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Browsing tag: money

  • March 17, 2010

    Surviving on a fluctuating income

    When I first started trying to budget, I didn’t know how to deal with irregular expenses. I didn’t know how to deal with the fact that our income fluctuated (sometimes as much as a couple of hundred dollars – not enough to seriously derail us though). I can’t tell you how many times I gave up before realising that budgets are not static: they need constant tweaking, and adjusting mine week by week is the way to go.
    Life is easier now that our incomes have stabilised. But not everyone has the luxury of being able to count on a regular paycheck. So I asked myself: what would I do if I was facing having to live on a freelance income?


    Working out realistically the minimum I’d expect to make, and budgeting the essentials from that amount.     In the past I was always been able to count on getting my student allowance, at least ($190 a week). If nothing else, that was enough to pay rent and buy food and a bus pass. Money over that amount would then be allotted to other things in order of priority.


    Save as much as possible in the flush periods and build a hefty slush fund     – not just a fund for emergencies, but one to tide you over between late paychecks and unpaid invoices. If need be, you could borrow from yourself in that in-between period.  You can also get idea about how to save money by visiting geld sparen.

    Cutting expenses as much as possible – especially the fixed ones. Rent, utilities, insurance. Big, regular bills are the enemy of an irregular income. Then again, so are big irregular bills, hence the need for the aforementioned slush fund. It might be worth investigating whether your utilities company has a bill-smoothing option, where you pay the same amount each month based on your estimated annual bill.

    In short, most of the things anyone starting a budget should do – getting out of the paycheck to paycheck cycle and getting ahead, rather than always trying to catch up on bills. Just with a lot more emphasis on saving.
    What are your tips for budgeting on a freelance/irregular income?

  • March 5, 2010

    A little extra never hurt

    Turns out I’ve made an extra $130 this week! Sweet.

    Monday saw me giving up my evening for a two hour focus group on frozen foods. I walked out $70 later and with a somewhat fuller tummy. (I guess spending a couple grand on face to face research is a drop in the bucket, although the fee seemed pretty generous to me.) I’m always a bit nervous going into those kinds of things; I always worry I won’t have anything to contribute to the discussion, but this was a small group and they were all really friendly. Seriously, you’d think I was still 11 instead of 21 sometimes.

    Also, it turns out I was $60 in credit on my old Telecom account. I only found this out when the new tenant at our old house called to tell me that she couldn’t get a phone line set up, because apparently I hadn’t properly disconnected our line when we left. But I had. And somehow, that account was in credit, which they transferred to our current account and halved this month’s bill 🙂

  • March 4, 2010

    Writing off bad debt

    The other day, I started thinking about how many times we’ve written off money as a sunk cost.

    For example, everything my heinous ex-flatmate owes me (to the tune of almost $900).

    I also left one of my earlier flats a few years back on bad terms, and didn’t even ask for my bond back. It was two weeks’ worth, so about $250, but I really didn’t want to get into a fight about it.

    Then late last year, T seemingly got paid for a month at his PT coaching job. The first month went fine. Then a new company took over everything, including the payroll. He gave his notice literally on that second payday, which then was apparently RETRACTED. But it was only around $130, and neither of us wanted to waste our time with a shitfight with the new, underhanded company. We moved on.

    And finally, we’re still waiting for T to get paid for his one-off gig working at Matakana on New Year’s Eve. That’s probably worth $200 or so. I’m not holding my breath, but at least it’s not affecting our bottom line.

    Have you ever written off money owed to you?

  • March 3, 2010

    February roundup

    This month I did something a little different and tracked every single expense by hand. I just wanted a really accurate picture of our spending, and although it started off kinda fun, I soon fell behind and it became more of a chore. I’m pretty sure I didn’t miss anything off – here’s hoping – and certainly nothing major. What was nice was having the flexibility to make up categories of my own! It inspired me to finally get my butt into gear and add three new classifications in my online banking tracker (you’re allowed to add four of your own maximum).

    • We’ll have his car loan paid off this month, and I can’t wait! There’s nothing worse than paying interest on something that you no longer even HAVE.
    • It looks like he blew of a lot fun money, but $50 of that was for his ticket to a Shapeshifter gig, which accounts for nearly half of it.
    • Misc. items include donations, a bug bomb for our room, and a haircut for him.
    • Grocery spending looks REALLY good this month! Dining looks in line at just over $30 a week, although T is averaging a similar amount in lunch money.  I try to corral him into making SOME of his own lunches, but it doesn’t always happen. He also doesn’t always have access to kitchen facilities if he’s working on sites, so that narrows down options.
    • I bought a lot of things this month for various mystery shops – Lotto tickets, some goodies from Lush, pizza, and three meals and a beer. I’m only waiting on about $60 in reimbursements at this stage.

    In extra income, I made $355 from my second job (which went towards our Waiheke trip) and netted $166.41  from mystery shopping after purchases. That went towards a pretty summer dress ($30) and the rest was split between our ‘bills’ account and savings.

    GOALS RECAP:

    Save 20 per cent – DONE

    One new recipe each week – Major, major fail.

    Run once a week – Done, barring last week when we went away… but at least I got some swimming in!

    Make an upwards career move – Done, to an extent. I’m still not counting this as fully achieved.

    Donate to charity – Done in cash, canned food to the foodbank, dollars earned through an online survey site, and some old clothes for a child cancer appeal.

  • March 2, 2010

    By the numbers

    Some interesting numbers in this week’s Sunday paper:

    The latest wage figures in Australia show those across the Tasman earn an average NZ$1574 a week – an increase of 5.9 per cent over the year. In New Zealand, the average wage is $955.

    That is a MASSIVE disparity. And I doubt their cost of living is that much higher. Then again, our media does love those ‘you’d be so much better off in Aussie” stories.

    The “average” Kiwi male is getting older, marrying later or not at all and isn’t thinking about babies until the early 30 mark. He’s 35 years old, earns $681 a week, gets married at 29 and dies at 78.

    The typical Kiwi woman is a little older than him at 37, earns $430 a week, marries at 28 and is likely to have two children.

    Again, a pretty big gap there between the “average” (what a baited word) male and female wages. Seriously, $430 a week? Even after tax, that’s pretty dismal. I assume though, that takes into account all the nonworking and part-time workers, of which there’d be a lot more women than men.

  • February 25, 2010

    There are no gains without risk

    “I’ve lost $8k in the market this year.”

    So says an acquaintance of mine, who’s been in the police force for a couple of years and benefited from their wicked super scheme. Something along the lines of 7.5%, matched by the employer. It’s okay, though – he still has a hefty amount left, enough for a new car, at least, and more than I’ve ever known anyone my age to have invested.

    We don’t see each other often, but the conversation always turns to work and money. I don’t know if it’s because we’re the odd ones out in our crowd, working fulltime, or perhaps he likes to compare where he’s at relative to me (and it’s pretty much always going to beat me, guaranteed!).

    Then another guest at the party chimed in with disbelief that people would put their money into something that could potentially LOSE what they put in. Imagine! Madness!

    I tried to explain to him that if you’re going to be investing anyway, why wouldn’t you join Kiwisaver? If you’re going to be investing your money, why the hell wouldn’t you want to accept free money from your company and from the state while you’re at it? It’s about freaking time we got some sort of organised retirement scheme in place, and yet, so many are wary of it.

    But there is no other way to get ahead. Keeping your money in the bank won’t keep you ahead of inflation. Property, as much as Kiwis love brick and mortar, can drop in value just like the markets can. THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES. Except the fact that NOT investing will guarantee that you won’t beat inflation in the long run. And that’s why we put our money into managed funds, or invest directly into the market, because over the long run we’re likely to make bigger returns.

    Personally, I think joining KS is a no-brainer. But I understand that a lot of people don’t know about investing. Maybe their parents didn’t invest, or even save, and they go their whole lives repeating that pattern. All you can really say to them is, do you want to rely on the government in your old age? Do you trust them to look after you, and do you think superannuation is going to let you live a comfortable life?

  • February 24, 2010

    Blog awards and second thoughts

    Hey, guess what? I’ve been nominated for best personal finance international blog in the Plutus Awards – talk about a nice surprise to come back to after a weekend away (blog post on that coming soon)!

    I have no doubt that Man vs Debt will take it out (he kicks some blogging ass) but I’m honoured to have been mentioned at all.

    Fittingly, I’m actually talking finances today. To be specific, I’m rethinking my choice of Kiwisaver fund. If you’re in NZ, no doubt you’ve seen stories about how Peter Huljich put some of his own money into the fund, apparently to compensate for what he felt were some poor investment decisions.

    I don’t pretend to understand what it all means, but it seems to me that their reported returns were boosted by the cash injections. There’s a disclaimer in the latest Morningstar report, discounting their figures, as a result of this. (Oh, and last year there was also news about pushy Huljich salespeople going door to door, which is illegal. Nothing to do with the fund’s performance, but it’s a personal thing – I don’t like people pushing things in my face, and I disagree with that tactic.)

    The reason I originally chose Huljich, despite their higher fees, was their performance to date. Right now, I’m not sure whether it’s best to wait and see (although I believe T’s account is already with them, mine is still with the IRD and won’t be transferred to Huljich for a couple of months yet) or switch now to another fund – probably sticking with one of the bigger names this time. Ugh…not looking forward to combing through all the prospectuses (prospectii?) again!

    (I’m not a financial professional nor certified to give advice; I’m just a twentysomething trying to navigate through the grownup world.)

  • February 19, 2010

    Job update: Me

    So it’s my turn to update you on the job front!

    I don’t know if this TECHNICALLY counts as achieving my goal of an upwards career move. What I can tell you is I now have the security of a fulltime contract. My title hasn’t changed, but I will have a bit more responsibility, and presumably the opportunity to really prove myself on the weekends. I do get a raise – almost 10% – which seems fair and I’m happy with. Next time around, I’d like to crack 40k – so close, yet so far. I’ll also be salaried, so I’ll know exactly how much I get each pay cycle. No OT, though – boo.

    The big change is my working hours. Wednesday to Sunday, and I’ll be working the afternoon shift on the weekends. But I’m not signing on for the rest of my life. It’s not like I have a roaring social life, and in fact, I think this could actually help me be more social. It’s way too easy for me to come home after work, shower, eat, and then decide I can’t be assed going all the way back to town, for example. Or even when it’s just an occasion in the burbs, sometimes, if I’m completely honest. And it sure beats working the night shift, or the early shift (6.30am? Hell to the no).

    What does suck is having opposite days off from T (no full days to spend together, no spur of the moment day or weekend trips) and different shifts (he starts around 7). We’ll have to organise a schedule that allows us to spend our evenings together rather than doing cooking or housework. And grocery shopping will probably have to be done on a weekend morning before work, or possibly left to him sometimes (eek!)

    Assuming he does 40hour weeks, that should make us a 70k plus income household. Crazy! (What’s also crazy is perhaps the fact his hourly rate is nearly the same as mine, and has been higher in the past. And I have a degree! But such is the nature of the industry… and he’s not unskilled by any means).

    I feel like things are finally, slowly, starting to come together.

    Did I mention that we’ll be moving soon, and I can pretty much guarantee that we’ll be paying more rent wherever we go? Our rent right now is really cheap (shared house) – the downside of course is dealing with flatmates and the resulting drama. So the timing couldn’t be better.

    Thank you, universe.

  • February 16, 2010

    The best laid plans…

    I didn’t get much of a break over the holiday period. I pretty much worked through Christmas and New Year’s, with only the statutory days off. (The one thing I did do was spend a night at the Duxton on New Year’s Day).

    So I was really excited to book a weekend at Punga Lodge on Waiheke Island – it’s top of my travel list, and with summer coming to an end, I didn’t want to miss out and wait till the end of the year.

    The finances SHOULD have been no problem. I had pretty much the exact amount sitting in my travel account (barring extra food, activities, etc over there).

    BUT. There’s always a but. T still has not been paid from his New Year’s job. First there was some internal drama, now his contact who got him the job has gone overseas, and who knows when it’s going to be sorted out. Therefore, I paid for our New Year’s Day hotel break out of the travel account. That pretty much halved it.

    Then last week I paid the deposit on the lodge, which was $182.50. That pretty much left the account at zero.

    THEN. I was expecting to be paid this week from my side job (another $355.) But I wasn’t. Account is still at zero. I may just have to pay for the other half of the booking out of my savings account and wait till my second job gets around to paying my invoice.

    Grrrrrr.

    (Oh yeah, I finally dug up my old, old post on my shoe collection, since everyone else has been posting theirs! This is from almost a year ago, but there have only been a couple of changes since then – added a black pump with chunky geometric heels, and replaced my pointy black flats. And retired my black ballet flats; I’m on the lookout for a replacement…)

  • February 7, 2010

    Getting paid – how hard can it be?

    Ugh. For the second time in a row, the powers that be have managed to royally screw up my pay. I’m talking along the lines of halving my paycheck, missing off an entire week (I am on the fortnightly cycle), which is quite frankly, ridiculous.

    The majority of our employees are salaried. There are only a couple of us who fill out timesheets. I understand that it must be really tedious for our HR lady to input our hours on a Monday morning, and yes, I had two sick days off in the last pay cycle which could have caused a little confusion, but how difficult is it to get things right?

    What’s really frustrating is that this is an all too frequent occurrence. There’ll be months when everything goes smoothly, and then BAM! A series of pay periods where things go haywire for no rhyme or reason. At least this time I could kind of work out what went wrong; there have been times where completely random amounts of hours have been missed off.

    I’m not going to starve here; it’s just a minor annoyance. I hate having to email HR all the time to ask them to check my timesheets again (don’t get me wrong, I’m not rude or abusive – I try to strike a deferential tone because really, do you want to piss off HR?).

    I guess the good thing about being salaried is avoiding situations precisely like this. Although things like using up all your sick leave and having to take unpaid time off instead (it’s happened to people I know) can throw a spanner in the works too.

    Do you ever have problems with payroll?

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