My plan is to either never retire, or find a nice sturdy cardboard box underneath an overpass.
Tag: money
Curse you, beaver!
One small difference between the Swiss and the rest of the world
Pay with anything bigger than a 20£ note in the UK? Suspicious glare and 15 different counterfeit tests.
Pay with a 50$ bill in Canada? I’m sorry, we don’t take monopoly money.
Buy a pack of gum with a 200chf bill? That’ll be 198.50chf change, have a good day!
Try and withdraw 500$? Canada bank says hells no.
Try and withdraw 300£? UK bank says hells no.
Try and withdraw 3000chf? Swiss bank says big or small bills? (and by big bills, I mean 3 x 1000chf bills)
A penny saved
This is what one year of always emptying your pockets every night looks like.
Channelling Scrooge
Spent my morning counting pennies, er, francs. We were far off the mark in our guesstimate of 2k but there was still a very respectable 1,111.25 CHF in the pot. Tattoo money :D
Piles of coins
Last weekend, after a convoluted story involving Bean and money, we decided to sort out the mountain of change in my bedside table bucket. Turns out that we had 98.50 francs in 5, 10 and 20 centime coinsm (for those of you counting, that’s about 700 coins). We wanted to go to the bank to get those changed, but they were closed (as was the post office). I took them to work with me today with the intention of getting it sorted at the post office on campus. Turns out, they only accept rolls of coins. Guess what I did over my lunch break.
Money news
We were planning on going to Canada in the fall and paying for it with the tax refund I was expecting to get. I’m still expecting to get it, except I’ve been informed that it might only be processed in October or November. Blergh. On the flip side, I might be getting some completely unexpected money from a pay equity case that Canada Post lost. Apparently it’s been 30 years in the making, but they have to retroactively compensate every employee that qualifies, even if it was only a part time summer job 20 years ago. I have no idea what to expect, but it should be better than a kick in the face.
On the way to making money, hopefully
I’ve invested a large part of my EBI end-of-contract money in a long-term fund platform offered by Generali International.
The portfolio is fairly well balanced:
currency distribution
% USD 27.5
% EUR 72.5
asset distribution
% BOND 37.14
% STOCK 44.06
% CASH 14.23
% OTHER 4.60
geographic distribution
% AMERICA 31.11
% EUROPE 38.61
% ASIA 30.20
% USD 27.5
% EUR 72.5
asset distribution
% BOND 37.14
% STOCK 44.06
% CASH 14.23
% OTHER 4.60
geographic distribution
% AMERICA 31.11
% EUROPE 38.61
% ASIA 30.20
Money! Money! Money!
Good news, my EBI indemnities came in today. Less good news, more than half of them have already gone to loan repayments. Better news, we’re now debt free (almost).
Hard times on the high street
Since 2005, a significant number of companies have gone into administration. Some have been rescued, some have been sold, some have just completely disappeared. The list includes, but is not limited to:
Acquascutum
Barratts
Best Buy
Blacks Leisure
Blockbuster
Borders
Clement Joscelyne
Clinton Cards
Coffee Republic
Comet
Game Group
Habitat
Hawkin’s Bazaar
Hein Gericke UK
HMV
Jessops
JJB Sports
La Senza
Little Chef
Masai GB
Mexx
MFI
Oddbins
Optical Express
Past Times
ProCook
Pumpkin Patch
Rosebys
ScS Upholstery
Suits You
The Natural World
The Pier
The Works
Whittard’s of Chelsea
Woolworths
Zavvi (Virgin Megastore)
The times, they are a changin’