Make me money confident!

Posted by Laura on Sunday January 31 2010 in #febusave | 0 comments

Tomorrow marks the beginning of #febusave, ANZ’s campaign to help chicks be better savers and be more confident with the moola.

And I have to confess, when I heard about it all from Leigh, I felt like that the whole campaign was being put on especially to help ME out.

It’s true!

While I am SO. MUCH. BETTER. with money now than I was ten years ago, I’m still pretty shithouse.

In my first proper job after finishing school (as in, the one where I couldn’t wear jeans to the office), I was getting paid monthly and ended up opening a second transaction account to separate my pay into two halves. That’s how bad I was. And that’s when I was living at home and would scab money from the mothership.

So it goes without saying that I’ve joined the #febusave movement and proudly hung up the little button over there on my side bar. Being a “blog ambassador” sounds so official, I might get it on a business card.

Here’s some official tidbits provided by ANZ and their Women & Money Confidence Report; I can relate to each and every dot point, some from my past, some from RIGHT NOW ZOMG I HAVE NO MONEY SKILLZ:

52% of women claimed they know they should have a financial plan or budget in place but keep putting it off.
Less than one third of women surveyed said they were very confident about managing everyday finances.
Only one in ten women are very confident in managing their investments, financial planning and superannuation.
45% said they had saved less than they planned to over the previous 12 months.
2.76 million women (41%) are saving no regular amount monthly
Top reasons were too many bills, not disciplined to follow a budget, too busy, so put it off
More than half (58%) of adult women in Australia have less than $5,000 in savings with 33% having less than a $1,000
1 in 3 women believe they wouldn’t last longer than a month if they lost their job tomorrow
1 in 4 women are not at all confident about their future financial security, claiming they live pay to pay with little savings

Scary shite, huh? o.O

One of the kick-starts to #febusave was to pledge to give up driving to work/buying treats/buying coffee and well, I’m not exactly willing to give up my car/coke/v for an entire month. Reduction I could do, but going cold turkey? Nuh-uh.

BUT! For the last 4 months or so I’ve fallen right off my budget wagon, with no regular saving or anything like that.

So I’ve re-jigged my colour-coded budget spreadsheet in GoogleDocs for 2010 and re-started auto-transfers of funds to my various debts and savings accounts.

Let’s see where Feburary and #febusave takes us, shall we?

I’ve almost passed the one-month mark!

Posted by Laura on Sunday January 31 2010 in 365 | 0 comments

It’s rather exciting to get through these weekly milestones, but the end-of-month ones will look more impressive, no?

22/365: friday night laziness
23/365: morning hair and fresh apple juice
24/365: me + cupcake
25/365: unimaginative pic, sorry
26/365: end of aus day
27/365: mmm, lamington
28/365: what coke reduction?

Why I’m against Australia’s planned interwebs censorship

Posted by Laura on Tuesday January 26 2010 in Web | 5 comments

If you get to this here blog in the traditional way (i.e. not with Google Reader), you would have noticed a popup protest about the Australian Government’s planned censorship of our internet:

The idea that MY internet connection could be filtered by “my” Government is nothing short of ridiculous.

Yes, there are horrible things on the internet. But “my” Government has no right to tell me what I can have access to.

A beautiful friend of mine has been battling Crohn’s disease for as long as I can remember. She finds it difficult to deal with the reality of her disease—the hospitalisation, the treatments (she’s even had chemo to try to cure this). She’s fighting to have a healthy life, something that I take for granted. She seeks solace in online Crohn’s support forums—places where she can connect with other Crohn’s sufferers; where they share their journeys and give each other strength.

Under a 2009 trial of the internet filter with certain Australian ISPs, this Crohn’s support forum was blocked. I can’t tell you how heartbreaking it was to hear that something so important to MY friend was going to be denied to her by “my” Government’s internet filter.

Tell me, how is a web site like this a risk to children? Children can get Crohn’s too, you know.

The filter won’t stop cyber-bullying. It won’t stop all child pornography. The list of banned sites will not be publicly available or open to review.

All throughout this post, I’ve referred to the current Australian Government as “my” Government.

Why?

Because:

Regardless of the fact that I am a moderate leftie
Regardless of the fact that I danced like a crazy lady when Howard was voted out
Regardless of the fact that I had big hopes for K-Rudd during his election campaign, when I voted for him and when he won
Regardless of the fact that my grandfather was Assistant General Secretary of the New South Wales Labor Party and DLP Senator for NSW (and I’m proud of my Pop’s political history, rest his soul)
If the internet filter becomes one of K-Rudd’s next election promises, you can be sure as shit that I’ll be voting the other way

The filter is just plain wrong.

If you want to find out more, visit The Great Australian Internet Blackout. Their ability to articulate the point of being anti-censorship is far more eloquent than I could ever be.