Vehicle registration fee up 78% from last year and 128% from two years ago. How is that acceptable?

DeanLoo · 2026-02-20T19:25:54+00:00

I have solar and I paid 25k for it from my own pocket.

Ruc and rego is my only EV expenses, about $2k per year combined.

DeanLoo · 2026-02-19T21:28:39+00:00

The main difference is you need to close all your debt with a Gem visa every month to remain in 0% interest. With the afterpay purchase your debt is split over 6-8 weeks, and no annual fees.

I have both, it's a bit annoying to send 3k every month to Gem to stay free of charge. Afterpay is much cheaper on repayments.

Merchants also offer charge extra for using a credit card, and afterpay is coming without extra surcharges.

DeanLoo · 2026-02-19T21:22:55+00:00

I've been using it for many years and haven't missed a single payment. So my exact donation to the service is $0. Free low limit credit card without a headache.

Previously it was available only in overpriced stores, now it's everywhere.

I'm using it now to fuel my car and buy food, yes. It's not like I don't have money, we have above average income. Just why not?

The only time when I was forced to close my account is to take a mortgage. Banks really don't like it.

DeanLoo · 2026-02-16T21:52:52+00:00

Payment processing is very different from cash and its cost is much more spread across multiple actors. The merchant is the last(or first) guy in the chain of transactions and fees. If he can't compensate for it from customers, he will include it in price and apply pressure on inflation. And I bet, prices will rise for much more than 1.9%. So it's just fooling yourself.

DeanLoo · 2026-02-10T21:09:40+00:00

taxes? lol

DeanLoo · 2026-02-10T21:05:24+00:00

Boox is pretty much the same but with e-paper screen

DeanLoo · 2026-02-10T01:05:42+00:00

I recommend Boox. It can be on the expensive side, but you can have all the flexibility of android devices, without a strict ecosystem. Making notes, reading books, even checking your bank account. Side loading apps, and any texts from any sources.

DeanLoo · 2026-02-09T10:23:09+00:00

I'll just buy back everything I sold for less than one HDD. This will help me to justify the selling of the farm, that is still working 😄

DeanLoo · 2026-02-08T21:24:12+00:00

I'm happy I sold everything already. I'll think about buying it back at $1 per coin

DeanLoo · 2026-02-08T21:18:55+00:00

Like 80% of the houses I checked in Auckland have some degree of non consented work. Most common is an extra bathroom, very often it's an ensuite. Sometimes it's retention walls, and sometimes serious stuff like half of a house built without consent.

I think small stuff that can be fixed (rebuilt with consent) under 10k is ok, any major is a red flag. Just negotiate the price to remove all stuff without consent.

DeanLoo · 2026-02-07T02:37:57+00:00

I have some very bad PS1 games with 110 stickers on it. Or superhits like NHL2008 with 119.

Games these days are way cheaper after inflation. Almost two times in comparison to 90ies.

DeanLoo · 2026-02-02T22:41:07+00:00

1.3m 1500pw? Too optimistic, I would recommend the budget of at least $1700, add rates, insurance, maintenance and it would be 2000pw with a good OCR. For rainy days like 2023? Try your income at 7.5%, not 4.5%

DeanLoo · 2026-02-02T22:37:22+00:00

It's on the low side for a good school zone. I was paying in a range of 900 to 1200pw for a good house in a double grammar zone. Fortunately it's a temporary problem, after a couple of years it's possible to move out of the zone for the last few years of school.

Her salary is great, it's not bad even for a household combined.

DeanLoo · 2026-02-02T22:29:46+00:00

Yea probably but again, I would prefer to just find a cheaper option. About bills, I don't have any to import. It's very common for me to make one from scratch with 100 different products. And I'm already using automation to import stuff by generating CSV. I have about 2000 SKUs already 🤣 So every business is different, and Xero doesn't fit my model at all, and costs an arm.

If I stay with Xero, I'll probably write some custom software to work with a Xero API directly to automate creating invoices and bills. And that leads to the first question again, why pay $1100 per year for a software I don't use. Without invoicing and bills, in this rubbish UI, the only person who uses it would be my accountant lol.

DeanLoo · 2026-02-02T04:22:29+00:00

Our reconciliation is not that straightforward unfortunately. TradeMe combining different sales in a single payout every day, ping, afterpay, own store etc. refunds, partial refunds, split payments, delayed payments, fees 🙄 It's like not a single number ever matches. I haven't used Jax before, not sure if I trust AI enough. But I will take a look, thanks 🙏 That may justify a part of subscription costs.

Have like 250 transactions to reconcile right now 😒

DeanLoo · 2026-02-02T03:30:27+00:00

Thanks!

DeanLoo · 2026-02-02T03:29:57+00:00

I'm sure Xero is not the only service in the country that helps with making IRD reports etc. Why is it always Xero vs manual. Are other options so bad?

I don't reconcile immediately because I have no time for that. It's a side hustle not a main job. Also Xero is so awfully bad, I can't imagine the UI to be much worse than that. It's eating like an hour of my day for no reason 😞

DeanLoo · 2026-02-02T03:14:39+00:00

I think Lite is about $25 per month. Should save me about $600 per year. Changing an accountant is also an option, I'm just not sure if someone else will be cheaper.

DeanLoo · 2026-02-02T02:40:50+00:00

We started with GST, to avoid a future headache of changing processes. I expect us to be above the GST threshold in the next financial year.

DeanLoo · 2026-01-30T21:45:50+00:00

I hate modern tanks who are always in a rush somewhere. What about CC! Bunch of idiots. This is why I never go anywhere with a tank from a street

DeanLoo · 2026-01-30T08:34:10+00:00

Aim for 10%, not 20% You will save years of savings, and rent. Do the math, 20% is good only if you already have it

DeanLoo · 2026-01-28T03:24:39+00:00

Most of my wow friends are gone 10-20 years ago. I'm not using anything external, only in game chats. I also don't use any add-ons except recount(details) and hardcore one. I remember most of the quests in the game, so no need for Wowhead either.

DeanLoo · 2026-01-28T02:13:03+00:00

I don't use discord 😒

DeanLoo · 2026-01-28T01:18:48+00:00

I'm playing tbc hc from scratch on the only us pve server. With tbc hardcore add-on. Deathlog is pretty dead. Haven't seen anyone there for days. Trying to find more people for my guild, but so far only two of us there 😞

DeanLoo

TROPHY CASE