intern

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."

My approach to saving has always been very simple - I invest in my debt, and I make sure my debt is all in my property. If I had multiple accounts, I'd just get confused; I also think paying bits and pieces into various accounts, or even paying things like rates or holidays or other stuff over time is a case of fooling yourself (and yes man is infinite in his capacity for self-deception). Anyway, it seems to work for me just fine, though I am not by any stretch of the imagination more than 'doing fine'. Right now though, I don't have any debt to invest in, so I do have to find something or somewhere to make money work. While being acutely aware than while it takes a Herculean effort to assemble 10c, it takes just about none to return the cash register to zero again.

Hang in there boet. Bit of a *** year all round so far.

An excerpt which I found noteworthy (emphasis on the last sentence mine): It is also clear that around the world the average age of death of Covid-19 patients is near that of the average life expectancy of that country. This is also clear for New Zealand (figure 1), where the shape of the age distribution of Covid-19 deaths closely approximates the spread of deaths over the same period the year before. A formal test for differences in counts between these data sources shows no evidence of difference. It is very difficult to argue from this plot, that Covid-19 is shortening life spans.

Guys, who still thinks lockdowns are the way to combat the Rona? Read this piece from Simon Thornley (his bio here, he is an epidemiologist) https://unidirectory.auckland.ac.nz/profile/s-thornley And the piece in question: https://www.covidplanb.co.nz/our-posts/is-new-zealands-covid-19-story-past-its-use-by-date/ Note the bits which point out how NON-LETHAL covid really is. If you're under 90, 80 or 70 years of age.

Ten years in and I still feel the outside of the wall. Right up until I'm back in SA. Then I'm fumbling around on the inside.

Project looking great Dave! So you're sold on the impact driver then? Was thinking aboot this on the weekend,I also once wondered what the point of an ID was until I got one. And when you're building a deck or whatever with hundreds of 5mm hex bugle head 100mm coach screws, oh boy do you like that rattle!

Aaah, the old mudblaster...

Re impact driver vs drill - once you've used an impact driver you'll know it is WAY better than a drill. No comparison.

Ryobi, Milwaukee and AEG are made by the same company, Techtronic Industries, started by a German dude called Horst Pudwill. Think about that for a minute. Not content with a silly surname, Horst's parents called him Horst. I'd probably be OK with it, though, what with all those bazillions and all.

Naas one china. Right now it's only 'click' though haha. Hope to remove the burden from you 'soon' though...

Have made payment Patches.

Impact wrench and torch please sir. Will collect when you plague infested aucklanders are released from your gilded cages. IE probably never.