Life Update
- Two adages come to mind when I think of this past month:
- When it rains, it pours. (And not just because it rained most of this month)
- 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)
