Off to the US!

I leave for the US on Monday. T-minus 3 days - USA here I come!

Edited to add on Tuesday 12 August: Important announcement - My flatmate is OUT! (well, moving out in 3 weeks). woohoo! 

I'm in the US now - I won't be posting much.

July 2025 Update: From Bad to Worse

 Life Update

Oh gosh, where do I even start. It's been a bad month overall, although I had my birthday and some wonderful friends to celebrate it with. 

PhD & WORK 

• The monster is BACK!!! The Uni said that my PhD was not formatted correctly and FOUR MONTHS after submitting, they decided to tell me. My supervisor pushed back for like two weeks because NOWHERE in the guidelines do they say to do the thing they said was wrong with my thesis, and because what they were suggesting to fix it made absolutely zero sense at all. I had to take two weeks and actually RESUBMIT my thesis. Recently I realized that something else (very tiny) went wrong in the formatting in the resubmission (the original was PERFECT), but oh well. It's done. AGAIN.
  
  
• It's now been four months post-PhD. Last month, I realized that I have been too hard on myself. I was trying to get really complex work following up on PhD stuff done and kept getting frustrated when I sat down to do the work but just...couldn't get my brain into gear. I think that was my brain's way of protecting myself because I was getting migraines and started fainting out of nowhere. I ended up focusing on getting my email backlog and file organization down and succeeded at a lot of easy tasks like that instead. That felt REALLY good. 
  
  
• I'm still about two months behind on my post-PhD follow up work now. However, I have been able to start the above-mentioned complex work here and there in the past week or so. The block (and my to-do list) is v e r y slowly eroding. But every little bit counts!! My aim is to get through that work by the time I leave for the US in late August. That main complex piece of work will go to my coauthors for review while I'm relaxing and enjoying my first real break since late 2023. 
  
  
• Job-wise, the hits keep coming. Last month I mentioned that my work has decided that they will no longer renew my contract to keep working on the research programme I have managed for 17 years after this financial year. Something about them being liable after hiring me for 1 year contracts (the funding for my project is annual so this was on purpose, and I have never complained about this). This means that my 17 year job is ending next July, unless my boss could find a workaround. The ideas she had were to 1. try for me to get hired at the other organization involved in leading the programme. 2. Me starting my own contracting business and them hiring me to do the work. 3. Talk the higher ups in the dept to hire me permanently.
  
  This past Thursday, I got some really bad news. My boss said that she'd asked about #1 and #3, and that other organization is not able to hire me - I'd cost the programme 3x the amount over there. The dept is also unable to hire me permanently. So that leaves #2 - me going freelance and them hiring me out. But there are several hitches: 1. I cannot cost the programme more than I cost right now - that is about $70K NZD. 2. The US makes it VERY difficult to be a self employed foreign contractor - I'd have to pay 15.3% of social security and medicare tax. PLUS pay all the NZ taxes AND the full amount for ACC AND I'd cost an extra 15% due to NZ's goods and services tax. 
  
  After all of the extra expenses and taxes, I'd get paid even LESS than I do now for the same amount of work. Ugh. 
  
  I asked Chat GPT and apparently there is precedent for hiring people on a permanent basis but contingent on the annual funding coming through. I am going to ask my boss to run that up the flagpole in a last-ditch attempt to avoid the freelance headaches.

HEALTH & LIVING

• Signal is working just OK for family calls. While at home in the US I plan to buy a cheapo phone # and port that # to Google Voice so I can use that to call my parents' landline for free. That still doesn't solve the group call issue (I need to be able to call landlines and cell phones in the US in a group call for my weekly family calls), but it will give me more options.
  
  
• I have gotten into a really good exercise groove, except for this past Friday (I missed two of my normal work out classes - I was just feeling awful for reasons I'll explain in further bullet points below). I am starting to feel a little bit stronger and a little bit more fluid in my body, which is great. I have really missed getting in some movement to my days and weeks, like I did pre-covid. 
• Every Monday and Friday, I go to a 30 min HIIT workout class. I have to take these easier than everyone else in the class otherwise I faint, but they are still VERY HARD.
• I go to a 1 hr Pilates class on Mondays about an hour after my HIIT class. 
• I go to a 1 hr stretching class on Fridays. 
• There is about an hour between the HIIT and pilates/stretch classes, so in those intervals on Mondays and Fridays I go to my office, catch up with my team, and get office errands done (check mail, go through mail, send samples via mail, little bits of labwork here and there, clean up my office). 
• On Sundays I go to a 1.5 hr tennis lesson with a good friend. 
• After a month or so of the above schedule, I am finally to the point where I'm not too sore/tired in the hours and days afterward. Before this past week or so, I would come back and just crash. I turned into a zombie incapable of doing anything else, which of course made it difficult to get work done. But now I'm getting more used to it, my body isn't as sore, and my brain is starting to recover a tiny bit faster too.
• Because of that recovery, I am thinking of adding another HIIT class on Wednesday AM and then adding a different workout class an hour later. So then on MWF, I'd have an intense workout class, an hour break to get in-person office work done, and then another workout class. And I'd have 1.5 hrs of tennis on Sundays. I'd want to add a dance class in the mix in the future, but otherwise I think I'd be quite happy with that schedule and amount/types of exercise in my life. In the summer, I'll want to do some hiking and camping as well.

• Update on the living sitch: Apartment complex: still not sold. Flatmate: still here. The TradeMe experiment where I track how long ads for flatmates stay up is yielding some interesting results. Last month, the longest running ad in my rough target price range is from 2 June, and I can clearly pinpoint why it is still up. The next-longest running ads are for hostel or boarding house situations, so it is clear why those are still up. The oldest real ad that was somewhat reasonable is only 2 weeks old. It normally takes me ~2-3 weeks to find a flatmate, so 2 weeks is reasonable. 
  
  This month, there are 19 ads up in my price range, and the oldest running ad is from 31 October (??). I'm counting this as a fluke - some people keep ads up for years (renewing them every few weeks but increase the rent so much that no one in their right mind is responding to them). The next longest ad is from 12 June, but is a boarding house situation. All but 7 are from very late July. It is looking like most flats that are somewhat decent get taken relatively quickly. This is a sharp contrast to the whole-flat ads, which are just sitting on the rental market for months at a time. 
  
  It seems as though the factors that are causing whole flats to sit on the market for months is not affecting the flatmate market as much. 
  
  But I think I'd rather just pay whole rent myself than deal with my flatmate any longer. I know I only have a few weeks before I go to the US, but I've decided I'll tell him he's kicked out this coming week. I'll get a new flatmate when I return from the US, when folks are going to start moving to NZ to enjoy the impending summer weather/escape the northern hemisphere winter. The situation is untenable. 
   
• Last month I noted that I've maintained that my life could fall apart when my PhD was submitted. But REALLY? Things are imploding: 
• My 10 yr apt is gonna get sold at any moment now. 
• My 17 year job is ending next year. 
• My BFF is getting divorced and selling her house. I would usually not make this one about me but they always offered to house me if I ran into housing/job issues like the above, so I feel that this is pertinent! I have no NZ failsafe anymore. Given the above, I'd consider moving into her place right about now otherwise. 
  
  
If things in the US were going better right now, I'd be seriously planning on moving back. As it is, I still might elect to not go freelance, move out of my place, move back home and use it as a travel base to travel the world for a year, spending that $60K house down payment fund I now have no use for. It's REALLY tempting, actually.

 

TRAVEL & FUN 

• I'm (still) very excited about my trip to see family and friends in the US later this month (August). I have about $1.8K US in my US bank account to spend while I'm there. I'm going to invest in upgrading my wardrobe, shoes, and quality of life items like good sheets to bring back to NZ. I will also need to update my phone and laptop but am thinking of doing that next year if I go freelance - I can write those purchases off in that case. 
   
• Fun stuff:
• I had my birthday! 
• My friends paid for me to have an axe throwing lesson + rage room stint and we went out to the most delicious italian restaurant! I had a great drink called 'Fresh Baked' that had cinnamon, apple juice, butter washed rum, and probably something else (lemon juice?). It sounds weird but was great. 
• Another friend group paid for our movie tix to see the new Jurassic Park and to go out to dinner afterward. I loved it! 
• Another weekend, I had a New Orleans themed murder mystery dinner party. It was so much fun dressing up and trying to solve whodunit!! 
   

MONEY THOUGHTS

• Even with my increased salary, my natural spending habits seems to land the $3K mark. Without trying at all (and a lot of help for birthday activities from friends), I have $3K leftover from my July income, almost exactly half of my salary. This helps a lot with planning - I am in a very comfortable position if I earn $3K per month for spending. Before taxes, I need to earn $42,500 or so. If I want to save some $$, I would just cut back somewhere or earn more $$. 
  
  
• I think I'll make another $5K fund for my 2026 US trip, and once that is complete, I will have met all of my personal short- and medium-term savings goals for the near future. 

MONTHLY CHALLENGES 

• In August, I want to continue to work on my health by going to exercise classes regularly, cutting back on fast food, soda, and junk food from the grocery store. In July, I challenged myself to avoid getting too much McDonalds (fast food). I only went to McDs in July - once for just a frozen coke, which I'm kind of addicted to, and another time when I was actually craving a cheeseburger and fries (NZ burgers and fries actually taste horrible to me). I don't want to cut out fast food and junk food ENTIRELY - moderation and all of that -- but I do want to only eat that kind of food if I have an active craving for it, until eventually those cravings cease. In the past, this is how I kicked those eating habits - by being more mindful.
  
  In August, I want to continue my progress on this front. Being in the US is gonna mess those plans up, but while I'm in NZ, I want to avoid sodas, fast food, and junk food except when I have serious cravings for it. My take is that they are not worth eating for the sake of stuffing calories down my gullet - I need to actually ENJOY those foods and drinks if I'm going to put them into my body.  
  
  
• An additional challenge August challenge is to get more of my medical appointments checked off before I leave for the US. My first mammogram is scheduled, I have an eye appointment, I will be renewing my prescriptions with my Dr next week, and I have a bowel screening kit for colon cancer. Once I'm back from my US trip, I'd like to see a dermatologist and a physio, and get a full blood panel and discuss HRT/perimenopause with my doc, as well as look into ADHD coaches and therapists.
  
  
  

July 2025 Budget

I am still enjoying a full time salary for the first time in 13 years! 

Income: $6,132.68

Salary: $5,659.42

Lending Crowd repayments: $170.37

Zagga repayments: $5.22

Garage rent: $260 

Spending: $3,069.39 (50%) 

Spending categories (budgeted amount in parentheses):

Rent: $1,080 - my portion of rent is $270 per week. It increased by $5 per week this month.

Groceries: $735.68 ($500) - OVERBUDGET! I bought a ton of Whittaker's Chocolate to gift to family on my trip in August while it was on sale. I also bought prepped food to bring to a dinner party for a friend's birthday. 

Electricity & Internet: $181.41 ($150) - June 2025 bill

Eating out: $195.17 ($250). I got a small Pizza Hut pizza to eat while doing errands with a friend; I got a small frozen coke from McDonald's; I got Zambrero burritos while out in the field for work ($20.99); I got pulled pork and chicken bbq sliders and hush puppies; I got a few slices of Sal's pizza; I got a Subway sandwich; and finally I got a cheeseburger, chicken nuggies, fries, a sundae, and a small frozen coke from McD's. 

Charity: $160 ($50) - Heart Foundation, NZ Coastguard lottos

Cell phone: $17 ($20) The usual top up.

Medical: $0 ($100) 

Misc: $700.13 ($959)

alcohol, entertainment, travel: $0 

self care: $305.40. Four pilates classes for July! 1 massage. $100 to sign up for a 6 week HIIT workout class (18 classes). Another massage. 

fees: $5.10. A movie ticket fee for a birthday trip to the movies with friends for my birthday 

gifts: $10.76. Stickers and stuff for family for my US trip (e.g. NZ sticker books for my cousin's kids)

goods and wants: $234.49. Pizza pan, bag to put a friend's birthday gift in - $6.99. American snacks from Martha's - $16.24. Jean jacket & hoodie from Kmart - $51. Scratch on stickers for cards, tailors gift kit, scooper for laundry detergent from Warehouse - $20.94. Bandana for costume for a US family thing - $2.50. Anew renewable water bottle - $7.82. Two matching sweat sets for upcoming plane ride - $129.

transportation: $144.38. I rented many e-scooters to get to a far-off mevo car, to get home after grocery shopping, and to get to work or a work out class. I've decided that if it takes me using an escooter to make it to an intense work out class on time and in a calm state, so be it. Early in the month, I fainted after rushing out of the house to get to a work out class on time, and would rather not repeat that experience. Getting out of the house on time is very, very difficult with my ADHD, so I will always be out of breath once I arrive at my destination, and this is a small price to pay for my health.

Savings and Funds Activity Update

• $10K more of CDs have now matured. Unfortunately I set one of them to auto-invest, so I think I'm locked in for another year at a measly 3.9% p.a. rate. Whoops. I've fixed that now. I don't think I can get out of it even though I caught it ON THE DAY it matured and reinvested.
  
  
• I've started moving money to Squirrel's on-call account as it offers a better interest rate than what I have now with my basic Rabobank savings account.
  
  
• I have $22,219.93 in an on-call account earning 3% p.a. in Squirrel, with $2587.99  invested in various peer-to-peer loans at $100 each at 6 to 6.5% p.a. About $3K of the money in the on-call account is waiting to be invested, with about $2600 of that as personal loans at 7% p.a. become available (the wait times for these is about a year!). 
  
  
• As I've met most of my short- and medium-term savings goals, I still need to review how much of my savings I want to keep liquid and how much I want to invest in peer-to-peer loans. The $60K I saved up for a house down payment in particular needs to be moved to something more high yielding and I can afford a bit of risk with those funds. I guess I'll just let this $$ accumulate until I buy a house or need it for travel/moving after my job ends next year?

• I made no Zagga investments this month. The investments are a minimum of $1K and I just feel...uncomfortable investing that much in things like individual home loans when I know that the market is pretty bad right now. People are underwater on their mortgages and things aren't selling that well. The cost of living is so high and job opportunities so low that people just aren't buying.
  
  

Net Worth Tracking

NZ Savings (cash and CDs): $144,810.78 NZD

Peer to peer lending: $6,429.64 (Zagga, Squirrel, open principal at Lending Crowd)

• LendingCrowd: $1,861.36 NZD - principal still owed, repaid with interest in weekly installments
• Zagga: $1K NZD 
• Squirrel: $3,568.28 NZD

Kiwisaver: $116,051.86 NZD. 

US investments: $61,457.40 USD. 

Total Net Worth (July 2025): $358,203.66 NZD (an increase of $8,506.66 NZD since last month) 

June 2025: I Lost My Job (Next Year).

  Life Update

• Two adages come to mind when I think of this past month: 
1. When it rains, it pours. (And not just because it rained most of this month)
2. Be careful what you wish for. 
   
   
• It's now only been three months post-PhD. Saying that makes me realize that I have been too hard on myself. My brain continues to consistently go into 404 error mode when I try to do difficult work. However, I have caught up on my emails now!! I now only have about ~20-30 standing items in my inbox. It still fills up to like 100 emails on the daily, but I've gotten better about processing them down so that there are only 20-30 emails to greet me the next day. I also have gotten through the backlog of organizing the files for one of my two jobs now. That feels a lot better and like I have a little more breathing room. However, I am still way way behind on my workload - I'd say about a month behind now. I'm scrambling to catch up while also dealing with my PhD burnout symptoms (nearly fainting in pilates class, feeling tired and unmotivated all of the time, etc.).

• I will keep using Signal on the Web as a replacement for Skype to call my family. This means that I cannot call anyone in the US that doesn't have Signal installed, but it'll do until August when I'm home. I plan to get a local cell phone mobile number and account, port that # to Google Voice, and try that method to be able to call folks in the US for free. That still doesn't solve the group call issue (I need to be able to call landlines and cell phones in the US in a group call for my weekly family calls), but it will give me more options at least.
  
  
• I have finally gotten a good starter routine for working out: I go to a Pilates class on Mondays and a light stretching class on Fridays. My Sunday tennis classes have been so much fun, but the session is over right now. I just signed up for 18 30-min circuit work out classes + a trainer tracking my stats for $100 over a six week period in July - August. The last class of that session is being held two days before I leave for the US, so I'm stoked that worked out (ha!) so well. It is time to ramp things up on the exercise front.
  
  
• I have received my first two full paychecks of a full-time salary. But with that good news comes some bad: my work has decided that they will no longer allow me to get paid for working on the research programme I manage after this financial year. This means that my 17 year job is ending next July. I am so upset about this, I just start crying every time I think about it. I therefore try not to. 
  
  I don't know what I'm gonna do. This job has been a staple of my NZ life since almost the beginning. That research programme is my baby - it is what I have nurtured for nearly two decades, and everyone credits me for its success. However, the university doesn't see it that way - they don't care what our funders want, they think I should move on and give someone else a chance to work at my job. What they don't see is how I've grown WITH the position, and there is no one else that can do what I do right now. Having someone consistently in my role is what made our programme a success! And they want to change it so that the role is filled by a new person every year?! Utter nonsense.
  
  Also, apparently having continuous 1 year fixed contracts like I have leaves them open to liabilities even though the programme is funded on an annual cycle (so a fixed contract is the ONLY way to fund my position within the programme). It's so stupid. The only way they would get in trouble is if *I* wanted to cause trouble, and I haven't so far because I totally understand why the fixed term contracts are the way they are - it has to be due to the nature of annual funding. But guess what I'm thinking now? I am ready to cause trouble because they are cutting my job for an incredibly stupid reason. It is already affecting the programme - I cannot make long-term plans for a great opportunity in late 2026 because I cannot guarantee I'll be around, and I am the only person that makes sure things get done. I'm really annoyed by all of this.
   
• Apartment complex: still not sold. Flatmate: still here. The TradeMe experiment where I track how long ads for flatmates stay up is yielding some interesting results. It looks like the longest running ad in my rough target price range is from 2 June, and I can clearly pinpoint why it is still up. The next-longest running ads are for hostel or boarding house situations, so it is clear why those are still up. The oldest real ad that is somewhat reasonable is only 2 weeks old. It normally takes me ~2-3 weeks to find a flatmate, so 2 weeks is reasonable. It seems as though the factors that are causing whole flats to sit on the market for months is not affecting the flatmate market as much. This is great news.  
   
• Related to the first point - I have said throughout the end of my PhD that I just needed to get to submission and then my life could fall apart. The above two points prove that the Universe is nothing to be trifled with. I joke, but the timing, it is impeccable. Things with my 10 year apartment and my solid 17 year job are crumbling at nearly the same time... 'Tis a sign? Honestly, if things in the US were going better right now, I'd be seriously planning on moving back.
  
  
• I'm (still) very excited about my trip to see family and friends later this year. The last of the credit card bills from the flight and hotel costs is now paid off.
  
  
• The 70K Air Alaska points from the very annoying Bank of America credit card have now been posted after I met my $3K minimum spend last month. I ended up prepaying for a lot of Mevo credit to use a car for the next year or so. I have to use the car a lot for work lately, so a lot of that $$ is just getting reimbursed from work, which is nice. But mark my words, I will NEVER apply for another BoA credit card. The fraud prevention measures they take are insane and make the card unusable. Who wants to sit on hold for hours to unblock your card every time you use it?!
  
  
• I have met all of my personal short- and medium-term savings goals. For now, any extra funding will go towards spending during my 2025 US trip, until I can get used to my new increased salary and solidify my investment plans for any unspent income each month. Since I also now have a ridiculous amount sitting in cash in savings accounts, I have to sort out a good strategy in that regard.
  
  
• With my full salary, I should have ~$3K/mo to put into investments for the next year. As I've mentioned ad nauseam, I cannot invest in the stock market from NZ due to tax issues, and the NZD-USD exchange rate is awful, so converting to USD and investing in my US brokerage account is out. Instead, I'll start putting $$ into Zagga and Squirrel peer-to-peer loans here in NZ. 
   
• I went on a free trip the last weekend of June! Yes, you read that correctly. My friend's friend was having a birthday getaway to a little town elsewhere in NZ. Someone dropped out at the last minute and they offered me their already paid for room + tickets to the hot pools, free of charge! And the drive there and back was covered already. I offered to pay for gas, but was declined. I re-gifted the birthday person a bottle of champagne I just had laying around (as you do...haha) as a birthday present (I was never going to drink it and I only know that the birthday person likes to drink...plus champagne is never a bad present!). I paid for my own food, obviously, but that was the only real cost. Because they wouldn't take my money for things like gas, I paid for dinner out for everyone to try to pull my weight and not feel like a total freeloader. 
  
  
• My April and May challenges were to spend every dime of my income. My June personal challenge was to see how life was with a full salary. Earning a full-time salary changes the game quite a bit. I ended the month with about half my income leftover, without really trying too hard.
  
  
• My July challenge is to keep avoiding getting fast food. I used to actually enjoy it for whatever reason (terrible palate) and got some satisfaction from the multi-tasking nature of eating + driving, but I just don't any longer. I fully believe that your guilt free spending should actually bring you some joy, and that particular purchase doesn't anymore. Same goes for drinking soda. It's bad for your health, and both fast food you can eat on the run and soda became a crutch for me towards the end of my PhD. I always intended to stop once I had submitted, and now that I have, it's time to cut those back to the baseline levels of almost-never ingesting those foods/drinks. In June I only went to McD's once, which is a good start. I also stopped buying soda from the grocery store. I did have soda with my pizza and with my chicken sandwich while on a trip this past weekend, but that was a bit of a special occasion trip and way out of my normal routine. 
  
  
• An additional challenge for July and August challenge is to get more of my medical appointments checked off before I leave for the US. I've just gone to the dentist and done a cervical swab. I have to schedule my mammogram. I've ordered a bowel screening kit for colon cancer (I'm at that age...). I need to schedule my low-cost eye appointment through the University so I have my prescription to order new Zenni frames in Sept while I'm home. Once I'm back from my US trip, I'd like to see a dermatologist and a physio, and get a full blood panel and discuss HRT/perimenopause with my doc, as well as look into ADHD coaches and therapists.
  
  
  

June 2025 Budget

In June I started earning a full-time salary for the first time in 13 years! 

Income: $6,127.67

Salary: $5,881.40

Lending Crowd repayments: $181.27

Zagga repayments: $0

Garage rent: $325 (5 Mondays in June)

Spending: $3,110 (50.8%) 

 

Spending categories (budgeted amount in parentheses):

Rent: $1,060 - my portion of rent is $265 per week. This is increasing to $270 pw in July.

Groceries: $537.94 ($500) 

Electricity & Internet: $0 ($150) June's bill is not in yet.

Eating out: $347.48 ($250). I got Zambrero burritos ($45.88), McDonalds breakfast sandwiches for one week ($42), Black oven pizza on the way to the girls getaway trip ($25.50), hot chocolate on trip ($5), ham and cheese croissant from Garden cafe on trip ($10.90), grilled chicken sandwich and fries to share at Garden Cafe on trip ($38.80), and Thai food from Lotus Thai for the group on trip ($179.40).

Charity: $0 ($50) 

Cell phone: $20 ($20) The usual top up.

Medical: $451.71 ($100) Dentist teeth clean ($255), RSV/Flu/Covid test for emergencies ($12.22), bowel testing kit ($184.50)

Misc: $692.86 ($959)

alcohol, entertainment, travel: $0 

self care: $258.90. I got a brow wax, tint, lash tint, and chin and lip wax ($67), 50 min massage (96.90), took two tennis lessons ($40), took 5 pilates lessons ($40), and rented a bathrobe and locker at the hot pools ($15)

fees: $147.46. NZ tax bill for 2024-25 came in! I'd much rather owe than they owe me. 

gifts: $60.89. Bought my friend a birthday gift: fake artist goes to NY and a white board. 

goods and wants: $219.23. Went to Martha's Backyard for American goodies ($76.63), bought some costume pieces for a party later this winter ($26.50), and I treated myself to a Blunt umbrella as my old one is breaking down ($116.10). It's long been on my to-buy list!

transportation: $6.38. I rented a few escooters to get home after grocery shopping and to get to work on time for a meeting I left the house late for. 

Savings and Funds Activity Update

• $10K more of CDs have now matured. Unfortunately I set one of them to auto-invest, so I think I'm locked in for another year at a measly 3.9% p.a. rate. Whoops. I've fixed that now. I don't think I can get out of it even though I caught it ON THE DAY it matured and reinvested.
  
  
• I've started moving money to Squirrel's on-call account as it offers a better interest rate than what I have now with my basic Rabobank savings account.
  
  
• I have $22,219.93 in an on-call account earning 3% p.a. in Squirrel, with $2587.99  invested in various peer-to-peer loans at $100 each at 6 to 6.5% p.a. About $3K of the money in the on-call account is waiting to be invested, with about $2600 of that as personal loans at 7% p.a. become available (the wait times for these is about a year!). 
  
  
• As I've met most of my short- and medium-term savings goals, I still need to review how much of my savings I want to keep liquid and how much I want to invest in peer-to-peer loans. The $60K I saved up for a house down payment in particular needs to be moved to something more high yielding and I can afford a bit of risk with those funds. I guess I'll just let this $$ accumulate until I buy a house or need it for travel/moving after my job ends next year?

• I made no Zagga investments this month. The investments are a minimum of $1K and I just feel...uncomfortable investing that much in things like individual home loans when I know that the market is pretty bad right now. People are underwater on their mortgages and things aren't selling that well. The cost of living is so high and job opportunities so low that people just aren't buying.
  
  

Net Worth Tracking

NZ Savings (cash and CDs): $135,759.31 NZD

Peer to peer lending: $5,606.61 (Zagga, Squirrel, open principal at Lending Crowd)

• LendingCrowd: $2,018.62 NZD - principal still owed, repaid with interest in weekly installments
• Zagga: $1K NZD 
• Squirrel: $2587.99 NZD

Kiwisaver: $111,250.27 NZD. Still on the upswing! 

US investments: $60,151.05 USD. Also this.

Total Net Worth (June 2025): $349,697 NZD (an increase of $8,999.88 NZD since last month) 

Full Time Salary: New Budget

In a previous post, I outlined how I will be receiving a full-time salary for the first time since ~2013. This week, I received the first partial paycheck of that full-time salary. 

I have a few plans for that income. Unfortunately, not much of it is very fun. I received word that after this year, the Uni is going to refuse to approve any more contracts for the job I've been doing since 2008. I'm not ready to talk about that yet - it's been the cause of many breakdowns this week after I found out on Monday - but it does affect my plans for my full salary as all of my future plans have been based on having that previously very consistent job/income to fall back on. 

My apartment life is also incredibly unstable. At any moment, my flat and/or my complex could be sold, or my LL could raise the rent beyond the point where it makes sense to stay. 

The Universe may be telling me something here, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what it is. In a parallel universe, I'd be seriously applying to my dream job in the US and making moves. However, I refuse to go back to the US right now and I don't know where else I'd live other than Auckand/NZ to do what I love. 

I really need to take this year to get my head on straight post-PhD and in anticipation of major life changes after my contracts end. 

But first, my new salary and a budget breakdown (version 1, at least!):

 

Gross Income: My annual salary will be roughly $101K. 

Take home Income: I should take home about $73K. That is a monthly budget of about $6K.

Here is what I'm thinking: 

This plan strikes a nice balance between making allowances to improve my quality of life, hit my self care and travel goals, as well as planning for a future where my income drops significantly again in a year. 

Explanation of a bunch of assumptions/decisions:  

• This budget assumes that I stay in my current housing and that my rent doesn't increase again (it will increase by $10 pw in July; that is factored in here). If this changes, I will need to completely overhaul this budget. Currently my housing (rent + utilities) is about 17% of my take-home, which is wonderfully low.
  
  
• My average spending on groceries and power+internet is quite stable month to month no matter what is going on, so I see no need to change those. 
  
  
• I increased my eating out budget from $150 to $250 per month. This is easy for me to cut later, and allows me to hang out with friends more often/more easily. 
  
  
• The charity budget is my baseline; I expect to donate more, but that will come out of my Misc spending. 
  
  
• With Skype gone, I only spend $20 per month on cell phone costs, so this # actually went down from $35 within my monthly budget. 
  
  
• The medical spending of $100 is also baseline, for all the routine dentist, GP, optometrist, etc. check ups and new glasses. Any additional spending for Medical will come from my savings or Misc category. I previously have saved up $10K to throw at my medical issues, so that $$ is there.
  
  
• I've increased my budget for my Misc category from $485 to a little over $1K per month, to accommodate more fun activities like massages, carshares, e-scooters, etc., pilates classes, tennis classes, day and weekend trips with friends, and everything else (medical costs, charity) that I feel called to spend on in any particular month. I fully expect that the spending in this category will fluctuate wildly in tandem with the Saving & Investments category, and I am OK with that. 
  
  
• I aim to save & invest approximately 50% of my take home income, or $3K per month. I expect that this will fluctuate as various opportunities pop up in Misc, and I'm OK with that. Here's where that $$ will go: 
   
• Savings: I see very little need to add much $$ to my savings. 1.) I've already saved up for nearly everything I can think of, 2.) the interest rates here are a dismal 3% p.a. or lower even in high yield savings accounts, and 3.) I have a ridiculous amount of $$ already in savings. I'll complete my $5K 2026 US Trip Fund (about $3K left to go!) and then funnel future $$ into investments. 
  
  
• Investments: I'm all about tax efficiency going forward, both in NZ and the US. 
  
  
• US investments: I'll continue to contribute $50 USD (about $85 NZD) to Berkshire Hathaway funds. These don't kick off dividends that are taxable in NZ. 
  
  
•  NZ investments: This one is tricky. I will have about $3K left from my take-home income to invest each month, but have to keep complex NZ and US tax rules in mind. As I cannot invest in the stock market or funds from NZ, and the US-NZ exchange rate is awful, I will send this $$ to NZ-based Squirrel and Zagga, which are peer-to-peer lending companies. These are essentially my only option to earn more than a terrible 3% p.a. on my money. (Note: I'm also contributing 3% of my gross salary with a 3% employer match to my Kiwisaver, but that $$ is already taken out of my gross salary and therefore not discussed or considered here at all. The $3K investment is therefore in addition to the Kiwisaver investments.)
  
  

In summary, I really don't like adding additional ongoing expenses and commitments such as subscriptions, so I have not increased my baseline spending on Needs (housing, utilities, groceries, cell phone, and medical costs). The only true subscriptions I have are towards charities, and I can cancel those at any time. I need to engineer my new budget so that I can go back to the very basics at the drop of a hat. 

In contrast, I have increased my budget for my Wants: eating out and Misc. These are things that I enjoy but can stop doing at any time if needed. They increase my quality of life immeasurably, but can be cut or tapered back. 

I really enjoy saving and investing, so actually increasing that budget is kind of a Want, as well! I view this category as a buffer: it's GREAT to invest and save more, but this can be cut back when/if my salary drops and/or a fun weekend trip comes up and I want to spend some $$ in a one-off. 

In essence, I have tried to keep my basic standard of living approximately the same - not adding any major ongoing commitments such as a nicer apartment or getting my own place, while also increasing my quality of life and planning for the future and eventual salary drops. 

Next up is creating some new goals. I know I've already drafted my 2025 goals, but that was when I wasn't certain what was going to happen with my income. Now that at least that portion of my life is more concrete, at least for the next year, I can actually put pen to paper and commit to certain things. 

May Grays: A Budget Round Up

 Life Update

• Two months after PhD submission and I have only *just* started to realize the toll it actually took on me. I can get through about two tasks a day and then...my brain and body just go into 404 error mode. Blue screen of death. I am still enjoying my weekends and free time, and have stopped putting so much pressure on myself to get more fun things done. MUST HAVE FUN is a rat race and marathon that never ends, just like the PhD was. I need to get out of that mindset. I'm also almost, ALMOST all caught up on the backlog of emails and organizing files, which feels good. 

• I still don't have a replacement for Skype. I have temporarily switched to using the Signal app on my laptop to call my family members, but unfortunately it isn't as easy as Skype - their cell phones do not seem to ring when I call on Signal like they did when I called on Skype. They have to manually go to the family Signal chat and hit the blue 'join' button to join the group call, but how do they know when I'm calling if their phone doesn't ring and I can't call their landline?!? The workaround we came up with was to use the Skype dialpad (offered to those of us that still have remaining Skype credit) to call them to get them to check their Signal when I call. However, Skype now either doesn't ring through to their landline OR it does, but the audio doesn't work, so my parents couldn't actually hear me when they answered!! Bollocks, I say. I ended up calling them using my cell phone data directly from my NZ cell. We have a code now - I'll call them twice in a row on their landline using my cell phone and they'll check their Signal. If I don't let it ring through until the voicemail, it doesn't cost me anything. If I do let it go to voicemail, it's six NZ cents a minute - not too bad for a once a week cost (about $3 NZD/year). But it has been quite a frustrating process. When I'm home I'll get a local mobile number and account, port it to Google Voice, and try that method.  
  
  
• I have finally gotten a good starter routine for working out: I go to a Pilates class either on Monday or Tuesday and a light stretching class on Fridays. On Sundays I have tennis with a friend - it's so much fun! I want to eventually go to a work out class every day, however, I'm so sore from tennis/pilates mid-week that I'm hesitant to add more in between Pilates and stretching for now. According to my Garmin Lily watch, I'm also meeting my minimum step goal most days. I'll see if I can keep this up through June and then reassess and start adding more work outs and increasing my step goals.
  
  
• The funding my supervisor and I applied for finally is all contracted out and finalized. It's for 0.5 FTE (full time equivalent, so 20 hours a week for a 40 hour workweek) at a rate of about $101K/year. With my 0.3 FTE from my regular job, I'll be making ~$80K/year gross, $60,500 net, and taking home about $5K/mo until Sept 2026. I get one day off and work 32 hours/week starting in July.
   
• The apartment drama saga continues. I now dislike my flatmate AND am suspicious of my landlord. My apartment complex still hasn't been sold. I keep a running list of rental listings in the CBD and surroundings in my price range that I would consider living in, so that if I get the 42 day notice, I can start scouting them out immediately. The only silver lining with that would be getting rid of my flatmate.
   
• Speaking of my flatmate, like a true scientist, I am now running a second TradeMe experiment where I am tracking how long ads for flatmates in the price range I'd charge (and the price range just below it) stay up. After one week, it's actually looking like rooms are being taken at a pretty decent clip. I think people are turning to flatting together instead of getting their own places and this is causing the ads for whole places to not get taken but flatmate ads to churn over more quickly. Great news for me! 
  
  However, I cannot chuck Annoying Flatmate out quite yet. He noted the other day that THREE apartments in our complex were up for rent and I have a feeling he'd just move next door if I chucked him out now. I'm gonna wait til those flats are taken and there is no chance I'd run into him again before giving him the axe.
  
  
• I'm (still) very excited about my US trip later this year.
  
  
• Although Bank of America blocked me (literally) at every turn, I have finally met the minimum $3K spend on my Air Alaska card to get 70K miles to use towards an Iceland trip. I think I now have enough Mevo carshare credit to last the entire year (it was the only place I could charge the BoA card and not trigger a card blockage and hours upon hours on the phone). Plus work has needed me to use a car a lot lately, so part of that spend is being reimbursed via work. It's working out well so far.
  
  
• My next short-term savings goal is a $5K NZD 2025 US Trip Fund. Once that is complete, I will have met all of my personal short- and medium-term savings goals - until next year's US trip. I already have over $130K in savings. That's effing ridiculous, pardon my Français. Any funds not spent each month will now go towards investments instead of savings, and I'll start putting more $$ into Zagga and Squirrel peer-to-peer loans. Eventually I want to start converting my NZD to USD and investing in my Vanguard brokerage account up to the NZ FIF limit (I can invest about $32K NZD more before triggering complex NZ taxes), however, with the NZD doing so poorly against the USD and all the crazy politics over there now, I'm holding off a bit. 
  
  
• My May personal challenge was to spend every dime of my salary again, like in April. I'm very happy to say I met that goal with ease. It is actually a skill to know how to spend money in a way that is fulfilling and not just...blindly shoveling money into things without thinking about it. I have been living quite a restricted lifestyle so it is nice to know that I actually can spend wisely once in a while. I am on the fence about continuing this goal through June, however, esp as I will be making a full salary for just that one month before dropping down to 0.8 FTE starting in July. I think I'll just feel things out as the month progresses. 
  
  

May 2025 Budget

I had my 0.5 FTE salary as earned income. It was a 3 paycheck month, and I challenged myself to spend every single dime as a reward for submitting my thesis finally.

Income: $3,610.59

Salary: $3,147.50 

Lending Crowd repayments: $203.09

Zagga repayments: $0

Garage rent: $260

Spending: $3,587.58 (99.4%) 

 

Spending categories (budgeted amount in parentheses):

Rent: $1,325 - my portion of rent is $265 per week. It was a 5 rent check month (rent is usually $1060/mo)

Groceries: $450.15 ($500) Lotsa eating out this month, I guess it kept this below my budgeted amount.

Electricity & Internet: $127.13 ($150) 

Eating out: $361.04 ($150) I got McDonald's 3x, got dinner at a restaurant for a friend's birthday, got some Subway sandwiches, got a slice of pizza at Sal's pizza, bought some do it yourself pizza kits at a market, got some tea and chocolates at Brick Bay Vineyard, and bought a delicious BBQ sandwich, and a boutique doughnut at Matakana market.

Charity: $100 ($60) Coastguard charity lotto tickets and a $50 donation to Fairfood in Auckland after a friend circulated a request for donations.

Cell phone: $20 ($35) The usual top up.

Medical: $157.81 ($100) A $30 prescription fee for my ADHD and thyroid medication (however they were all out of ADHD meds, I guess there is a shortage here); $41 for a cervical screening (all clear!); and I bought a bunch of supplements to try out: magnesium, omega-3s, D3 + K2 drops, and B12

Misc: $996.45 ($485)

alcohol, fees, travel: $0 

entertainment: $57.50 for a 1 month Patreon to No Rolls Barred. 

self care: $370. I got a 30 min facial from So/ spa with three good friends and paid for half of one of their treatments as a belated birthday gift ($158). I paid for two tennis lessons ($20 each) and 4 pilates classes ($8 each), as well as two massages ($80 and $60).

gifts: $152. I paid for brunch for myself and three of my best friends in NZ before our spa day to celebrate my PhD submission and show them appreciation for being patient with me ($132). I got my friend six used books of a series she really likes from TradeMe ($20).

goods and wants: $269.91. I bought grippy pilates socks ($11.94), a silicone dish scrubber and small chopping board ($18.98), and a new curved monitor for my home office ($239; jury is still out if it's big enough).

transportation: $147.04. I caught an Uber home from a friend's twice ($11.13 and $18.82), got a Mevo car three times to run errands ($36 + $59 + $10). I got e-scooters three times, mostly to get to the Mevo car location before my reservation ended ($3.23; $2.96; $5.90).

Savings and Funds Activity Update

• $10K more of CDs have now matured. Since the interest rates just keep dropping, I've started moving money to Zagga and Squirrel and investing in peer-to-peer loans instead of CD's. Their savings account offers a better interest rate than what I have now with my basic Rabobank savings account, so it's a no-brainer.
  
  
• I have $13,360.37 in an on-call account earning 3% p.a. in Squirrel, with $2400 invested in various peer-to-peer loans at $100 each at 6 to 6.5% p.a. About $1800 of the money in the on-call account is waiting to be invested as personal loans at 7% p.a. become available. 
  
  
• As I've met most of my short- and medium-term savings goals, I need to review how much of the ~$130K I want to keep in my savings account and how much I want to invest in peer-to-peer loans. The $60K I saved up for a house down payment in particular needs to be moved to something more high yielding and I can afford a bit of risk with those funds. Due to tax issues, I cannot invest in the stock market in NZ outside of Kiwisaver. Instead of banking any unspent funds each month, it'll go into Squirrel and Zagga. I suppose this will just accumulate until I can figure out a way to buy property? That is my great white whale. 

• I made a Zagga investment of $1K this month.
  
  

Net Worth Tracking

NZ Savings (cash and CDs): $132,319 NZD

Peer to peer lending: $5,587.57 (Zagga, Squirrel, open principal at Lending Crowd)

• LendingCrowd: $2,187.57 NZD - principal still owed, repaid with interest in weekly installments
• Zagga: $1K NZD 
• Squirrel: $2400 NZD

Kiwisaver: $108,436.89 NZD. This recovered a bit. 

US investments: $58,325.67 USD. Also this.

Total Net Worth (May 2025): $330,710.91 NZD (an increase of $9,986.21 NZD since last month) 

Giving Back

Giving back has been a part of my life, my whole life. It has always been a THING. Mostly in the background, but there. Growing up in the church and having a social worker for a mom will do that. I definitely have, instilled in me, the importance of making the world a better place. My definition of giving back has expanded quite a bit. It now includes donating money, time, skills, or lending a listening ear, support, a hug, adopting a good or forgiving attitude to a cashier clearly having a terrible day, or sending an email or text message or phone call...there are so many ways to improve the world and the experience of the people around you with your presence, actions, attitude, or belongings. 

Early on in my life, giving back was about tithing 10% of my allowance, spending time at the local nursing home, going around caroling on Christmas Eve, etc. I have to admit that I hated the first two activities at first. The nursing home was depressing and smelly, and I was obsessed with hoarding money as a kid, so hated parting with it, esp when I couldn't see what it was going to. I eventually came to see the value in both as I grew up - so rewarding! In college, I was totally broke and was breaking away from the church, so giving back became about volunteering with kids: mentoring a middle school kid through his science fair project, helping out at the local, low income area preschool by reading to and entertaining kids. In grad school, I was still broke and also low on time, so volunteered at various science outreach days. Later on when I had a job and was crawling out of debt, I started doing micro-lending via Kiva and adopted a new policy: I'd give money to whatever causes I felt 'led' to give to. Many times a friend or family member was running a marathon or something for various good causes. I made it my policy to always give when a loved one asked for donations to a good cause. I have and will always keep that policy.

Since moving to NZ, in addition to my Giving Policy(TM), I've gone back to regularly volunteering my time to various science outreach events and activities and have also consistently donated $$/entered in the Coastguard and Heart Association lotteries (I never win so I consider that money donated to very good causes!), but would really like to do more, esp. since I now have more time and money. 

My efforts towards giving back have first gone toward those that helped me during my PhD, then I intend to expand upward and outward. SO many people and organizations and things deserve credit for getting me through the 10+ year slog! Throughout the entire process, I kept very careful notes about who I should thank in my acknowledgements section. It ended up being two pages long!! My supervisors tried to get me to cut it down to 1 page as is the norm, but I refused, and it's not like the Uni had a restriction on it, so it stayed. Everyone mentioned deserved millions and tons of thanks. 

But even two pages in a dissertation isn't enough - so much more got me through. Including this blog! So if you're reading, thank you!

Since submission at the end of March, I've tried to thank the people and organizations and things (for lack of a better word) in more than in an acknowledgments-type way, and I'm exploring ways to increase my giving. These efforts can be broken down into categories: 1. People in my life; 2) Creators/entertainers/informative media people; 3) Good causes, some close to my heart, some just because. The ways that I give back to each is tailored.

Firstly, I've made it my mission to better support various people in my life:

1. GIVING BACK TO PEOPLE IN MY LIFE

• my mom, dad, and sister - mostly emotional support, as in they're each getting more texts and phone calls :) but I'm also splashing out on gifts more when there is a birthday, mother's day, etc.
  
  
• the overseas grad school friend who is struggling with a new ADHD diagnosis as well as perimenopause - more text messages but I'm trying to organize a group phone call with our group of friends because I know she really misses us all being together.
  
  
• My HS friend whom I have practically abandoned for years because a) we've drifted apart, b) she's not on Signal or another messaging app that makes it easy to message from from abroad, c) she's ...definitely on the other end of the political spectrum, and d) because I can't risk socializing/getting covid when visiting home. I've made it more of a point to reach out to her more often and catch up. Turns out that she's going through a really hard time with her health, her kid's health, as well as her husband's! She's super stressed and I know appreciates having someone to talk to.
  
  
• Here in NZ I've made a lot of effort to support a friend who is currently going through a very hard time, and has no likelihood of recovering medically or financially from a chronic disease that is ravaging her body. She's on the benefit and unable to pay for much, so I find many excuses to treat her (without ever mentioning/making a big deal out of it or expecting anything in return except her lovely company!). For example, I missed her birthday due to PhD stuff and feeling stressed and ill, so I planned a spa day recently wherein I and another friend split her treatment costs. We went out for brunch beforehand and I paid the entire bill for all 4 of us, saying my dad gave me money to treat us (which he technically did). She got a nice, relaxing day where she was spoiled. She was feeling really down and I know it cheered her up.
  
  
•  In general, I'm trying to be a better, more connected friend and family member to those that I love and cherish.
  
  

Secondly, I am enjoying being able to give back to various creators who made my PhD enjoyable or were helpful in some way:

2. GIVING BACK TO ENTERTAINERS / INFORMATIVE MEDIA

I also was able to get through my PhD with the help of various creators on Youtube and elsewhere that entertained or informed me, such as (in no particular order): 

• No Rolls Barred. A board game club! Funny how fun it is to watch funny people play games. Their Blood on the Clocktower games were my favorite thing for a long while during my PhD - they even get the people that created the game to help run the games! I don't do subscriptions so I signed up for the highest tier of their Patreon for 1 month.
  
  
• Noobs on the Gooftower. This one is same but different, in that they play Blood on the Clocktower exclusively. Chris Grace (of mainly Superstore fame) runs games of BotC with actors and comedians across LA and Great Britain. There are some crossovers with NRB, the creators of BotC, as well as some cameos of Survivor players, Dropout, and other internet-famous people. I'm actually not sure how to support/donate $$ to this because there's no Patreon but maybe there is a donate option during their livestreams on YT??? I just have to actually catch a livestream, they are always at weird hours for me here in NZ.
  
  
• Chaotic Neutral. They are the same people as in #1 but they play Call of Cthulhu, which is a D&D type role playing game but comedy-horror. They are hilarious and so, so, so creative and good at acting and creating fun characters. I signed up for the highest tier of their Patreon for 1 month, and it's so good that I fully expect to sign up again for 1 month later in the year to catch up on their content.
  
  
• Pod Save America. They've kind of lost my interest now after everything imploded last November, but they deserve a lot of credit for explaining what has been going on with the government since 2016. I wouldn't be as well informed without them, and they have a lot of good campaigns like helping people understand how to register to vote, supporting Democrats to flip the House in two years, and helping people who are affected by Trump policies. I am not allowed to donate while overseas, so this goes on the to-do list when I am physically present in the US later this year.
  
  
• Jet Lag: The Game. Those guys are really fun, plus it's interesting to see new places. I'm seriously considering buying a lifetime membership to Nebula network for $300 USD. It seems like a great way to support an independent channel in these very weird times where the likes of PBS is threatened. Plus it seems like at least the Jet Lag guys are on my same wavelength, politically.
  
  
• The Try Guys. They went through that scandal but I thought handled it exemplararily (sp? is that a word? it should be). Plus I'm 99% sure they agree with me politically too. Although I don't watch as much anymore, I got a lot of entertainment from them from their older content back in the day. I wanna support but I don't want any of their merch and I do not necessarily want a subscription to 2ndtry (but I may opt for a month if I have to). 
  

Thirdly, it's time to get my community and wider giving and volunteering game together.

3. GIVING BACK TO GOOD CAUSES

Now, this one I have less of a handle on. I'm still trying to figure out where my time and money should go, where it will make the most difference, as well as provide the most personal satisfaction in terms of feeling good about how my time and money are being spent. 

Now that I want to give more, the problem is...to where? I want to give everything to everyone. I want everyone to have clean water and housing and food. I want people to have mosquito nets to avoid malaria. I want kids to get vaccinated and educated and fed. I want to support climate change prevention and mitigation and clean energy research. I want to support democracy and voting rights and for women to get access to abortion and minorities to get equitable pay and justice. I want to donate to everyone's medical go-fund-me. I want everyone with mental illness to get proper treatment and ongoing access to treatment. I want to avoid nuclear war. I want animals treated humanely, even if they are farmed to feed people in the end. I want to support students at my former grad school in my discipline. I want everyone to have access to basic and higher education. I want to fight mis and disinformation. I want criminal justice reform and to preserve our natural wild spaces. I want to promote socialism. I want better biosecurity research and for our laws to catch up with the risks from AI. I want people with disabilities to be supported. 

Gosh, I just don't even know where to start! My ADHD is running amok. 

Another question is how much? I asked ChatGPT and there are so many approaches! 1% of my income, 10%, a set amount each month, whatever I feel like giving each month, whatever I won't miss, in a big windfall at the end of the year. My ADHD really likes the idea of giving to a different charity every month, really diving deep into the decision each month, but I know from research that the best tactic is to give a regular amount so that charities have income that they can count on. 

On the other hand, I also know that my meager donation is not going to solve any of those problems I listed above, but I want to help!

Another way to give back is with time. Not only for good causes that help humanity, but with various fun activities and clubs that I like to help build community. I'm best at admin and am a super introvert, so door knocking and soup kitchen-ing - as tempting as they sound (I think that's what we all think of when we think of volunteering) -  is not going to be my bag. People are just not my strength. I have a lot of ideas (can't list here because they would definitely identify me, haha!), but I'm not even sure those clubs even want or need help! The only thing I've come up with for sure is:

• I've signed up to help do admin for the Green party here in NZ. 

Some choices are easy - in addition to my Giving Back Policy (TM) for family and friend's various causes, I'll keep donating to:

• The NZ Heart Foundation Lottery. 
  
• The NZ Coastguard Lottery. 

Both organizations save lives and I get to dream about winning a house/car/boat/trip/cash/whatever! Easiest decision ever. The giving amounts to about $510 NZD a year. There are 7 heart foundation lotteries at $30 each and 6 coastguard lotteries at $50 each each year. That adds up to about $43/mo.

Another way is to give blood and plasma. I'm looking into this!

I haven't received my first paycheck or my new contract yet, nor have I established a good routine/sense of how much time I actually have available for volunteering yet. While that settles, I will continue researching:

• what causes I feel most passionate about,
• where I can make the most difference,
• how much I feel comfortable giving in light of all of my goals, 
• which clubs/organizations I want to give my time to, 
• and the best strategy for giving back overall for me.
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Full-Time Salary - for the first time since 2013

My contract isn't finalized yet, but it looks like I'll soon be receiving a full-time salary for the first time since June 2013. Ever since then, my hours and FTE (full time equivalent) job percentage have been slowly cut. For a while, I was getting a PhD stipend, which helped fill in the gap. 

Even when I was earning a full-time salary, though, it wasn't at a very high rate. It was definitely enough for someone like me to live comfortably if I had flatmates and forewent a car, but it was not an amount that other people would consider a "good" salary. 

Now that I've been given a promotion and gotten additional post-doc funding, however, my salary is...uh...doubling what I currently make now. Not to get ahead of ourselves - for perspective, in USD, I'm still only making about 10% more than what I made prior to moving to NZ. Not great, but much MUCH more than I am making now. 

Plans for that money? For a while I allowed myself to dream about what is possible. Living alone? Absolutely. Travel? Sure, if I can get the time off. A cleaner once in a while, more massages, finally tackling health issues and starting up new fun, social, active hobbies? 100%. 

But then when I took a step back, I realized that the guaranteed full-salary funding ends in Sept 2026. Afterward, I will likely be going back down to 0.3 FTE (12 hours a week), and the salary associated with those hours - approximately $2100/mo, with a possible increase only if I can convince my boss to let me go casual. If that happened, the $35K overheads being paid on my $30K salary could be paid directly to ME instead of going to the University.

I need to ensure that I do not inflate my lifestyle so much that going back to living off of that little amount of money isn't doable. While I will use the money I saved up to travel, do my medical appointments, buy stuff, invest in my health, as it was intended for, I will compromise on my fixed costs: I will live with flatmates, but move to a place where I have my own bathroom (once my apartment complex gets sold and they kick us all out, OR my LL increases my rent or sells the place). 

Running the numbers on my next flat, I could possibly afford to pay about $350 pw if I got paid $65K from my base job that is highly likely to continue beyond Sept 2026. Looking around at studio and 1 bedroom flats, there are absolutely no options I'd want to live in for $350 per week in the Auckland CBD and surrounds. They're all so grotty! My quality of life will actually increase more if I get a 2 bedroom flat and share it with a flatmate. The one concession I'll make to myself is to have my own bathroom with bathtub as a non-negotiable. $350 pw should get me there. Ideally I'd find a flat in a good location with some outside space for a garden and good amenities: a pool, hot tub, tennis court, but all of that is lower on the list. I'd also like a flat with a parking spot that I can rent out to offset the rent a bit, have in case I ever buy a car, and offer to a flatmate to sweeten the deal, but again that isn't a deal-breaker. I guess I should start looking around now.

But first? I aim to spend every cent I make in the months of April and May, and in June, the first month I should receive a full-time salary in over a decade. It is time to LIVE.