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)