The totally off-topic thread

[TheRealTMA]

Salt fixes everything.

Rarely has a truer word been said on AFF!

 

[RooFlyer]

No rice is very very easy using the absorption method. < Snip for space>.

Sure, but I use my trusty rice cooker to get pretty good results similarly .

But like I said, cauli rice is much easier and quicker to prepare ( as I'm now an expert!)

Take cauliflower, break into florets. Put in hand kitchen whizz thingy, macerate for a few seconds. Put into steamer for a minute or two ( or saute in pan). Rinse clean the whizz thingy and steamer. Add cauli to dish. No measuring, nothing not to peek at, really quick. And abt 1/10 the calories and about 1/8 the carbohydrates.

 

[Flashback]

Hubby, who bought me new phone, is hiding in his office, until its safe to come out, ie: my new phone looks just like the old phone.

Smashed on the ground?

 

[Cossie]

I saw some prepared cauli rice in woolies, not cooked, but small fragments like rice in a bag, fresh, will try it when we get home. Now we are off for some real rice and mekong fish.

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

Small head of Cauliflower /butter / cream/ pine nuts or ground almonds/

In a NON STICK fry pan, put some butter and a good squeeze of the garlic paste, and over low heat add the diced cauli, stir, add a 1/4 cup water (no more than that ) put a lid on and sweat it out, stirring occasionally, when softish (but do not let it get mushy) add cream stir over high heat add toasted pine nut and serve do not add salt !!! easy peasy !

 

[rogerkambah]

aah Banks!! Ms FM wants a loan to do a knock down and rebuild. We would like to give her the money, but right at the moment I have no shares I want to sell..... Either they are producing good dividends, or they are ones that I feel will produce excellent capital gains but are not at that point yet.

so that's easy will help her by cosigning on the loan with her, otherwise she will be up for $30,000 in mortgage insurance. She has enough income to service the loan but wont meet the 80% thing, so we can put up our house as security.

so send a milllion pieces of paper off to the bank including the Super fund's tax return for 2017, showing the quite large amount of money we draw. Also the tax returns for Mr FM and I as we have other taxable income from the business as we are still doing some minor consulting work.

Banks just phoned and said they don't want to take the taxable income into account as it could be non ongoing (fair enough). There is no super pension on the tax return so obviously we aren't drawing any money. Excuse me? Its tax free so it doesn't go on the Tax return - yes it does unless accounting standards have changed???

I have now found the bit at the ATO's site where it explicitly states not to put tax free super pensions and lump sums on the tax return.

Bunch of wallies - don't know if I will get anywhere and of course my accountant is overseas for 3 weeks - typical!! very annoyed and stressed!!

I have got him to look at the super account, which shows payments being made over multiple years to our personal account and oh by the way it is the LAW that we pay ourselves a minimum of 5%!!

Yep, there are lots of muppets working in the banks. Just before Christmas was in the process of churning a cc to get 100k QF points and ran into a problem with substantiating my income. My income is a stream (tax free) from a defined benefit super scheme and also a not inconsiderable amount from a couple of share holding dividends.

First I sent copies of my bank statements showing fortnightly income from my super stream for last 3 months. Not good enough - wanted to know opening and closing balances for my super account and how long it would last and bank statements for 6 months. WTF!
Had difficulty in convincing them that I didn't have an opening and closing balance as such, and that the income was for the term of my life. (I didn't complicate by saying it extended for the term of my spouse's life too.)

Next up, the share divs. Wanted to see evidence of dividend payments - sent copies of dividend payment advice for last year of dividend payments and cross referenced to bank statement. Almost there, but then wanted too know when next payments were due. Ironic really as next div payment due was from their bank.

Finally they thought I wasn't too great a risk to allow me $15000 credit (all I asked for). 100K points showed in my QF a/c about 6 weeks later. Now just have to work on getting my cc annual fee reimbursed, as a shareholder perk.

These CSOs obviously need to be better informed and trained in order to be capable of dealing in a professional manner with retirees, many of whom have as much, if not more, disposable income than when they were working.

Interestingly my credit rating is still 'superb' and has just bounced so it may be time to churn again. "Let's Churn Again Like We Did Last Summer" (apologies) etc. Maybe I should make it a seasonal thing. I know wife needs a new one.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Yep, there are lots of muppets working in the banks. Just before Christmas was in the process of churning a cc to get 100k QF points and ran into a problem with substantiating my income. My income is a stream (tax free) from a defined benefit super scheme and also a not inconsiderable amount from a couple of share holding dividends.

First I sent copies of my bank statements showing fortnightly income from my super stream for last 3 months. Not good enough - wanted to know opening and closing balances for my super account and how long it would last and bank statements for 6 months. WTF!
Had difficulty in convincing them that I didn't have an opening and closing balance as such, and that the income was for the term of my life. (I didn't complicate by saying it extended for the term of my spouse's life too.)

Next up, the share divs. Wanted to see evidence of dividend payments - sent copies of dividend payment advice for last year of dividend payments and cross referenced to bank statement. Almost there, but then wanted too know when next payments were due. Ironic really as next div payment due was from their bank.

Finally they thought I wasn't too great a risk to allow me $15000 credit (all I asked for). 100K points showed in my QF a/c about 6 weeks later. Now just have to work on getting my cc annual fee reimbursed, as a shareholder perk.

These CSOs obviously need to be better informed and trained in order to be capable of dealing in a professional manner with retirees, many of whom have as much, if not more, disposable income than when they were working.

Interestingly my credit rating is still 'superb' and has just bounced so it may be time to churn again. "Let's Churn Again Like We Did Last Summer" (apologies) etc. Maybe I should make it a seasonal thing. I know wife needs a new one.

I am never ever changing my credit card after this experience! Mr FM has one with a $50,000 limit and I have a $26,000 one. Given today’s conversations with ANZ we would be lucky to get $1,000.

I managed to convince him that the super fund payments do not need to be on the tax return, but that seems to make everything worse, as apparently we have no regular income that he can prove. I am not sure how the money arrives in our bank accounts (which he can see as we have everything with ANZ) - I guess we must be selling drugs. .

 

[rogerkambah]

I am never ever changing my credit card after this experience! Mr FM has one with a $50,000 limit and I have a $26,000 one. Given today’s conversations with ANZ we would be lucky to get $1,000.

I managed to convince him that the super fund payments do not need to be on the tax return, but that seems to make everything worse, as apparently we have no regular income that he can prove. I am not sure how the money arrives in our bank accounts (which he can see as we have everything with ANZ) - I guess we must be selling drugs. .

As I churn my CCs I tend to ask for a lower limit and just go into credit if I know of a large payment. Anyway, with the backup CC can always split a payment if required.

 

[Cossie]

Likewise, defined benefit pension, some nice dividends and private super, last time I applied for a cc they wanted stuff from my accountant, not interested anymore, don't really care about the sign up points, well ok maybe a little bit, but to be honest I don't need that sort of aggravation.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Likewise, defined benefit pension, some nice dividends and private super, last time I applied for a cc they wanted stuff from my accountant, not interested anymore, don't really care about the sign up points, well ok maybe a little bit, but to be honest I don't need that sort of aggravation.

totally agree - I never thought I would have to do this sort of thing again, but we wanted to help out Ms FM and I stupidly thought we had pretty solid finances. . .

My accountant is overseas for 3 weeks, otherwise I would get him involved to try and explain things to the guy we are dealing with.

I think the thing that pisses me off most is the 33 year history with ANZ where until a few years ago we had large business loans which we always ran immaculately - our relationship manager said we were his best customers and we were just set and forget. Now I can’t convince them that we have any income. And why do we have to have any anyway. They have said Ms FM and her husband have no issues with repaying the loan, so why do we have to also be able to pay it as well, just because we are putting our house up as additional security. Whole thing is just stupid.

 

[rogerkambah]

Likewise, defined benefit pension, some nice dividends and private super, last time I applied for a cc they wanted stuff from my accountant, not interested anymore, don't really care about the sign up points, well ok maybe a little bit, but to be honest I don't need that sort of aggravation.

Yeah the aggravation can be a PITA, but if we can pick up 200 odd points each a year We don't mind - wife is easier as besides divs she has regular employment and payslips.

 

[Cossie]

Seems to be a few cracks appearing Richie, looks like it may take a bit of spin on day 4......




Not really a cricket pitch, but it immediately reminded me of subcontinent pitches when walking down this path.....

 

[Flashback]

Live flight departures | Edinburgh Airport

Fun..... hope it clears up by tomorrow evening! A few of my colleagues are now staying tonight as most of today's flights have been cancelled out of EDI. Been snowing all day up here.

 

[Denali]

 

[Pushka]

totally agree - I never thought I would have to do this sort of thing again, but we wanted to help out Ms FM and I stupidly thought we had pretty solid finances. . .

My accountant is overseas for 3 weeks, otherwise I would get him involved to try and explain things to the guy we are dealing with.

I think the thing that pisses me off most is the 33 year history with ANZ where until a few years ago we had large business loans which we always ran immaculately - our relationship manager said we were his best customers and we were just set and forget. Now I can’t convince them that we have any income. And why do we have to have any anyway. They have said Ms FM and her husband have no issues with repaying the loan, so why do we have to also be able to pay it as well, just because we are putting our house up as additional security. Whole thing is just stupid.

We still have ‘000’s’ of funds with NAB in our business accounts and a couple of months ago the NAB muppets refused me for a $10,000 Card, again for churning points. Still receive the same income we did less than 12 months prior and approved by our Business Banking Manager and accepted for a $15,000 Card for the points. And which was subsequently cancelled by me. NAB decided to remove business banking manager service in SA and I’ve had absolutely coughe service since.

 

[Flashback]

Live flight departures | Edinburgh Airport

Fun..... hope it clears up by tomorrow evening! A few of my colleagues are now staying tonight as most of today's flights have been cancelled out of EDI. Been snowing all day up here.

OK, my flight home tomorrow NIGHT!!!!!!!! has been cancelled, rebooked onto a flight home on Friday. Normally I wouldn't mind, but I was supposed to be flying to GIB on Friday.... so looks like I'll miss that now. Time to invoke travel insurance

 

[love_the_life]

Likewise, defined benefit pension, some nice dividends and private super, last time I applied for a cc they wanted stuff from my accountant, not interested anymore, don't really care about the sign up points, well ok maybe a little bit, but to be honest I don't need that sort of aggravation.

Agree about the aggravation. Thought we might like to increase our CC limit a bit (not that we really need to but thought it would be useful) so when I had to go into the branch for something I mentioned it. No problem they said. Just reapply again! It was a hassle last time so forget it.

 

[cove]

If you find your bank is messing you around in 2018 it is welcome to the new world of “responsible lending”.
We ended up feeling we really didn’t have a bank any more after several months of negotiating. So much for 35 years where we gave them first opportunity. We gave the latest 3 car loans in our business to the “other guys” for the Japanese built Toyota Camry hybrids. The boot space has been fixed and everyone likes them.

 

[Flashback]

If you find your bank is messing you around in 2018 it is welcome to the new world of “responsible lending”.
We ended up feeling we really didn’t have a bank any more after several months of negotiating. So much for 35 years where we gave them first opportunity. We gave the latest 3 car loans in our business to the “other guys” for the Japanese built Toyota Camry hybrids. The boot space has been fixed and everyone likes them.

Gave up on Westpac then?

 

[Pushka]

If you find your bank is messing you around in 2018 it is welcome to the new world of “responsible lending”.
We ended up feeling we really didn’t have a bank any more after several months of negotiating. So much for 35 years where we gave them first opportunity. We gave the latest 3 car loans in our business to the “other guys” for the Japanese built Toyota Camry hybrids. The boot space has been fixed and everyone likes them.

Yes. This echoes us exactly. So this thread has raised issues with ANZ, Westpac, and NAB.