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An eye for a face
Some people never forget a face.
I not only have a terrible memory for names, I’m seriously crippled when it comes to recalling faces. I did this test for prosopagnosia (inability to recognise faces) and scored somewhere in the middle, but quite frankly that means diddly squat to me.
See, I was assigned to cover a live demonstration the other week, and I briefly met the videographer who I’d be working with the day beforehand. We made arrangements to meet up, and on the next day, as I made my way to the office, I nearly walked into a man on the footpath. I stopped. He stopped. We looked at each other. He had a camera on and was sort of the same age and colouring as the video guy. But for the life of me, I couldn’t remember what he looked like, and if this was the guy. I was about to say something to him, and thankfully stopped myself. I carried on to my work building, and I swear by the time I got there I was convinced I’d just snubbed the videographer and wanted to run back and apologise.
Then I got a call from him. He was waiting in the carpark. And you know what, he didn’t even look all that much like the guy I nearly ran down.
I. Am. Hopeless.
Getting the chop
Confession: I haven’t cut my hair since the start of the year.
Honestly, I like low maintenance styles; I want to be able to get up, brush my hair and go. No six-weekly trims for me, no colouring, no curling, the less fuss the better IMO.
Did I mention that I’m completely unable to do anything with it? I can’t style my hair to save my life.
I first got short hair early last year. It was a long bob, and I was absolutely petrified. a) because my mum has always had short hair, and I associate short hair with, uh, older people and b)well, I’d always had long hair and never knew any other way.
But you know what? I loved it and now I’m a convert. I managed to put up with my growing locks all year, telling myself I’d get around to it when I was less busy, or when Rodney Wayne was advertising for hair models, but neither ever happened. I couldn’t take the split ends anymore, or the flat, manky strands that just hung around my face. And there’s only so long you can keep wearing a ponytail every day.
I don’t have a regular hairdresser (my entire family used to go to this man in New Lynn, and then I managed to score a string of free haircuts from random trainee hairdressers, and most recently from a friend at hairdressing school. She’s graduated now, though and works at a swanky place by the beach). So I was pretty pleased to spot a sign for a salon called Ocean Blue on Elliott St advertising $25 cuts!
I’m pleased to say that they were pretty good value for money. (They do charge extra for shampoo, though). They seem to cater to a lot of immigrants, as one of their sales points is the multiple languages the staff speak, and seeing as most of them are Asian, they understand my hair (woohoo!). And they don’t try to make small talk with you – never been a fan of having conversations while my hair is being lopped off. It’s traumatic enough being in the chair as it is.
So I’m back to cropped hair – it’s not as good as my last cut, which had longer bits at the front to soften up my jaw, but it’ll do. Nothing worse than long heavy hair weighing you down in the heat!
Car loan
We’re slowly making progress towards killing T’s evil car loan…
As of this month, he brings in anywhere from $160 to $300 a week for now, and anything over about the $200 mark will be snowballed to his car loan (currently about $1000). Paying it back at $31 a week leaves 8 months to go. But if we can add $50 a week to that amount, and if someone buys the last of our Levin parts (useless buyer flaked out and didn’t come through) that could seriously be gone in half the time.
Living Almost Large wrote about balancing retirement and debt payoff the other day. I’m all for starting early, but he really hasn’t started the former, and there’s no point until at least this car loan is paid back.
He was automatically enrolled into Kiwisaver earlier this year – at a job that lasted all of one month – and now at least has an account. He’s also received the $1000 govt. kickstart and a couple of weeks of personal and employer contributions. When he can, I’d like to make extra contributions, since anything up to $20 a week will be matched…but I know which is the priority for now.
Young love: a horror story
I’ve blogged a couple of times about the love lives of some of my flatmates (all guys, slightly younger than me and T). No kidding, their dramas make me feel like a total grandma. And of course, grateful to be well past all that BS.
The youngest – let’s call him X – is a total pretty boy, and he’s had a tempestuous on/off relationship with GF1 for over a year. During one of their recent off periods, he got with GF2, and when he and GF1 reconciled, he kept seeing GF2 in secret. I’m talking coming around to the house, hanging out in the lounge, putting her hands all over him, but NEVER being allowed in his room because that’s where he kept photos of him and GF1.(And for some incomprehensible reason, she likes to bring over one of her equally skanky friends as well – is this a new thing, tagging along to your friend’s boyfriend’s house to watch them get it on? Where you don’t even know anyone else who lives there?)
At first we stood back and looked on, shaking our heads at his nerve and wondering when the house of cards was gonna come tumbling down.I mean, surely one day he was bound to have one of the girls turn up and catch him in the act. Especially when he went to a party where BOTH of them were in attendance and both knew the host.
And then I found out that BOTH girls knew about each other. And neither had pounded the other to death. In fact, they were both fine with it – they seemed happy to share.
I have nothing more to say. Just had to share. You’re welcome.
Photo / Katie Tegtmeyer
Midweek musings
I know a girl from the States, an international student over here, with a bunch of different student loans (most of them private). She was featured in an article in our student mag saying that her repayments on all of them, once she graduates, could be around $500 PER WEEK! That’s a full-time wage right there!
Stories like that make me so grateful to have been given a scholarship. My school was one of many with links to AUT, with two specific scholarships designated just for us. I earned one of them…and can’t actually remember who got the other one. Shame on me!
I’ve actually been meaning to write a thankyou note to the scholarships office; I finally did that a couple of months ago. I’m not sure if anyone would have even read it, but it was something I felt I should do because I’m going to graduate debt free, which is something not many can say.
Granted, my savings are pretty dismal. All up I have less than $4k – I’m owed close to a grand by ex-heinous-flatmate which I’ll never see, and a few hundred by T. But I’m going to be putting 4% into Kiwisaver, and I’m aiming to save 20% of my income. If T was working full time, this would be a lot higher, but c’est la vie.
Just by the by, (tentatively), he’s set his sights on an apprenticeship in automotive fabrication. Next step: creating a knockout CV and approaching potential employers. Any tips on how best to approach a busy workshop – phone, in person, etc, chime in! I’m thinking it would be best to call up, find out who makes the hiring decisions, and try to speak to them on the phone, followed by sending in a CV or a face to face meeting.
November spending
Seeing as ASB has this handy tracking tool, I’m going to start making regular use of it!
Here’s what November looked like. Debt repayments are higher than usual, as T put an extra $100 towards his car loan, plus an unexpected $20 tax refund that showed up in his account.
We’re still spending a bit on eating out – definitely need to make sure we’re buying enough on our grocery shops so we don’t run out by the weekend and waste money on takeaways.
Entertainment includes both of our new cellphones and our monthly topup, and we paid our quarterly contents insurance bill.
I saved about $250, but excluded it from the graph because it was part of another transaction – otherwise it would’ve shown up as over $1000 saved! That’s the only drawback – each transfer can only be classified to one category, even if you bought, say, gas and food in one swipe. (That’s what weekly roundups are for, though I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be doing those…).
December will probably look a little out of kilter, what with the silly season and all, but we’re doing gift hampers for our families – baskets have been bought, and we’re planning to bake a lot of stuff – and just need to shop for T’s brother/nieces, and his mother, who’s getting an antique trinket box.
LINK LOVE
Carnivals I participated in this week: Carnival of Money Stories – My Financial Dreams’ Edition and The Carnival of Personal Finance #233!
What’s in my purse
Following on from Krystal, Frugal Dreamer and the Asian Pear sharing the contents of their purses 🙂
- Wallet – black leather, given to me as a gift
Dictaphone – brought it out to cover a live event last week but just ended up taking notes; much easier
Notebook
Headphones (they plug into my phone so I can listen to stored music, of which I have non, or my radio)
Postits (not too sure what they’re doing in here…)
Mints
Keys
Swipe card for work
Hand cream (aka lifesaver)
Eye drops (ditto)
Little sample perfume vial
Lip gloss
Eyeliner
Invoice for academic regalia, with pickup/dropoff dates highlighted
Blogger crisis
I’m starting to realise I have no particular niche, in this blog, in my personal life and in my professional life. I’m not hardcore PF – I don’t do spreadsheets, I don’t do fancy graphs, or read the big PF writers. I like looking at pretty clothes and shoes, but in nobody’s universe am I a fashionista; I don’t keep up with couture, I don’t know designers. I’m not a hardcore media junkie, I don’t listen to talkback and watch TV. I can’t claim to be a muso.. I don’t even play anything anymore, or keep up with new music as I dislike so much of it.
I’ve also been thinking about making this more of a ‘life’ blog, more personal (photos, etc) and combining in reviews and my portfolio – a little like what Amber has going on. That’s all the stuff I currently host on my posterous blog, which is home to my published work and other bits and pieces. Posterous is neat, but it doesn’t really lend itself to what I want. It’s a simple, bare bones interface; there are no pages, only posts. I’d probably import it all here, cutting out the hassle of maintaining two different blogs.
I’m pretty wary of no longer being anonymous though, given that I’m in the media/publishing field. Part of the reason I don’t post so frequently on my other blog is because I devote more energy here, and because I’m so acutely aware that everything I publish to my name is going to be scrutinised and could be seen by my bosses and future employers as a journalist (ie., no swearing like a sailor a’la Nicole, although IMO it simply adds to her cutting wit). But at the same time, blogs can definitely play a part in getting you noticed and getting a job.
Here’s to NOT eating cat food when I’m 65
Exciting (if dorky) news – I finally joined Kiwisaver!
I haven’t had my first deductions yet so I don’t know how much exactly it will be, but given that I’m contributing 4% and should make $1320 in an average fortnight, I should be putting in $52.80 per paycheck. After tax this would be $1056, leaving me $1003 take home.
So in 6 months I should have… $2788, excluding fees, gains and taxes.
Of this, less than half would have come from my contributions, thanks to the generous initial incentives.
$792 – me
$396 – employer
$1000 – government kickstart
$600 – tax credits
Even if my fulltime hours don’t last beyond the next few months, at least I’ll have contributed a decent amount in that time!
(I would do the math for a year’s worth, but I really, really don’t want to jinx it).
After a lot of tossing back and forth, I decided to go with Huljich in their growth investment fund.
Seeing as Kiwisaver is only a couple of years old, none of the funds have much of a track record. But Huljich has performed well, in all of their schemes. I based this off information on fundsource.co.nz and this Morningstar survey.
I also switched T over to Huljich, moving him from one of the six default government schemes (AMP). Huljich’s high fees worry me a bit, given he’s not actively contributing, but even if returns don’t continue as they have been at least he still got a free thousand dollars in there.
KIWISAVER 101
There’s a wealth of Kiwisaver info out there, so I’ve just done a quick roundup here. A quick Google search should tell you anything more you need to know, or Sense to Dollars has done a nice series on joining up and picking a provider.
Kiwisaver is made up of:
- your contributions
- your employer contributions
- the government kickstart
- the government tax credit
You can contribute 2%, 4% or 8%. Your KiwiSaver contributions are calculated on your before-tax pay, but deducted from your after-tax pay. (Yeah…still scratching my head a bit on that one).
You also still pay tax on the full amount that you earn. Let’s say you earn $500 a week. You contribute 4% ($20), but will be taxed on the full $500.
(I definitely recommend the Sorted calculator for playing around with contribution levels and future projections!)
Your company will make contributions of 2%, and the government will stump up a tax-free $1000 three months after you join, plus up to $1,042.86 a year in what they like to call member tax credits. This is untaxed and will be claimed on your behalf by your fund provider in July each year. If you join KiwiSaver part-way through a membership year (1 July to 30 June), you get a tax credit for the portion of the year that you’ve been a member.
GETTING YOUR HANDS ON IT
Withdrawals are tax free. You’re eligible to withdraw funds at age 65. Alternatively, you can withdraw your funds if you are:
– buying your first house (you can take out your contributions and your company contributions, but not any the government contributions. you could also get a subsidy of up to $5000)
– suffering significant financial hardship (you can take out your contributions and your company contributions, but not the government contributions)
– seriously ill or disabled (you can withdraw all of the funds in your account)
– moving overseas permanently (you can withdraw your contributions, your company contributions and the government $1000 kickstart, but not the government tax credits)
SIGNING UP
To sign up, ask your employer for a KiwiSaver employee information pack (KS3) and fill it out. Your details go off to the IRD and you’ll be temporarily allocated to your employer’s chosen scheme, if they have one, or one of the six default KiwiSaver schemes. The IRD will hold your contributions and your employer contributions, and pay interest on them. Within 3 months of your first contribution you get the option to choose your own scheme (this is about the time you get the $1000 kickstart) and will then be enrolled with them.
OR, you can join directly through your provider of choice, which is what I did. Again, the IRD will hold your contributions for three months with interest, throw in the kickstart after 3 months, and then hand it over to the provider.
You’ll be automatically enrolled if you start a new job. You can opt out if you do so between 2-8 weeks. This is the ONLY time you can opt out of the scheme.
If you’re self-employed or not working, you can sign up and make payments directly to your provider. Some have minimum contribution requirements, so do your research if you’re going down this path.
MAKING A COMMITMENT
Once you’re in, you’re in life, basically. You can apply for a contributions holiday to the IRD of three months or more. Your employer will stop contributing as well, although you can continue to make voluntary ones.
There’s no limit to the number of times you can take a contributions holiday and you can renew it at any time. Generally, you do have to wait a year from the time you first join to apply for a holiday, unless you get into dire financial straits.
Phew! There’s quite a bit to wrap your head around at first, but it’s really not too complicated. I’m going with the set it and forget it route. Given that not only you and your employer contribute, but the government does too, it’s a pretty sweet deal.
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