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Browsing tag: money

  • August 19, 2009

    Kiwisaver – Need advice!

    Calling on all you PF/math/Kiwisaver experts to throw your thoughts in the ring.

    Here’s how it is: One Kiwisaver account. Current balance is just over 1000, thanks to the govt. kickstart. No foreseeable future employer contributions. We will try to contribute (probably irregularly, and in minimal amounts, but really can’t promise anything). Main goal is probably just not to lose too much money. I’ve done a quick comparison of rates and fees from various providers – some from default funds and some from balanced funds, as below. Given the small account balance, I’m thinking it’s better to go with the lower annual rate and the higher percentage fees.

    Flat $50p/a
    $30p/a, plus 0.37% in fees
    $36p/a, plus 0.55% in fees
    $34.20p/a, plus 0.75% in fees
    $24p/a, plus plus 0.965% in fees

    Untitled

    (I did include some other providers, Fidelity, Tower and Grosvenor to name a few. But in the narrowing down process I eliminated them from the chart.)

    Recommendations?

  • August 17, 2009

    Tax refund

    I’m still waiting to hear back from taxrefunds.co.nz. I applied over a month ago and haven’t heard a peep! So much for the “five working days”. I get that they’re backlogged, but they need to keep us in the loop.

    It’s the first time I’ve ever gone through a tax agent. I’ve always done it myself through the IRD. All was well until last year I got stung for $500. Ouch. Why? Who the hell knows. Does anyone actually understand the tax system? Why can’t we just be taxed correctly throughout the year so there’s no owage or refunds come May?

    BF just confirmed his personal tax summary, so that’s a cool $260 something. Now, how to allocate it?

    I’m thinking something roughly:

    Visa – $80

    Car loan – $50

    Car fund – $60

    Savings – $40

    Fun – $30

  • August 16, 2009

    I love ASB!

    I don’t actually keep very detailed track of my money. I use SimpleD to allocate what will be spent on what every week, and I use Fastnet internet banking to transfer money and keep on top of things. I don’t do Excel…I don’t do Money, Quicken, or other third party programmes. 33percent doesn’t support ASB, Who Stole My Money costs if you want any of the decent features, and frankly I’m wary of the security involved with downloading my financial info. It’s all just been too much effort.

    But now ASB has its own spending trackers in Fastnet!! Voila! I don’t even know how often I’ll use it, if ever. But when i saw this, I just had to have a go. I played around with it briefly tonight – so much fun! Graphs, colours, coding different types of transactions…..a PF dream.

    Screenshots… bank

    Kind of sad to realise how much we spent on ‘dining’….as well as an extensive list of categories, you can add up to four of your own. That might not be enough for some people, though.

    bank2

    Another thing I’m REALLY SUPER EXCITED ABOUT (see below right) is the fact that we can now use references on transactions between accounts. it’s GREAT news for me. I’m constantly transferring money between my accounts, and not being able to remember what each was for often got really confusing. I’d be left wondering what that $50 was for, or if I’d remembered to save bill money that week, or if I’d transferred money for groceries or if that was for the prior week. Now, I can label them “power bill” “jeans” or “insurance”. Woop woop!

    bank3

  • August 5, 2009

    Last month I blogged about making a little money online. Smilecity, which I’ve been using forever, used to have three regular ways to earn points. A daily ‘quick survey, daily web click and a weekly web click. Plus of course the surveys and reward emails from time to time.

    Then they redesigned the site, which IMO is still more difficult to navigate and makes it harder to find things. They also removed the weekly web click at the same time – not a biggie, just something I noticed and thought a little stingy.

    But the cutbacks continue. Sort of. I thought that the daily quick survey had also disappeared when I logged on last week and didn’t see it on the front page in its normal place. But after a bit of hunting around, I found it – lurking under the Earn tab, for anyone who cared to look deeper.

    Hmmm. Sneaky much?

  • July 30, 2009

    Sneaky billing charges

    Has anyone else noticed the due dates on your bills changing?

    My Energy Online bill has always been due on the 25th of the month. A couple of times this was extended to the 27th, because the 25th fell on a weekend day presumably. This month the 25th was on a Saturday, but instead of moving the due date to the 27th, they brought it forward to the 24th.

    Don’t know about my Visa bill – I never take note, as I make transfers to it every week anyway.

    But conversely, my Telecom bill has actually extended its cycle, giving me a couple more days to pay. Weird.

  • July 30, 2009

    Field trip and missed skiing opportunity

    I’m down in Whakatane for a week, from Sunday.new_desktop_f13

    Why? Well, my internship is now over, and part of second semester involves going on a field trip and spending  a week working on the regional papers.

    I get back on the Friday – the same Friday a group of friends are going down to the snow for four days. Obviously we won’t be going. We don’t have a grand lying around to blow, I’m not sure about driving down there, I will still be away on the Friday, and after a week away from home I would just want to spend the weekend at home, regrouping. And to be honest, I’m glad. Even if it was an option, I don’t want to go with the people who are going. Two of them are a couple, who are good friends of ours (although not so much since a certain drama at the start of the year. Awkward). Most of the rest are friends of the couple and by default BF and to a much, MUCH lesser extent me. They’re all lovely! Don’t get me wrong. It’s just there are a couple of other people (okay, girls. Man I sound like such a woman hater, especially after that recent post about bitchy so called friends) who I’m not really friends with and not super keen to spend time with. They’re just not my kind of people – nothing personal – and four days is a long time.

    Very proud of BF, though. First he was all, “We need to find a grand in the next month!” Something he knows we can’t do. His friend jokingly suggested selling the car. Guess what BF responded with?

    “Ah, but that would need to go towards paying off the old car.”

    OMG!!! LIGHTS! APPLAUSE!

    That’s the most PF-y thing he’s ever said! The boy is learning. I’m so proud of him.

    He added “It’s nearly paid off.” Which is true, I suppose. Less than $2k to go, from just over 4k.

  • July 25, 2009

    Money matters (for couples)

    We all know how important it is to be on the same page financially with your other half. However you choose to do that – whether it’s combined, separate or something in between finances, with one person taking care of most of the details or both being equally involved – isn’t as important as actually heading in the same direction, together.

    But how far would you go to help out your significant other? How much would you lend him/her? (I don’t mean for frivolities, I mean for unexpected expenses, or other expenses they might not be able to cover at the time). Would you ever gift them money, if you were in such a position? Would you be willing to help them towards any debt he/she might have? And how does that change whether you are seriously committed, cohabiting or married?

  • July 24, 2009

    Duh!

    We may soon be paying more ACC levies on older cars. It’s all about safety, apparently. Never mind it’s penalising people who a) choose to drive older cars, and put the rest of their money to use elsewhere and b) simply cannot afford anything newer.

    “If there’s a greater risk associated with it then that’s just what goes with it. People are making choices every day as to the risks they choose to take and if they choose to be in an older, less safe car, then is it fair that the rest of the community meets the cost of that risk?”

    Uh, no. Some of us make choices to buy cars that we can AFFORD.

    We choose cars that we don’t have to go into debt to finance. That may mean being in an older or less safe car. It means driving carefully and safely, as everyone should be anyway. Again, this is penalising the less well off, who can’t afford to purchase near new cars.

    Dog and Lemon Guide editor (great resource – a must have book if you’re car-hunting):

    “It’s not going to change the behaviour of the people most likely to cause accidents and it’s simply rewarding rich people and punishing poor people.

    “The simplest way to ensure that poor people drive safer cars is to ensure that government departments buy the safest cars in their class.“

    Thank god. Someone with a brain.

  • July 22, 2009

    Weekend spending

    It’s been a  relatively spendy week. One of BF’s debts is paid off, leaving about $40 more a week wiggle room. I’m hoping we’ll be able to manage this well. I’d like to up the amount we put away every week for bills from 35 to 45. We also spend $50 in the middle of the month every month to top up our phones. In the other three weeks I’d like to put that amount (or close to it) to the Visa, to his car loan and to savings.

    After rent and bills, here’s what our spending looked like:

    – $7.80 for Subway
    – $10 for burgers (yep, we ate out TWICE. Tsk)
    – Approx $115 for groceries (90 at the supermarket, and 25 at the butcher and grocer)
    – $12 for some crazy heavy duty tape stuff, which went over the hole which appeared in the car exhaust. BF will be calling around wreckers on Monday to source a new exhaust. Huzzah…
    – And a whopping $70 for headphones *shamefaced*. Obviously these were to go with my iPod which I got on my birthday. The first week I borrowed the flatmate’s headphones, but then he wanted them back. So it was time to get my own! I was hoping to spend maybe $30. But BF insisted on getting GOOD quality ones, with the soft earbuds or else the ones that hook over your ears. I can’t STAND those things, and he realised they wouldn’t work when I wear glasses (which is most of the time, now). So we ended up having a stand off between a Panasonic pair and a Sony pair, both with the inner buds with three different sizes. Left JB Hifi almost $70 poorer, but with the best headphones I’ve ever had. They should last a bloody long time, and BF is happy – and yes, he will be using them a lot. I imagine we’ll be sharing the iPod about 50/50, so we both neded to be happy with the choice.

    We also made an extra $20 payment to the old car loan (!!) after BF sold off one of the parts. I’m hoping that since I listed it on TradeMe we’ll get more interest. I had been putting off doing so because I thought it cost $30, but in fact that only applies if you’re listing it under Cars (as opposed to creating a listing for a car part). Sweet! And that is why we ended up with an extra $30 to kick around, and why I finally gave in to BF and bought the pricier headphones.

  • July 18, 2009

    Sorted!

    Knowing that I’d be going away on field placement for a week has been sort of weighing on the back of my mind for most of the year. But I’m scheduled to take that week as paid leave, so as long as I remember to get the forms signed by the boss, I’ll be covered!

    That just leaves the past two unpaid weeks to be accounted for. I sure as hell don’t know how people can afford to take unpaid internships for months at a time!

    Over the past few months I’ve put away maybe $150-200 in anticipation of that, and I worked a full week last month which I got paid PROPERLY for (hurrah! I was afraid payroll might not be able to handle the increase in hours, and I’d have to spend ages chasing them). I must say, it was weird being at “work” now and not getting paid for it. I was there as an intern, not as a staff member, and in that capacity was there for free. It’s tiring, it’s draining, but such is the nature of gaining work experience and “furthering my career”, as the boss says.

    Out of the extra I made for working that whole week (which included a little overtime) I socked away another $350.  I’ll still be getting student allowance for the two weeks, so I just need around $170-180 pw ($340 – 360) on top of that. Easy breezy; don’t know why I was so worried.

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