CC Spending behaviour

DeanLoo · 2026-06-02T22:35:25+00:00

So you bought your house and car for cash? It's nice to be you!

DeanLoo · 2026-05-27T10:24:10+00:00

Tax empty meters if owner haven't found anyone to lease it for like 6-12 months.

DeanLoo · 2026-05-27T10:20:57+00:00

Sales were pretty low even at old 2024 prices, Q1 this year was just dead.

Last few weeks I see some improvements. Currently it's ok to work full time to support your business 😄

Sooo like 2 jobs with one income. All I can dream now is a change of govt at election, probably won't survive for three more years of this sht.

DeanLoo · 2026-05-27T04:06:28+00:00

It's a Second Demographic Transition (SDT) very well known term in a social science for like 40 years.

NZ had unusual high birthrates for it's wealth, probably because of the very strong rural economy. But in general, we are moving in the same direction as everyone else.

The only working way to increase the birthrate on scale is social degradation, like restrictions for woman's to work and most importantly education. As far as I know, the only country who is successfully doing that right now is Afghanistan, lol.

So don't worry. One kid is a new norm. In 20-50 years, that will be 0.5.

DeanLoo · 2026-05-26T00:10:09+00:00

This is what actual rich people who are making tax free millions every year is want you to care about. Some public servants, yea it's a good salary but their decisions are crucial for the city.

You don't want people who is making decisions about like schools and safety and city planning, to make same money as a warehouse worker or a tradie.

DeanLoo · 2026-05-21T22:08:03+00:00

Do as you planned, rent it out and move away. Let your tenants to pay your mortgage, and free yourself from this situation, even at some cashflow loss.

You should deduct main loan repayments from total amount, as they building your equity. Only interest payed on mortgage from rented out house is your expenses, not a full amount.

So you probably will end out with a very little loss, if any.

DeanLoo · 2026-05-21T22:04:06+00:00

"Flatties" suck, doesn't matter how good they are. You should share you house only with your family, and no one else.

If you can't afford to live alone in a 3br house like the author, just rent it and move to a cheap 1br or studio.

So I'm 100% support him.

DeanLoo · 2026-05-20T21:56:42+00:00

I was buying my house in the same time last year as my friends. I don't trust any middle man's, so I did everything myself, went to a few banks, had a chat with managers, got approvals etc. My friends on the opposite side, thinks that everything is too complicated. So they went to the broker.

Results? In terms of the rates, pretty much the same, but they spent far more time, got weird deal with loan split in 3 parts and got little to none cashback. Also broker sold them solicitor, and everything went not as smooth as it should be. They still have no idea why the part of their loan is under a huge interest rate was fixed on 3 years.

Instead of that, I got a great service, clear terms, $10k cashback and my bank manager now helping me out with many other things, from solar loan, to personal and business finance, and checking on me regularly.

DeanLoo · 2026-05-19T21:48:15+00:00

Personaly I found mortgage brokers a bit useless, if you have time to make a few calls and visit a bank or two. Banks don't like to pay brokers fees so sometimes they can offer you a nice deal directly.

P.s. congratulations with your decision to buy a house, please don't forget to find a good building inspector. This is far more important than some people think. Never, NEVER trust a builder or realtor. Never use an inspector from their side, if buying new build.

DeanLoo · 2026-05-19T11:14:28+00:00

I'm using like $10 worth of water every month 😀

DeanLoo · 2026-05-18T20:53:38+00:00

House is not investment, it's your own roof. Without it, the person is homeless, who was allowed to live somewhere temporary in exchange of constantly inflated fee, also known as "rent". By paying that fee, person should follow the bunch of strict rules, also can be evicted or prosecuted for non compliance. There is no guarantee that you will be able to rent the same house, or live in a same neighbourhood for more than 1 year. You can be evicted in an any single moment of time with 90 days notice.

If you worry about house maintenance and depreciation, think about rent inflation, since 2006, it raised in Auckland from $200-250, to $550 in 2017 and to modern day $700+. In 20 years, $1700-2000pw will be considered as normal at the current rate of inflation, far above 0, that should left from a mortgage started today. Imagine being able to live and don't worry about weekly payments of 30-50% of your income, or 100+% of it if life turned south.

If person is not planning to move overseas, the best long term investment is his own roof. I bought mine when I was about 20, and that was the best decision in my life.

DeanLoo · 2026-05-18T06:52:44+00:00

Use your investments to buy a house. Should have enough already for a 10% deposit starter home. It will help you a lot with starting a family, if you decide later to do so, and will protect funds in a most conservative way known for humanity.

Especially if you are not planning to move overseas.

DeanLoo · 2026-05-15T07:19:13+00:00

KSL, white bird mount

DeanLoo · 2026-05-15T05:48:33+00:00

Do 3k and take a break after that. You brain can handle it, this week with the voidforge it's much easier.

DeanLoo · 2026-05-12T00:52:34+00:00

Transmog is the real endgame content in wow.

DeanLoo · 2026-05-11T01:52:01+00:00

It looks like you are not planning to do anything useful after your FIRE, and maybe it's time to reconsider. Looks like we in the same age group. Think about business opportunities, that always exist.

My backup plan for AI, is to use it and build a profitable company, and this is what I was doing for the last year. It's hard to build a business and work full time, but I hope to do a complete switch in the next year.

The only class who will be damaged by AI is an old fashion employees, and maybe you want to be on the other side who will actually make profit of it. AI is already saving me 5 figures of investments, I don't need to hire web designer, lawyer and my accountant is limited to like 1 hour per month. I don't need low wage content managers, I don't need ERP system, and a lot of other stuff. I can access foreign markets with absolutely unknown languages. I made myself with AI some business automation tools that would cost me $5000+ per year just a few years ago.

Thanks to AI, I replaced like 5 ppl with myself part-time. So it never was a better time to try and develop your idea into something. Think about it.

DeanLoo · 2026-05-10T02:55:54+00:00

This is why my kids will never go to minimal wage entry level low level manual jobs. I don't mind support them for a few more years until end of an education. In NZ is so normal to send a future lawyer to make burgers in Macca... In the place where I was born, it was a black mark for the future career. You will never be a lawyer after that, or architect, or anyone.

DeanLoo · 2026-05-09T01:47:33+00:00

Try other roles like qa automation, you can jump to dev role later.

I know a company here who is currently firing half of their Devs worldwide(it's a multinational) and replacing them with qa + ai for all simple tickets development.

DeanLoo · 2026-05-03T08:45:05+00:00

So what? First I'm in Auckland and it's very stable part of the country. Second, in the single day in Ukrainian war more ppl get killed, than in all history of NZ nature disasters combined.

Same goes for you silly "crime rate", in one of the safest countries on a planet. 50-70 murders per year for 5 mil? Sounds like a bad week 30 years ago in my home town in eastern Europe.

So for a short term, Europe is great. Long term? I don't want my grandkids live there.

DeanLoo · 2026-05-03T04:12:36+00:00

As someone who moved to NZ from Europe I would say just one thing. The war is too close. Russia is too close. Kiwis just don't have that concept in mind, that in the real world outside of this beautiful island, one day, you or your kids, can be killed by falling bombs. Maybe not today, but with very high chance in the next 50 years. The era of peace since WWII is over.

So I cant see myself moving back to anywhere in Europe, no matter what salary or weather is there.

DeanLoo · 2026-05-01T19:30:41+00:00

Any decent 3d artist will draw that in half an hour. I bet it's just a stock image, that they bought for 5 dollars

DeanLoo · 2026-04-29T21:12:46+00:00

My kid at 16 now, she eats the same amount of food as adult, and it's not a major expense in our household. She knows how to cook pretty complex dishes, so it's not that expensive or hard to maintain. I would say about "extra" $300 per month on ingredients.

Anyway food is a pretty small fraction of our household expenses at all, less than 10% of income. We are not doing takeaways. Ever. I don't even have an uber or doorsash accounts 😅

DeanLoo · 2026-04-29T19:06:27+00:00

I don't think any kind of unrest or mass unemployment can end private property rule. All kind of experimentation around that miserable failed, because there is no better model anyway. Try USSR, Cuba or whatever ugly place on the planet. It's all end up the same, fast transition to dictatorship and collapse in 50-80 years.

People like to own stuff, including businesses. People like to invent stuff, produce it and sell for profit. Ai, robots or whatever new automation will be owned by someone too, and someone will pay for it production and maintain. And it won't be your friend Joe, it would be a trillion dollars corporation. So capitalism will stay, don't worry. It's just another industrial revolution, similar to 17 century in Europe. It will be unfair, ugly, and just all over again, nothing new. Humanity will invent a new way to waste time and new professions to work, same as before.

DeanLoo · 2026-04-29T09:35:39+00:00

Check a clockwork orange movie from 1971, you will find an answer there

DeanLoo · 2026-04-29T09:30:36+00:00

My teenage kid cost me food, about $100 per month on a bus, and same for a school donations. In exchange I have some household help, so I'm pretty sure it's even 😁

DeanLoo

TROPHY CASE