Big Trip Plans: Fire and Ice Travel

Dreaming of traveling--I have the itch! Here are my top big destinations for post-PhD travel:

1. Hawai'i to see friends from grad school + see Kauai'i, which I missed when I lived there
   
2. Iceland to see, well, everything
3. Places around NZ/Southern Hemisphere:
1. Cook Islands/Rarotonga
2. Stewart Island for kiwis
3. Tiritiri Mitangi overnight
4. Great Barrier Island
5. Northland again
6. northern South Island again
7. East Cape
8. Samoa
9. Tonga
10. Adelaide
11. Perth
12. Antarctica?
13. Great Walks backpacking trips
    
4. all of Europe, basically--river cruises with my Mom & aunt? See German family
   
5. Canada/Vancouver area
   
6. Greece
7. stop in London to see friends
8. southwest US
9. Northern CA/Eastern Oregon

The NZ islands, Hawai'i, and Iceland are the top, though. I'll need to map out the routes and airlines to use to figure out how to get enough airpoints to do it all on the cheap. Who flies where?

A rough itinerary would be:

Within NZ (mini trip post PhD): Use Qantas airpoints.

NZ --> Raro/Cook Islands (mini trip post PhD). Use Air NZ points. 

NZ --> Hawai'i (meet friend from Canada there) post PhD. Fly into HNL using $$ (currently $500 NZD; would take 40K points to fly from Auckland one way). Give talk at former grad school, see friends. Leave extra luggage at friends house (stay with friends). Fly into Hilo (7.5K miles one way) to see more friends (stay with friends), give talk at organisation there & see old grad advisor; fly up to Lihue, Kauaii (7.5K points one way; stay at friend's condo if her parents aren't there) and back to HNL (7.5K points one way) on side trips using Hawaiian airmiles. Fly onwards toward my family home in the US using $$, currently about $600 NZD. Could get to Boston or Orlando to see friends for 30K points, nonstop flight. Stay at home a while, do temp jobs to earn money while applying for permanent jobs.

East Coast US --> Iceland (before starting new job; again with friend hopefully). Best time to go: August for traveling around hiking, Sept for Northern Lights (could try to straddle this time). Currently prices are ~$850 USD return. Could use all manner of points: American airmiles (60K going through Heathrow; very long flight times), Delta (72K points flying from JFK; would need to get there separately), United (60K flying through Newark).

A Look To 2021 Finances

As I (feel like I've) mentioned a million times before, I've gone back to a part time PhD, so this impacts my finances quite a bit. I also hope to finish up my PhD in 2021, so all my finances will change no matter what in 2021. 2021 will be pretty tumultuous. There will be at least 3 "phases" of income:

1. Jan - ?? 2021. $2,417 per month. My PhD funding runs out in a few months, I'm not sure when but I should know more soon. My supervisor has floated some ideas for filling the time gap between the funding ending and me finishing officially much later in the year, but I don't want to count on that $$. My stable income is a part time research job, a 0.3 FTE appointment, where I make a little less than $600 per paycheck (every 2 weeks). That income is stable through end of June, and my contract beyond June is not guaranteed but is very highly likely to continue.

2. From ?? early 2021 to end June 2021. $1,177 per month. I need gap PhD funding and my current part time 0.3 FTE for work contract ends June 30. My work salary has the potential to rise slightly, esp if I decide to increase my FTE to a more livable income. This is the most likely scenario (me increasing my FTE to get a more livable wage), if I can't find gap PhD funding.

3. From July 2021 - PhD end (??). Let's just say the end is Dec 2021, though I'm aiming for hand in in August 2021. My actual defense could take up to 6 months after hand in (or longer, depending...). Funding in this period is entirely up in the air, though my supervisor has said she can write some PhD funding into the new financial year budgets, starting July 2021. Additionally, I could elect to increase the amount of time I spend at my FTE job, say 0.5. Things should be looking up again (financially at least) around July.

 

The time I'm most concerned about is from ?? 2021 til end June. My only income may be my 0.3 FTE income--or about $1,177 per month for a normal month of 2 paychecks/4 rent payments. In that case my budget could look like this:

 

Non-negotiable/fixed expenses:

My rent is about as low as it can get for the accommodations I enjoy most at $260 per week. With the $75 per week car park income, it is effectively $185 per week, or $740 per month. My lease is through June. I have looked and you cannot find a cheaper, safe place to move without 1. giving up the car park + rental income of $75 per week and 2. incurring greater transportation and other expenses. I'm not willing to even discuss moving.

Variable Expenses (Needs)

Utilities: about $80-$150 per month (my portion). It's more during winter, esp if I work from home like I plan to do, but I will need to pull this extra $$ from Misc or existing savings.

Groceries: $400 per month usually--will need to cut this down dramatically. I'm exploring some low cost recipes at the moment. Rice and beans it is!

Cell phone: I am already on the cheapest rollover plan at $16 every 28 days at Skinny. Could try out the $9 plan but this may be more costly due to no rollover data? Plus I have a Skype subscription I use to call my family every week--this is also non negotiable.

Other

Eating Out: This varies a lot based on what social things are on and how busy I am. It will need to be cut back quite a bit.

Charity: will go to $0

Medical: will go to $0 temporarily--my emergency fund will pay for emergencies. I will postpone all elective medical treatments (dentist, dr check ups, etc) until I get a higher paying job (I anticipate not finding anything until 2022).

Misc: $50 per month. There will always be something I need, a trinket to pick up for a friend's birthday, transport to pick up a big haul of groceries, etc.

Savings: will go to $0

 

Worst case scenario, I will cut way back on everything and use up some of my self care slush Fund, Peer to Peer lending $$, or other savings to get by between ?? and end of June.

Quick $$ Money $$ Check In

Just a quick look at my December 2020 money stats and my anticipated 2021. I can't be bothered to look at what I spent this year. I am not sure I'd learn anything from it, anyway. This year was far from normal. Plus, I'm still solvent, owe $0, and everything will change in 2021, anyway. My PhD funding runs out in a few months (even though I won't be done so can't get a new job yet). 

 

December Overview

Summary: December was great in terms of $$. It was the first full month after going part time in my PhD again. Got paid 3x (3 paycheck month), so that helped me ease into the lower income bracket. 

 

Car Park Woes and Success! 

My garage renter put in his notice so I got depressed because was pretty sure that $70 per week was disappearing. After going part time, I definitely now depend on that $$ to make paying my rent easier. I did a lot of worrying about that, because a) people are still working from home and not commuting into the city as much, b) NZ is still only allowing citizens and residents into the country, so the number of tourists is way way way down, and c) the Uni has just shut down for the summer, drastically reducing the number of people that need car parks nearby. I put up tons of flyers, ads, Facebook posts, etc. I was trying to avoid paying the $100 TradeMe ad fees, but when all that didn't pan out, I bit the bullet and took out the ad. After about a month (and a few days before my garage renter's tenancy was ending), I found a new garage renter at $75 per week--a $5 increase from my previous renter! They haven't given me a solid end date, but I'm hoping it is at least until June-ish. It has only been a few weeks but so far they are paying rent on time. It really helps, and now my effective weekly rent is $185, or about $800 a month. In an overpriced Auckland, I'm grateful that I found a place I like with reasonable rent.

$1500+ Saved!

Oh it is nice to have good news to report, eh? Because December was a 3 paycheck month (and I didn't go too crazy with the gift spending), I had over $1500 left over at the end of the month. It went to my 2021 Post-PhD Travel Fund. I am really hoping I can get this PhD done this year, or at least written up and handed in. After hand in, I will have a bit of down time and will likely take off some time to travel. NZ still likely won't be open for traveling without coming back and paying $3K to isolate for a long while, so I'll aim to go to places around NZ and wherever our travel bubble is open at the time (Cook Islands, maybe Australia, etc). That fund is now 60% complete with just below $3K in it.

I'm hoping I can convince a friend or two to come along with me. 

All Other Spending in Check!

This is partly because some of my December expenses were prepaid in November (weird thing with the utility bill because we switched companies and put the bill in my flatmate's name), and partly because I just didn't spend a ton. I mostly went to free shindigs at friend's houses and got rides to places from people. I still do not feel very comfortable going out in crowds, so no eating at restaurants. House parties/game nights/movie nights are where it was at.

For Misc spending, Gifts are clearly a one-off for December, and make up most of the spending:

Alcohol included a jug of cider to share for a friend's successful PhD defense, entertainment was for a Christmas light show, self care included 3 massages, and transportation was to top up my AT Hop card. Fees were also prominent this month, due to all the things I advertised and sold on TradeMe. It irks me to no end that posting an ad isn't free like in the US (craigslist), but TradeMe is where everyone goes in NZ, so you pretty much HAVE to advertise there to get anything sold. In any case, almost $130 down the drain just for advertising fees.

Bike Sold!

Speaking of TradeMe fees, I sold my bike that I bought to use for exercise during lockdown and just put together in August on TradeMe. I just wasn't using it. I had gotten it thoroughly checked out by a local bike shop, so lost about $150 on the whole shebang, but it meant $250 cash in my pocket this month.

Back into Peer to Peer Lending!

I took a hiatus on Peer to Peer lending for most of 2020. I (still) am wary what the pandemic will do to the economy or people's situations, and I think we'll be seeing a lot more defaulting than normal, so wanted to be a little cautious. Still, that fund (about $5K) is meant to be 'play money' and the NZ market is doing OK. So I recently have tentatively dipped my toe back into it, carefully selecting the loans I lend to, and only in $50 increments (the minimum) for each loan. Spreading my risk, hopefully. 

Net Worth Almost at $200K!

My net worth (counting USD as NZD) is at $198K. Oooh so close to $200K! It all depends on the market, of course, but that feels quite good. My goal was $250K by 50 ($500K by 60) and I'll be 43 in 2021, so I might just make it if I'm lucky.

So that is December. 

2021 will be weird, at least financially. Post on that next.