June 2026 Budget Review

 June 2026 Budget

This is the last month I am earning a full salary. Things were extremely comfortable. I'm able to spend and save at levels like never before.

Income: $6,176.12

Salary: $5,760.60

Lending Crowd repayments: $145.90

Zagga repayments: $9.62

Garage rent: $260 

Spending: $4,473.33 (72.4%)

Remainder: $1,702.79 (to get transferred to US brokerage account, along with $990 from my new flatmate's bond - total $2692.79 NZD transferred via Wise, and $1,528.46 USD will be invested)

Spending categories (budgeted amount in parentheses):

Rent: $2,420 - no flatmate

Groceries: $351.73 ($500) - I cut out a lot of grocery store junk food and am mostly just eating when hungry lately (my eating out is atrocious this month though!). 

Electricity & Internet: $233.52 ($300) 

Eating out: $277.69 ($250) - Pizza hut pizza in honor of my dad after my defense ($55.43); thai from ya-so ($101.80); McDonalds three times 2 x @ $15.70 a pop, $28.60 once; Lowbrow cheeseburger and kumara fries and salad and chicken ($60.46). Since it's my last month of full time salary and I had passed my defense, I went overboard here a little! 

Charity: $35 ($50) - $5 to the nice lady playing violin outside of the grocery store; Heart Assoc. Lotto tix ($30)

Cell phone: $17 ($20) 

Medical: $337.75 ($100) -  Southern Cross premium ($237.49); nailbrush and multivitamins from the Warehouse ($23.29); Liquid paracetamol, probiotic, fiber gummies from Chemist Warehouse ($76.97); 

Misc: $750.64 ($1K)

alcohol: $0 

entertainment: $0 

self care: $143.10 - $61.50 for a haircut; $81.60 for a massage

fees: $75.80 - $10 fee for Cityhop membership; $40 for chatgpt monthly fee; $9.90 for trademe ad fees for flatmate search; another $15.90 in trademe ad fees to promote my ad

gifts: $0 

goods and wants: $372.75 - $3.50 for pop up hamper from look sharp; $25.41 for solar garden lights from mitre 10 or bunnings; $99 for a new digital scale, resistance bands, and two sweatshirts from kmart; $21.50 for new house slippers from the warehouse; $146.92 for 4x plants for flatmate interviews; new heater for flatmate's room; 2x teal silicone oven gloves to match my kitchen rug; 4x lithium batteries for room heater remote from the warehouse; $76.42 for two power scrubbers - hand held and extended pole - to clean off my bathroom ceiling which has dirty drips from the skylight and to clean off the algae from the balcony and patio tiles. 

transportation: $95.58 - flamingo or lime scooters x 6 - I'm trying to cut down on these! $79.01 cityhop car for 1 day.

travel: $63.41 - taxes on Singapore awards flight next year for fam reunion in Seattle

Savings and Funds Activity Update

• Since I've met all of my short- and medium-term savings goals, I'm no longer saving money, just investing it.
   
• My Squirrel balance sits at about $61.5K, with $7,792 of that invested in various peer-to-peer loans at $100 each at 4.75% to 6.5% p.a. 
  
  
• I keep investing more and more in the peer to peer loans, but I'll probably cap it at $10K or a certain percentage of my Net Worth.
  
  
• I have about $94.6K in Rabobank earning between 1.3 and 2.55% p.a. 
  
  
• I have one Zagga investment ($1K total) now. 
   
• I am (still) waiting for Lending Crowd to start up again.
  
  
  

Net Worth Tracking

NZ Savings (cash): $148,317.23 NZD. This does not include investments in peer to peer loans.

Peer to peer lending: $9,165.39 (Zagga, Squirrel, open principal at Lending Crowd)

• LendingCrowd: $427.62 NZD - principal still owed, repaid with interest in weekly installments
• Zagga: ~$930 NZD 
• Squirrel: $7,792 NZD

Kiwisaver: $144,731.65 NZD

US investments: $77,835.52 USD

Total Net Worth - NEW METHOD (June 2026): $338,462.68 NZD

I now only count long-term savings and investments in my Net Worth. This month's NW represents an increase of $7,660.40 NZD since last month, and an increase of $36,168.71 NZD since the beginning of the year. 

What is counted in my Net Worth now: 

• $60K NZD Former House Down Payment Fund (I will drip feed this into US investments)
• Kiwisaver (NZ retirement)
• Roth IRA
• Traditional IRA
• Berkshire Hathaway investment fund (non-dividend yield fund)
• Non-retirement investment account
  
  
  

FIF Tracking

NZ restricts foreign investments to $50,000 NZD (cost basis), otherwise you end up paying NZ tax each year - 5% of the total value of the investments each year, regardless if you sold or not. That sounds horrible and complicated, so I am tracking the cost basis of investments in my US brokerage account (I invested in my IRAs prior to moving to NZ and retirement accounts are exempt from the FIF). 

To avoid accidentally going over, I have turned off automatic reinvesting of any dividends.

Some hopeful news: the current NZ government has said it will increase the FIF threshold to $100K, and also change how the tax is levied if you go over the FIF 'de minimus' threshold. The changes would mean I could not only invest more than $50K NZD (cost basis) but also exceed the $100K FIF threshold and only pay tax if I sold the investments:

"This expansion would also allow all New Zealand residents who are subject to double tax due to citizenship or right to work in another country (primarily migrants from the United States) to use the RAM for their listed shares as well, regardless of the date they migrated. This is known as the extended RAM and is required because tax paid under traditional FIF calculation methods may not be creditable against United States taxes." 

Crossed fingers that they do something good for once. They are mostly good-for-nothings.

Cost basis value of US investments in NZD: $32,048.54

Able to invest without hitting FIF in NZD: $17,951.46