intern

Awesome names for that heavy, barely functional, but '90's era Campagnolo beautiful' rubbish. Euclid, Centaur, Icarus. Probably Icarus was the most prescient name at launch...

Immediately remembered that intro music for Vyfster. Can't recall much besides, though.

Allen Millyard is a freakin backyard genius. In other news related to moto noise, I have taken to doing enduro riding around my (rented) house with my 7 year old. He hits the Suzuki JR50, while I smash it on his JR80 (he's a bit nervous to use the clutch on such a tight course, he's worried he'll crash into his mom's M3). Yesterday we built a ramp together onto a wooden box, 5 inch plank up, and a 60cm drop off on the other side. He hasn't hit that yet, but I did a couple times...he wheelies the 50 all over the show though. When he gets home from school, the first thing I hear is 'hey Dad, let's ride motobikes that are too small for us'. Who could resist that Haven't had neighbours complain about the 2 stroke noise yet...despite some spirited revving, the lil 80 wheelies nice and you can do pretty mean powerslides too

This was the time the shares plummeted from above R70 to just R2 - around 2001-2002. Delisted from JSE in 2010 and went to the LSE...

My view is totally keep the hell away because I can't see the market sustaining itself with our biggest industry gone, immigration gone, and hundreds of thousands of unemployed in the wings. This is why I have reluctantly sold my house ahead of what I believe will be quite substantial pain. You're absolutely right, my view is a year or 2 into the future, totally derisked, with about 20 percent cash in the share market so I have plenty of liquidity. Please bear in mind though, most of my theories are half baked and therefore should never be taken as serious advice but rather treated as anecdotes from a know it all who knows blow all. I've been wrong plenty in the past and I may well be wrong now...apparently the market is going gangbusters, but that is beyond my comprehension so I am going to hold tight and wait it out on the supposition that the only risk I face now is the risk of losing out on hypothetical gain, so it isn't a tangible loss per se should I prove mistaken

I was just getting started in the tech industry in those heady days. I remember the panicked look in the eyes of DD shareholders...

First bike Suzuki JR50 - single gear, no clutch, very small = nice and easy to understand the concept of the throttle, kicking it into gear, balance, easy handling etc. Even bigger kids can get started and familiarise themselves with this dinky lil thing; I can ride it, to give you an idea. Second bike: Suzuki JR80. A lot more powerful and quite a bit bigger and heavier, 5 speed gearbox and clutch. Nice 2 stroke powerband. Didn't take long for my older boy to get the hang of clutch and gearbox. Was thinking of moving from the JR50 to a Kawa KX65 or KTM SX65, but the Suzuki is deffo a better 'step up'. The KX and SX are pretty powerful and 'vicious' on the power delivery, where the Suzbox is nice and gentle. Also, a brand new JR80 is $2995, with a 5 year old one on TradeMe going for around 2200, so it is at the same time affordable and holds value very well...

As have I. Auckland Airport another trading at a big discount; actually, a fair portion of the NZX is still trading at around a 30 percent discount, so I am loading up on companies I know, and hoping my poor understanding of economics and the economy somehow works out for me

I've heard mixed things about Smartshares; I quite like Sharesies because it's so simple (I too am dof) and it does give easy access to the US sharemarket, with a currency exchange fee of 0.4% to turn NZD into USD. It's immediate, too, so once you have dosh in Sharesies, it's a click of a button and you have USD to blow on parlous and fragile tech stocks etc

Does anyone here do Sharesies? Or what other options are you using to gamble with your life savings?

See what I did there

I just liked that Dave because I am lekker.

Hahaha - I use it to pick up CHICKS bru.

This is exactly what I have done. Now putting money into shares I believe are heavily COVID discounted. Irony of course being that some of the shares I'm buying are banks .

Meanwhile,back to insurers. Got two letters from AA Insurance this morning, saying: Hi Donovan, Great news Back in April, we announced that we had received fewer motor claims during the COVID-19 lockdown and would be providing a rebate to our motor customers. Now that we have a clearer picture of the impact on our claim costs, we’re pleased to be doing just that! Everyone who held a personal motor policy with us and paid premiums between 24 March - 13 May 2020 will get back approximately 42% of the policy’s base premium during that time. The base premium excludes all applicable taxes and levies. They are paying me back around $130 in premiums from the COVID lockdown when I couldn't use my cars.

When brinkmanship overtakes customer service.

This tactic sort of goes to the heart of the unethical business practices case Youi was embroiled in...

That's exactly how insurers work; you have a duty to be honest, if you aren't they have a perfectly legitimate reason to decline a claim (if it comes to that). Patches I would complain loudly in your case; the ombudsman is here https://www.ifso.nz/ and just raising the spectre of the ombudsman will likely secure a refund (because getting O involved costs the insurer way more than a refund will, even if they win). And the O has teeth, too, and isn't afraid to use them.

Stay away from Youi too! I used to write a ton of content for insurers in South Africa including Outsurance, Auto & General and MiWay. Youi was an SA company started by Outsurance for the ANZ market; Outsurance itself isn't the best reputed company, relying on 'cleverness' for its marketing (look at the stunningly smart name). Youi has a similar approach...and it was busted big time for dodgy sales practices here a few years ago (around '15 or '16 I think) and their whole sales schtick is just that, schtick. Probably a good fit with Tower, come to think of it. Anyway, the real test of insurance is never what it cost, but how well it performs at claim time. And in my experience, AA is A+ so any stuff I have covered with them, I have confidence that it is indeed covered...

Slack. Go with AA Insurance, problem free (and I have had cause for claim in the past, always the best test of an insurer) and even that was smooth, fast and easy. Any changes to the premium, policy, your details etc, you get an email confirming same straight away. Avoid Tower like the plague. Effing useless.

I did a lot of that sort of thing too in the 'university years' (I didn't go to uni). Along with SP and Freddy, we also had Monty Python, The History of the World Part 1, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Natural Born Killers etc. There was also copious amounts of mountain cabbage going around with it all (and which accounted for substantial Doritos consumption)! Ah good times...

Hahaha found the only other person ever to watch Freddy Got Fingered

Haha, the only reason I keep it simple is because I am myself pretty simpel.

I do all my budgeting in my head and keep a close eye on expenses with the proviso that if you can't afford to pay cash for it (if it isn't a house) then you can't afford it. And I apply the Dickensian model for financial affairs as expressed by Mister Micawber in 'David Copperfield' (Charles Dickens' father was jailed in a debtor's prison for much of his - Charles' - young life): "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

This is a good thing; with the PM's daily standups and other parties prevented from even having campaign launches (Labour conveniently got theirs in just ahead) and prevented from campaigning, it is distinctly weighted towards the incumbents. That old curmudgeon Winston Peters probably put it best when he made clear that he would tip the government over if elections weren't delayed. Watch how we will have few if any fatalities from the latest infections of the heavy flu. But we'll be paying 440 million a day for the new lockdown, and have just dished out another 510 million in wage subsidies. The bottomless pit of taxpayer money just keeps giving and giving. Until, of course, you run out of other people's money. As Ernest Hemingway wrote in 'The Sun Also Rises'...how did you go broke? "Two ways. Gradually, at first, and then suddenly."