What a roller coaster November was. With the election results and intense emotions I had to process afterward, it honestly feels like it was three months long. It is already hard to believe it has been less than a month of knowing who the next Prez is, and steeling myself for the awfulness to begin in earnest. This time around I'm going to try to avoid the news, though. Twitter is basically dead, and I've gone private and really thinking of deleting my account. That would also cut down on the amount of news I absorb accidentally.
In every other way, November felt like it was over in a flash. I was in Australia for the last week and a half of it for my PhD. Yay for food costs being covered by work!!
With my impending move (TBD), I took the opportunity to learn what it was like to live in a 1 bedroom apartment (with full kitchen) in a building with some great amenities: hot tub, heated indoor pool, and gym.
Oh man, was it ever bliss to live alone!! Part of that is because my new flatmate is annoying me. It is really pushing me towards getting a place by myself. I have been lulled into a sense of comfort from the past two iterations of flatmates being fantastic, and now that I have one that I do not really want to talk to at all, I want out.
I've also been looking at several complexes in Auckland that have good amenities. My current flat doesn't have ANY amenities. Surprisingly, while away, I didn't enjoy the hot tub as much as I thought I would - I mean, I can just take a bath if I want to lounge in hot water. The joy of a hot tub is sharing it with friends. As a solo person, the pool was a much bigger draw for me. So now I know I can include complexes that have a pool but not a hot tub in my favorites list. I plan on joining a gym with fun workout classes once my PhD thesis is submitted, so the apartment gym is not as important to me. I'm not big on weight machines, etc., but I would maybe use the treadmill or elliptical if it is available once in a while. The real issue is that I like saving too much - having a flatmate is likely the only way I can keep saving significant amounts, particularly because any new flat is going to cost a lot more than my current one because my landlord has tried to keep my rent affordable to keep me in the flat.
In other news, my boss and I have applied for funding for 0.7 FTE of my salary starting next March, which is when I should have my thesis submitted. We'll see if that funding shakes out, but I think I have a good chance, because the person who decides who gets funding urged my boss to apply specifically for me to stay in NZ. If it does eventuate, I'll be rolling in it, because the other 0.3 FTE will be covered by my current job, meaning I will earn a full salary for the first time in NZ since ...2012-ish? The total salary is over $100K NZD, which is approximately 3x what I've been making for many years now, and 2x what I currently make. In a future post, I will dare to dream of what such a budget would look like...
And, speaking of budgets, let's get to it:
November 2024 Budget
This was the first month since my PhD stipend officially ended and I only had my 0.5 FTE salary as income.
Income: $3,627.60
Salary: $3,054.08
Lending Crowd repayments: $257.92
Garage rent: $260
Overage from Oct: $55.60
Spending: $2,093.40 (57.7%)
Spending categories:
Rent: $1060 - my portion of rent is $265 per week.
Groceries: $396.98 ($500). Food was covered by work for the last week and a half of the month while I was in Australia.
Power + Internet: $224.06 - my share of two month's worth of bills
Eating out: $44.50 ($150)
Charity: $60 ($60)
Cell phone: $27 ($35) - top up
Medical: $0 ($100)
Misc: $230.86 ($485) -
alcohol, entertainment, self care, fees, gifts, travel: $0
goods
and wants: $200.48 - fave snacks from US, Zagga investment (have to find a better category for this!), face masks, uniqlo sling bag, 2x uniqlo folding sunglasses (brilliant!)
transportation: $30.38 - 4x short e-scooter rides, 1x evenings of Mevo car hire
Nov 2024 Savings: $1500 (41%); $34.20 moved to income in Dec 2024.
Savings and Funds Activity Update
- My third 1 year $5K CD has now matured, earning me $260.58 (minus taxes).
I started a new $5K CD for 6 mo as that has the highest interest rate
right now (5.2% p.a.). I'll just keep chasing the (kinda) high rates until I can
finish my PhD and figure out how to invest instead of keeping tons of
money in savings accounts.
- The $1500 I saved from my income this month went to my $10K Medical Fund (see sidebar). Along with
interest earned in my savings accounts and term deposit that matured
this month, that fund is now at 99% complete. OOOH so close! Savings in future months will go
towards finishing this off, a $1K New Smartphone Fund, a $2K New Laptop Fund, and a $5K Tax
Advisor Hire Fund.
- Now that Lending Crowd is a bust, I have also decided to start investing a small % of my $$ in Zagga, another peer-to-peer lending platform for real estate. The returns are ~9+% p.a. for a year or less. I now have two loans out:
- $50 @ 9.85% (they say $1K is the minimum investment, but I tested making my first loan out at $50 and it went through OK????)
- $1K @ 9%
Net Worth Tracking
NZ Savings: $123,309.19 NZD
Peer to peer lending:
- LendingCrowd: $3,368.80 NZD - principal still owed, paid in weekly installments
- Zagga: $1,050 NZD
Kiwisaver: $106,637.50 NZD
US investments: $59,711.39 USD
Total Net Worth (Nov 2024): $335,874.85 NZD (an increase of +$15,456.90 NZD)
