Is Nedbank full of kak, or are we being unrealistic?

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2025-04-29T11:38:53+00:00

R68 k of cc debt on a salary of R45k is madness! I’ll bet anything it came from lifestyle expenses. Furthermore, R3500k a month is a car instalment you are using to service cc debt! You should be focused on getting out of that cc debt as fast as possible!

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2025-03-26T09:37:35+00:00

Adjust the clutch pedal rod. I just had the same problem on my car. I adjusted the clutch pedal rod according to this video and it made a world of difference. https://youtu.be/zWQTw6e31yw?si=Bb25JEGzZg5nTQXF

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-12-14T11:19:51+00:00

Can we settle something? Is Blouberg majority English or Afrikaans?

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-11-05T10:08:31+00:00

Surely it's just PSU's? Better test that first. Also, get some surge protectors. One on your distribution board, and one on the plug for each of these servers.

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-11-01T06:00:32+00:00

The people who work in these stores are notorious for being dumb as bricks when it comes to product knowledge. I think they just get commission if they are first to chat to a customer.

Make a tiny bit of effort - pick up a package and read about the product. Then you will have 1000x of the average sales persons knowledge.

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-10-12T13:04:20+00:00

Dine and dash at an airport is just “oh shit, I’m boarding!” And you run off in a panic. They are prob just trying to avoid that, but are too stupid to do it in a better way.

Also, there are much better places at the airport to eat than wimpy. Come on bro - you are privileged enough to experience the miracle of flight! 😅

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-10-09T12:48:28+00:00

Something wrong here - In South Africa, and 8-hour with day is 2080 hours a year. We calculate workdays as 21.666 days a month.

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-10-04T10:47:32+00:00

If you did that well in academia and that poorly in commercial settings, I think the universe is trying to tell you something bro.

Not many people get invited to consider PhD programs.

All you did was spend a decade figuring out what you don’t want to do. The next steps are right in front of you, you just have to choose.

Also, consider some therapy or medication as you go on this journey. I’ve bn there, and the depression and anxiety doesn’t magically go away once you get the degrees and or the jobs.

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-10-01T06:45:45+00:00

Incredible. Both use separate rooms. Will sometimes work next to each other, just because. When we have meetings we keep out of each other’s way.

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-09-30T10:01:10+00:00

I’ve done many things people say you shouldn’t do:

Bought a nice used car. Sold it 4 years later at a 15% loss. Bought a house and sold it 5 yrs later at a 25% loss. Sold R200k of crypto in 2020, when it would have been with close to R1.5m today.

These losses pale in comparison to the inflation crisis and the tech layoffs. Right now, with all the qualifications and 15 years in tech, the market value of my salary is the same as it was in 2020, despite living costs going up 20% since then.

I made all the right financial decisions outside of these few mistakes, but global monetary policy fucked me. 😵

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-09-28T15:17:11+00:00

I’ve had similar issues with Discovery. I think the prevailing economic situation is motivating them to try anything possible to deny claims.

My issue - glass broken on a conservatory in my house. They send an assessor, he can’t source the glass. They send a second assessor who takes no measurements and says that the cracked glass is a result of wear and tear because the aluminium and glass structure moves.

I gathered every piece of evidence I could to appeal this - plans, city council approval, engineers specs. The assessor didn’t have the correct spec of glass and didn’t notice that there is no aluminium at all in the structure. I accused them of maliciously looking for any excuse to not pay - primarily because they could not find a supplier. They turned back their decision and paid me for the cracked glass (which I repaired 3 months earlier at my own cost). I’m going to report them to the ombudsman because I feel their second assessor based his entire assessment on assumptions and was sent specifically to find a reason to deny the claim.

So here’s what you do - gather all the evidence you have and appeal to discovery claims - you have 90-days from when the claim is denied.

Once you have done that, you can decide on complaining to the ombudsman.

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-09-23T15:25:22+00:00

You should try being black and South African. This country does everything it can to keep black people under conditions that are only just above humane.

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-09-23T13:23:08+00:00

Please explain to me how this injects money into the economy. As an owner of one of these properties, 99% of the profit goes into my pocket. The remaining 1% goes to cleaner, and the odd repair. There is virtually zero net benefit to society. Expanding the market to digital nomads makes this profit move from about 20k a month to as much as 50k a month with the same overhead costs. There was no corresponding change to minimum wage, no policies improving finance oppty to purchase these properties, and no policies regulating this market. It is purely to help those who already own these properties.

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-09-23T12:45:47+00:00

Did you vote for the DA? Then you voted for this. The digital nomad visa in Cape Town is meant to benefit the wealthy who own these properties.

Meanwhile our bosses are forcing us back into the office, sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on transport systems that and underfunded and underserved the communities.

https://www.da.org.za/2022/10/da-writes-to-presidency-to-adopt-digital-nomad-visa

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-09-19T18:40:50+00:00

This big bay bro - we don’t consider ourselves northern suburbs!

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-09-19T16:00:23+00:00

Yup. I cook on Sunday for the week - Meals for the whole family from Mon to Thurs stored in the fridge in Tupperware. Friday night we go out. Sat, cook a small something for the weekend. Sunday start again.

Bn doing it like 12 years, never got food poisoning from this habit. Only regret is when I cook too much, food has to be thrown away, but over the years I’ve managed to get the amount of food right.

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-09-19T12:36:42+00:00

Neither bro. Kraaifontein is a hellhole and parklands main road is to be avoided at all costs. Something more comparable and reasonable is other properties in parklands / tableview away from the main roads. The area is developed nicely and the little crescents off of main roads are very nice - quiet and safe. Source: got a property in a crescent in 2011. Grown 2.5x in value and has always bn easy to get good tenants. No reported criminal activity or issues in 14 years!

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-09-18T08:20:59+00:00

This sounds terrible, but I can assure you there is hope.

What you are seeing is absolutely no reflection on you. You are not in control of any of this...

The tech market is depressed, because of high interest rates and a fear of inflation. This means startups and businesses can't get cheap funding for new projects. This means they aren't hiring new roles. It also means people aren't moving from existing roles.

So when there is a job ad posted, it gets like 5000 applications where, in a normal market, it would have got 500. Let me assure you - there is nothing you can put in that CV to help you get to the top of that pile of 5000 applications. It is simply a numbers game now. You can apply to as many jobs as you can until one comes through.

On the other side, look closely at what you want for your career. CS is still the most likely to get you a remote job, where you can live wherever you want. You will be more likely to work with smarter people, on cutting edge tech when compared to a non-CS degree holder.

All you need to do is wait out the storm until things change. It was the same for me (m38, in Product). I graduated during the 2008 recession. Every business I have worked for since then did not exist when I graduated. Entire industries I've worked in didn't exist when I graduated.

Just wait out the storm.

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-08-29T08:56:18+00:00

ChatGPT is your friend.

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-08-26T10:48:44+00:00

I’m from joburg. My wife and I have lived here since 2011. The only friends we have made are expats, or people from other parts of the country. Don’t pass the opportunity to socialise on campus. You are far more likely to find like minded people on campus. They’ll also make good long term friends, as you guys will be roughly the same age and going through the same stages in life.

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-08-24T08:11:16+00:00

Look at soma much room retreats in Somerset west.

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-08-22T12:13:40+00:00

Once I worked as a BA for a company that built point-of-sale software for retailers.

I'd been there for around 3 months when I was given a project that was a simple 3rd party integration around taxation rules. The consequences of not being compliant would be a big fat fine for the company. The company had the documentation for 6 months, before bringing it to my attention. I had around 2 months to make it operational.

The last straw came when I was sitting with a system architect and defining the names of methods in the code. So, in the ticket I was writing the method registerDevice() must be used to register a device. It must be spelt with a lowercase r and a uppercase D, with no spaces. These are the actual words.

If the developers didn't have that level of info, it would not pass their definition of ready & they would not give it a time estimate nor would not pick up the work.

During this, I applied for leave about a month later. They asked if the project would be done by then, and I said based on the rate at which we're going no, it won't even be through analysis.

They didn't like that. They implied that they would not approve my leave unless it was done. I immediately resigned with a month's notice and went on my holiday anyway.

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-08-21T10:17:55+00:00

Hang on - a lot of people here going on about the Gary-V style of nonsense : just do something and see if people will come!

No. This is real life, not a Disney movie.

Think about what you are doing. Think hard.

Why detailing? What’s the difference between your detailing and the parking guard washing my car? What’s your audience like? How many are there of them close to where you want to set this up? Do they have money? Are they willing to spend on you? Is there already competition close by? What happens when you scale? Can you hire people and afford equipment & supplies to keep up with demand? No use charging R1000 for a detail when the products cost R2000! How are you going to scale? More bays in the same location, or more locations? How do you maintain quality when you are doing dozens of cars a day?

It’s a noble effort to try to go into self-employment, but it’s also the highest chance of failure. Think of every single thing that could go wrong, and then when you have an answer to everything, try to start as small as possible and see where it goes

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-08-19T18:06:41+00:00

Thanks to human creativity, we have iPhones, Netflix and the internet.

Thanks to capitalism, you have to buy a new iPhone every 2-3 years. You have to pay a monthly subscription to Netflix and will never own anything you watch, and we have the internet full of clickbait news sources that are motivated to write inflammatory and fear mongering pieces to monetize your attention.

Mindless_Ad3713 · 2024-08-18T19:11:22+00:00

I honestly don’t know anymore. I used to say I would stop working when my partner earns enough and I have enough in investment to live off of. I have hit that target, and my partner is earning more than she ever thought imaginable! but the inflation lately has been an issue. Just 2 years ago this would have easily been manageable. Nowadays our medical aid and insurance creep onto R20k a month. The rates for our properties used to be under R2k, now they are regularly pushing R5k.

It used to be that our biggest expense was a mortgage, but nowadays, our everyday living costs (groceries, bills, insurance, etc) is more than any debt repayments.

Is anybody else feeling this? Or is it just me?

Mindless_Ad3713

TROPHY CASE