Everyone says money doesn’t buy happiness, but it clearly has something to do with it. You can’t be very happy if you’re deeply in debt and about to lose your house because you don’t have enough money to make the mortgage payments, for instance. So some money is necessary, but it does have diminishing returns. Once you have all your basic needs met, and have enough to make yourself comfortable and do the things you enjoy, getting more money doesn’t really help an awful lot.

A week ago, I made a lump sum payment on my student loan. Coupled with IRD crediting last month’s deductions from my pay, my loan is now fully paid off. In fact, I overpaid a little, just to be on the safe side. I’ll be getting a refund at some point once IRD works out all the figures.

My car broke down about a month ago. I had trouble starting it at home one afternoon and eventually got it to work, but that night, in the OGGB carpark, it refused to start. I delayed doing anything about it for a while, since I didn’t really have either the time or the money to deal with it, so my car has been abandoned on level 3 of OGGB ever since. It’s not just a battery issue since the lights and electrics all work perfectly fine. Given that the car has been getting harder to start, and now won’t turn over at all (I just get a click) my conclusion is the fault lies with the starter motor.

My banking setup is rather complicated. Right now, I have 8 active bank accounts and 2 credit cards with 6 different banks. None of these banks charge me any fees for any of my accounts, so I’ve always just left them open as I’ve switched banks. My primary bank used to be ASB, then it was National, then KiwiBank, then ANZ. I am now currently in the process of switching back to KiwiBank.