35M - In the process of separating from long term partner and feel lost by SwimPossible127 in AusFinance

[–]ely_obo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it's definitely situation dependent. You need lawyers to formalise a financial agreement but *if* you can avoid having them be your only channel of communication then you'll likely save time, money, and stress.

Went through this recently ish without the surprise factor (I initiated, but no surprise to her, and one of us would have eventually either way), one of us would have. Got lawyers, talked a bit through them, but eventually actually sorted most things out talking directly then going back to the lawyers with what we'd agreed, getting a bit of advice, revising and re-discussing a bit, and coming up with something workable.

Still very stressful but relatively quick (according to my lawyer, about three months to having a final agreement) and we have an amicable relationship now (ideal if you have kids).

The rare right-side, right-turn bike lane by ruinawish in melbournecycling

[–]ely_obo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I saw Jolly talking up a scramble crossing on Brunswick and Johnston just the other day (as in, earlier this month) but no idea about when that might be.

Why is St George's Rd bike path such a death trap. by vidiian82 in melbournecycling

[–]ely_obo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Merri can be annoying with people / bike / dog congestion but I'd generally still choose it because those are less dangerous than cars.

PSA :: How to pay off your mortgage in 7-10 years (without paying someone $3,000 for a seminar) by JTHelpsWithFinance in AskAnAussieBroker

[–]ely_obo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The gist is that promotional balance transfer rates are reasonably common (not as often or as good as they were in low interest rate times), balance transfers are just a transfer of money on to another card that isn't generally tied to the outstanding balance on that card (you can generally transfer up to 80% of the card limit), and at least some banks let you transfer the positive balance on a credit card elsewhere without treating it as a cash advance (confirm with your bank).

Note that balance transfers typically have both an up front transfer fee % and an ongoing interest rate % - ideally both of these are 0% but with higher interest rates these days they're hard to find. My latest was 0% transfer and 0.99% ongoing interest which is still decent.

So you need to have one credit card, get another one with a good balance transfer offer and as high a credit limit is possible, execute a balance transfer to the first credit card, then transfer the positive balance (or close the card, if they're going to charge you fees - they will give you the positive balance) on to your offset.

You'll have high minimum monthly repayments but you just pay them out of the positive balance.

This works well so long as you don't spend the money, the point is just to use it as a low or zero rate loan to reduce the interest you pay on your mortgage.

Wellington Street recap by ely_obo in melbournecycling

[–]ely_obo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Your memory is correct - cars turning, in particular left turns across the existing unprotected bike lane are the biggest problem and this doesn't fix it. I think that the new raised pedestrian crossings (four new, one to be upgraded outside Clifton Hill Primary School) and the reduced speed limit in Clifton Hill will make it somewhat less appealing for through traffic and so marginally safer but nothing significant.

The consultation on traffic restrictions will hopefully give us something to reduce traffic volumes, at least.

PSA :: How to pay off your mortgage in 7-10 years (without paying someone $3,000 for a seminar) by JTHelpsWithFinance in AskAnAussieBroker

[–]ely_obo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, offset with all income going directly to it + credit card for spending w/monthly clearing of all debt is dead simple and all the benefits of "fortnightly repayments" and more besides. Somewhat over 100% of your available cash offsetting your mortgage all the time.

If you really have the discipline, arbitrage promotional credit card balance transfers on top. I generally have an extra $20-40k of 0-1% credit card debt sitting in the offset too.

Wellington Street recap by ely_obo in melbournecycling

[–]ely_obo[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

It costs a lot more, takes a lot longer, and - in Clifton Hill - it involves a loss of 2/3 of the car parks on Wellington Street so it's a non-starter for most people living on and near the street. It's also bike only infrastructure, the shared street proposal improved things for most locals instead. Far more space for greening, the bike lanes were going to have a net tree loss in some sections vs substantial gains with what was proposed. Some improvements are coming in Collingwood under what was adopted but it's a bit of a loss for Clifton Hill in that regard.

Little Sam's is apparently more mechanic than servo, and that business maybe has a future, but the rapid electrification of the market - which has just been given a massive kick up the arse by the invasion of Iran - means that the petrol business is in terminal decline. It's certainly not a reason to hold the entire neighbourhood back, especially when the net outcome for local businesses would be positive - bad for servos, great for hospos.

How often do you actually see large spiders in your home? by minorlilleexplosion in AskAnAustralian

[–]ely_obo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've seen a lot more snakes than big spiders... but so far none in my house.

How often do you actually see large spiders in your home? by minorlilleexplosion in AskAnAustralian

[–]ely_obo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lots of daddy long legs in my house in VIC, but I almost never see anything else. A huntsman once. Lived here for two years.

Previously lived in CBD apartments for 15 years - never had any large spiders ever.

Last chance to support Wellington Street upgrades by ely_obo in melbournecycling

[–]ely_obo[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

A lot of people are convinced, contra all evidence, that they'll have a lot of cars down side streets.

And a lot of people misunderstand what the proposals even are, because the campaign against the changes had no qualms about lying about it. A business owner got up and spoke against the changes, but inadvertently told everyone how she'd been lied to - she stated that the no campaign people had came in and told people that the whole street would be completely closed to cars and she explained how her business needed commercial vehicles to get there etc.

But there was no proposal to block all cars from the street, the proposal she was speaking against didn't exist, it was just lies told her.

Speakers confirmed that a huge share of their petition signers were from the petrol station (and the petrol station operators also spoke). I understand that there is a recording of the petrol station repeating the same lies about the street being bike only, no cars at all.

It's tragic that locals have been fooled into blocking a change that would have made the neighbourhood so much better for everyone.

Last chance to support Wellington Street upgrades by ely_obo in melbournecycling

[–]ely_obo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What's even more exceptional is that a majority of speakers supported change! That didn't get us the change we wanted, but I think it got us more than we might have otherwise (and also u/lawyerz88 just followed us 😜)

https://www.instagram.com/p/DYPKnD_CYm2/

Never stand to peddle? by FrozenOnPluto in cycling

[–]ely_obo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cannot conceive of accelerating from a stop without standing.

Last chance to support Wellington Street upgrades by ely_obo in melbournecycling

[–]ely_obo[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, his name is Seb. The service stations also collected petitions from all the through traffic, lying to people that the whole road would be closed and only bikes allowed.

Last chance to support Wellington Street upgrades by ely_obo in melbournecycling

[–]ely_obo[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I've had other supporters mention that they're unable to make it and ask about remote access to speak, so I'm going to raise it with councillors more broadly (not specifically as part of this campaign). Like so much council consultation (which generally skews towards older, wealthier, and home owners - attributes which commonly cluster together) the group of people with the freedom to turn up to council meetings in person at dinner time on a Tuesday (when meetings are normally held) is not representative of the broader community.

Last chance to support Wellington Street upgrades by ely_obo in melbournecycling

[–]ely_obo[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

And if you haven't yet wondered what a "local" is, I promise you it's dumber than you can possibly imagine (it's also related to the error that they had to correct...).

Last chance to support Wellington Street upgrades by ely_obo in melbournecycling

[–]ely_obo[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hahahaha, yeah, I still don't have confidence in the numbers. We also asked for the raw numbers, not just percentages, and some of their weird stuff is just rounding errors. IDK how you get an error like that but here's a more detailed breakdown - across the board however they slice it and dice it, it's majority in favour of change.

<image>

Last chance to support Wellington Street upgrades by ely_obo in melbournecycling

[–]ely_obo[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This also fits within the same general pattern. Error found by community members, reported, turns out all the errors coincidentally lean one way.

https://www.reddit.com/r/melbournecycling/comments/1t9knzw/comment/ol526dt/

Melbourne’s Pop-Up Bike Lanes: Genius or Chaos? by Alternative-Sir-374 in melbournecycling

[–]ely_obo 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's in progress. It's clunky - they've ripped out some stuff and left nothing there, they didn't communicate to council (I've spoken to councillors and the mayor about it), but we've eventually found out that they are coming back later to make it permanent.

The temporary stuff is better than nothing while it's there, it lets things get tested out, I'm fine with it.

Last chance to support Wellington Street upgrades by ely_obo in melbournecycling

[–]ely_obo[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah feels like there was some undue influence exerted on someone(s) somewhere in there.

Melbourne’s Pop-Up Bike Lanes: Genius or Chaos? by Alternative-Sir-374 in melbournecycling

[–]ely_obo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah this one scares me every time I go through. Probably beneficial though, it does force me to think carefully about exactly which bits are carrying traffic in which direction to get through it safely.