August 2026 Budget: Chaos Reigns

August 2026 Budget

In a word: horrible. It was the last month of 0.7 FTE post-doc income, so things were still very comfortable, financially. But everything else was just...STRESS: 

• Losing my 18 year 0.3 FTE job, liaising with a union rep, deciding what to do, if I'm going to fight and how far I'm willing to take it - all the while continuing to do the job and not getting paid for it(!),
• difficult thesis revisions due on 2 October, but it is not clear what emails, file storage, software and library resources will still be available after 31 August once my post-doc contract ends (and therefore official access to everything Uni-related), so fighting with the IT people and my dept admin to get a straight answer - but they all conflict, of COURSE. Making back up plans to get these resources from the Uni for free so I can literally finish my GODDAMN PhD, 
• backing up 18 year's worth of emails that I was about to lose and uploading them to my Uni google email account (they let students keep that indefinitely), 
• changing all my professional email accounts to be associated with a new email address, 
• testing and figuring out how I could maintain access to all 18 year's worth of files and documents on our project shared drive, 
• organising and clearing out my office, 
• finalising a side research project I'm using to train up my RA team, but the data is looking bad and the machine tech is super defensive about it so having to stroke his ego to get anything done, 
• counseling and trying to be there for a friend about to go through a major surgery, doing the same for a friend going through a terrible break up, and the same again for a friend who is about to lose her dad to kidney disease but they have a very complicated and harrowing relationship,
• dealing with my own grief and complicated feelings about my PhD after losing my dad
• trying to finish up post-doc fieldwork, labwork, process the data, start writing the paper and liaising with colleagues, presenting that work to the public,  
• dealing with low iron (it was 9), getting that sorted, as well as a CT scan I needed to deal with to confirm what I think now was a kidney stone attack back in May, while also dealing with perimenopause symptoms being extreme. I was having like 30 hot flashes a day for weeks, super duper unpleasant,
• packing up and getting ready for my US trip,
• dealing with my flatmate's new boyfriend, who is a walking red flag, 
• oh yeah and just basic living: feeding and cleaning myself and my environment 

It's all super exhausting and I just don't have the bandwidth to explain in any more detail here.

Income: $4,613.55

Salary: $4,257.44

Lending Crowd repayments: $26.92

Zagga repayments: $4.19

Garage rent: $365 

Spending: $4,050.67 (87.8%)

Remainder: $562.88 (kept in my banking account to use post-August when I don't have any income or employment) 

Spending categories (budgeted amount in parentheses):

Rent: $1,100 

Groceries: $399.79 ($500) - lower than usual due to high eating out spending this month - STRESS

Electricity & Internet: $170.93 ($200) - flatmate paid half

Eating out: $375.16 ($250) - very over budget. Things are stressful. I relied on the campus's Tank franchise for dinner and a smoothie treat way too often: 4 times I got a small banana and strawberry smoothie and a half green guac wrap - at $21.70 to $27 a pop. 3x McDonalds @ $16.30 - $24.20 each time. $31.71 for Sal's pizza once. $56.92 for dinner out with visiting friends from overseas at Szimpla. $0 for dinnner at Wynyard Pavilion with friends after doing a walking murder mystery thing around Auckand - fun! I had a $60 voucher for the restaurant for winning 2nd place during my birthday Pubble thingie there. I also got my usual Subway for the plane - $9. I took two friends out for a delicious Thai dinner and dessert after they helped me move and clean everything out of my office after losing my job - $124.03

Charity: $305 ($60) - $100 and $65 to two coastguard charity lottos; $110 to the Green Party of NZ (its an election year and someone was matching donations); $30 to the heart association charity lotto. 

Cell phone: $17 ($20) - Skinny topup

Medical: $490.04 ($100) -  Southern Cross premium ($237.49); $16.50 for Buccaline to try to ward off catching an infection on my flights; $219.52 for the nurse's appointment for my ferritin IV; $16.53 for taxes on my ferritin IV (it was way more but most of it was budgeted for last month). 

Misc: $1,142.75 ($1K)

alcohol: $0 

entertainment: $0 

self care: $252.48 - $66.63 for a hair cut and wash; $56.38 for a pedicure ahead of my US trip - it's sandals season in the US!; $68.27 for a brow wax and tint; lash tint; and chin wax; $61.20 for a 30 min massage.

fees: $17.50 - $10 fee for Cityhop membership; $7.50 for parking fees for friend's car while helping me clean out my office

gifts: $457.77 - $59.91 for whittakers chocolate for family in US; $169 for an nz geo subscription for friend coming to visit me in Feb; $195.35 for kiwi gifts for family; $33.51 for more gifts. 

goods and wants: $121.99 - $11.99 replacement shelf insert (didn't end up fitting, no returns sadly); $110 for a new hoodie and sweatpants set for the plane. 

transportation: $209.86 - flamingo or lime scooters x 16. 3x Zilch car share for the evening.

travel: $83.15 - for super shuttle to and from the airport

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. 
  
  If the FIF limit increases later this year, I'll be investing a large chunk of my savings within my US brokerage account.
  
  
• My Squirrel balance sits at about $61.6K, with $9,101.54 of that invested in various peer-to-peer loans at $100 each at 5% to 5.5% p.a. 
  
  
• I keep investing in peer to peer loans since I do not have another vehicle in NZ. They seem to get paid off faster than I can invest $100 at a time, though. 
  
  
• I have about $95K in Rabobank earning between 1.55 and 2.7% p.a. 
  
  
• I have one Zagga investment ($1K total). It gets paid off at like $10 per month. I cannot figure out how to track how much I'm still owed, etc. as the platform does a terrible job at showing me those figures (or they are not available. This was a trial and I do not think I'll be investing more money using this platform in the future. 
   
• I am (still) waiting for Lending Crowd to start up again.
  
  
  

Net Worth Tracking

NZ Savings (cash): $147,559.07 NZD. This does not include investments in peer to peer loans.

Peer to peer lending: $10,336.94 (Zagga, Squirrel, open principal at Lending Crowd)

• LendingCrowd: $335.40 NZD - principal still owed, repaid with interest in weekly installments
• Zagga: ~$930 NZD 
• Squirrel: $9,101.54 NZD

Kiwisaver: $146,247.59 NZD - this is down right now

US investments: $83,374.04 USD (includes SoFi Berkshire Hathaway and Vanguard taxable, Roth, and Traditional IRAs)

Total Net Worth - NEW METHOD (August 2026): $362,182.24 NZD

I now only count long-term savings and investments in my Net Worth. This month's NW represents an increase of $7,170.70 NZD since last month, and an increase of $59,888.26 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 lots of NZ tax each year on it - 5% of the total value of the investments each year, regardless if you sold any shares 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), so I do not go over.

To avoid accidentally going over, I have turned off automatic reinvesting of any dividends and capital gains. Those go into a settlement fund account (not money market fund) at Vanguard, where I will have more control over when they get invested and be able to track them better. 

Some hopeful news here: 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." 

This would be AMAZING for my ability to invest, as I cannot invest from NZ without running into PFIC issues which would require complicated US tax forms that accountants charge thousands and thousands of dollars to fill out each year. 

Crossed fingers that the current NZ government does something good for once. They are mostly good-for-nothings right now.

Cost basis value of US investments in NZD: $34,165.24

Able to invest without hitting FIF in NZD: $15,834.76 ($50K limit currently)