRs to say no thanks.

    Funny about Money wonders whether there’s a PF blogger glass ceiling. Well, the types of blogs I enjoy (and write) certainly aren’t the most marketable or profitable. But I’m not in this for the money, although offers are always welcome!

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  • June 3, 2010

    Thoughts on a Thursday

    I recently met one of my tutoring clients in person to go over an assignment – she wanted some more in-depth assistance with writing, beyond the usual editing and proofreading that I offer. She’s only been in NZ for a year, and her English is surprisingly good. But most of all, she was so earnest, so dedicated, and brimming with good ideas. It put me to shame.

    She works while studying, and practices her spoken English as much as possible. She finds it a bit daunting talking to her NZ coworkers, who often have trouble understanding her – so she’s chosen to live with some other immigrants from different countries. Nothing is taken for granted.

    I just can’t imagine going to a completely foreign country, all alone, and starting a life from the ground up. She was so grateful that I helped her achieve a good mark on her last report – and you can’t tell me that there’s anything more rewarding than knowing you’ve made a difference for someone else.

    I think maybe at some point I should look into volunteering with new migrants, or even working in that sector one day.

    But to the point that I wanted to make… It was pretty common at uni for people to help each other out with assignments. I don’t mean those godawful collaborative projects; I mean just regular essays, the kind that require you to swallow a bunch of textbooks. Stuff like comparing content, proofing each other’s work, etc. I was a bit of a lone wolf especially academically, so I never did. Heck, I can count on the number of times I sought out one-on-one help from my tutors – that excludes my final year, of course, because that’s a whole new ball game.

    If you have trouble with academic writing, of course you’d take a course to brush up on the technique, and if English is your second language you might get a tutor. But the whole point of assignments is to assess YOUR work. So where does paying someone to polish your writing fall? Would it be different if it was someone who had English as a second language and struggled to write a cohesive paragraph, compared to your average student who’s too lazy to use spell check?

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  • June 2, 2010

    The Specsavers saga continues…

    So I know one commenter couldn’t say enough good things about Specsavers, but I can safely say that my experience has been well and truly the opposite.

    Let’s recap. I was underwhelmed by the service at my initial appointment. A week later I went back for a fitting of my new lenses – as usual, I got a phone call the night before to remind me of it.

    BUT, a couple hours before I was due to head over, I got a call about, er, making an appointment for a fitting. Apparently it hadn’t been noted that I was already booked in for one. That just screams unprofessionalism to me.

    Now, this is a brand new branch. Maybe they’re just having teething problems. But honestly, if they are so disorganised they can’t keep records of appointments straight, why would I trust them with the health of my eyes?

    That appointment went fine; I scheduled a final checkin for the following week. No phone reminder this time. I had a different optometrist this time around (for the record, he was a middle-aged Asian man, very professional and he actually seemed to listen when I answered his questions). There was a little bit of confusion when it came to placing the order for my lenses – the chart the optometrist had was different from the one the sales assistant had – but I left feeling pretty happy.

    UNTIL. Until I got a call not much later, saying that the optometrist (a locum – might explain why he seemed so much more onto it during the appointment) was unfamiliar with their suppliers, and they couldn’t actually order in the particular brand after all. I could go for a different brand, which was double the price but came with double the amount of lenses (6 instead of 3).

    The problem is, I’d still have to order two separate boxes because my eye prescriptions are different. And I ain’t going to pay over $300 in one hit for contacts when I’m not even sure how often I want to wear them! This is me, dipping my toes (eyeballs?) into the water, not committing to deep sea diving.

    Of course, I could pay them off over time, she said, as it was their mistake. But you know what, that’s just not in the budget, and I’m not willing to wear their screwup. I’m cancelling the order, and will probably buy my contacts online at some point…like, when I see a good deal. Contacts are handy when it’s raining, or incredibly sunny, but I no longer want to go out of my way for them. (Look out for an upcoming post detailing why!)

    UPDATE: In the interests of full disclosure, I have been back twice since this post. One, to cancel the order, only to be told that these were in fact the original $80 a box ones. I didn’t have time to stick around while she checked with management, though. Two, I returned to find that no, these actually were the $160 a box lenses, and finally got a refund for the $60 I’d already paid toward them. Lovely, apologetic sales assistants, but the lack of communication and organisation  – horrendous.

  • June 1, 2010

    May – 2010 goal progress

    Save 20 per cent of my income. I don’t think I quite made the 2o per cent threshold this month, because the majority of my take-home increase went towards our general living expenses and getting us out of overdraft. Once I get my next (and third) paycheck, which won’t have any overtime included, I’ll sit down and work out exactly how much of it I’ll be able to put away. Obviously I’d like to save all of it, but the raise came just in time to save our formerly-DINK-household asses. Ahh, those two or so months were glorious. Months that saw T’s car loan paid off and his savings increase, which is now back to, well, exactly where it was before.

    This month I also started my first term deposit (6 months, 5.1 per cent). I had just over $3k sitting untouched at RaboPlus, and figured why not take advantage of those rates. That leaves me $2k liquid in that account, and I’ll probably put another $1k into another term deposit in a couple of months. Laddering FTW!

    Try one new (to me) dinner recipe each week. I get to be the breadwinner. He gets to be the cook. But yes; where I only know how to make a few go-to meals, he’s the master of new twists and combinations.

    Run once a week. We had some of the worst weather EVER last week, so I kind of failed on this goal. It’s also looking pretty grim this week, so I’m going to have to make a real effort to squeeze in a run one morning if I want to make the June goal.

    Make an upwards career move. Officially done. Booyah.
    It’s amazing how great it feels to be rewarded for what you’re doing, and how I can now feel proud to talk about my work, rather than trying to gloss over it in conversation order to hide my dissatisfaction. Easily pleased?

    Donate to charity. The months are all blurring into each other, but my Visa statement shows I didn’t do this in May. Will have to make up for that in June.
    At least I’ve been playing a lot of freerice – it’s freaking awesome; where else can you brush up on your vocab, geography, art and other languages while simultaneously racking up donations? I’ve donated a LOT of grains of rice through the site, during moments of boredom at home and work. DO it – you know you want to! I’ve also donated a couple of bucks to Doctors without Borders through Opinion World.

    ** Don’t forget to pop over to this week’s edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance! Revanche was kind enough to include my post on crazy bargain deal sites. **
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  • June 1, 2010

    What I’m watching

    Three shows I’m loving:

    Avatar: The Legend of Aang. I’ve watched a fair few cartoons in my time. To give you an idea, I grew up in the age of Pokemon, Dragonball Z and the like. But none of them holds a candle to Avatar, which BF has got me hooked on! I tuned in late, sometime in the last season, but now I want to go back and watch all the episodes from the start. It’s a pretty generic plot – boy out to save the world – but the characters make it. There’s so much humour, they have cool element manipulation powers and come on, there’s a flying bison!

    The Big Bang Theory. Words can’t express how much I heart Sheldon and Leonard. (I mean, I wouldn’t want to date either, but I’d totally befriend them.) This show has the BEST writers and the BEST lines, hands down.

    Top Chef. I love seeing all the insane dishes they come up with and scoffing at how douchey some of the contestants are. BF has a real talent for coming out with new combinations and sensing what textures and flavours marry well; I have none of that. Hopefully watching more Top Chef will help 😀 But if not, his culinary skills are good enough for us both.

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  • May 30, 2010

    Inequal relationships

    Remember how I blogged about essentially giving myself a pay rise? Well, I officially now have a new position too. To clarify: I changed my work schedule a few months ago and took on some new duties. Now, my pay and title have finally caught up!

    I don’t know whether or not this was prompted by the universe in response to my looking elsewhere, but I also got a kick out of turning down the interview after news of the promotion.

    Of course, this changes the dynamics of my relationship. I’m on the up, while T is still jobhunting. As we see it, the best options are for him to hopefully get an in at a good company – perhaps not necessarily in engineering but in anything that he could excel at and ideally has some interest in – and work his way up; or to go back to school. (The other path is just to get any job, and probably continue in that manner for years and years. Obviously that’s not the preferred route.)

    Up until now, he’s been extremely lucky in his career, mainly due to contacts. But when that is stripped away, realistically, he has no qualifications and not a lot of work experience. And to make things worse, he’s never worked for minimum wage, and is used to making a decent hourly rate.

    I now make enough to at least pay the bills, but at times I resent it. The only reason I’m making this much is compensation for working weekends; it’s not going to last forever and whatever I do next is almost certainly going to involve a pay cut. So while I can, I’d really rather be saving the extra money than using it to, well, keep us afloat. That includes paying out the nose for gas so he can go visit friends and family in our neighbourhood (something that’s a constant source of tension; I understand how boring it must be at home, but unless he’s doing something productive like driving to a job interview, there is simply no way to justify spending on petrol).

    So I veer between frustration, resentment and guilt. Because really, if I hadn’t landed that internship three years ago, who’s to say I’d have a job now at all? I could be the one sitting at home combing job boards. There but by the grace of God, and all that. Am I being selfish – shouldn’t I be committed enough to see us through the hard times as well as the good? After all, I know he would give his last cent to help me out if the situation was reversed. That’s the kind of person he is.

    I wonder if maybe he could venture into some sort of self-employment. While I’m hardly in a lucrative field, at least I have a couple of income streams, no matter how small. Along with mystery shopping, there’s my side gig (writing)
    and tutoring (or rather editing and proofreading). Mine may not be skills that command big bucks but at least they’re somewhat marketable.

    I am a great believer in things working themselves out, but it gets harder every day. The odds of obtaining a job that hits that magic trifecta: stimulating, fairly compensated and with room to grow – are slim. And there’s no use in going back to school without a clear idea of what to study. The whole topic is just so MEHGAHBLEH that I just try avoid it full stop – which is really not ideal.

    How do you handle a situation like this?

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