u/nicenurse13

I bought my first home September 2024 aged 53. I have been a single parent since age 24. I had long break from employment due to mental illness which is now stable.

I put in $65,000 deposit . I now have $105,000 equity in the property and 295K left to pay.

I applied for my Australian nursing registration and it has been accepted.

I graduated as a registered nurse at the age of 22 so I am fortunate that I have always had this career.

I am leaving my nursing employment by the end of the year. I will be working rural and remote contracts in Australia. The base rate is double what I am making now. Free accommodation is part of the package.

My conservative estimate is that I will be mortgage free in 3 1/2 -4 years.

It could be sooner. I am very careful with money.

I was raised by a single parent. My mother worked 12 hour nightshifts in a fishery factory to support the four of us.

There was always food on the table, but nothing else. When we needed firewood we walk along the beach and “ pick up sticks”

My mother sadly passed away in 2011. She was always dirt poor and really she really wasn’t good with money, even after we had all become adults and left home.
But if she was alive now, I would be helping her and she would probably be living with me.

Interestingly, she was very intelligent but something wasn’t quite right. Nine years before I was born. she had dropped out of medical school. (not due to unexpected pregnancy.)

She always told me she just dropped out because she was in love with this guy - not my father-and she never stopped talking about him. Even in her 60s. she would still talk about him.

She then married my father, but the marriage ended in less than a decade.

My three siblings have done very well. They are very prosperous.

I am the least financially prosperous because of 12 years hardly working due to mental illness and being a single parent.

My children are young adults now. One is doing exceptionally well and the other one has mental illness which is a whole other story.

(she has very wealthy paternal grandparents who have purchased a house in a trust for her and her father. He also has mental illness unfortunately.
But she will always have stable accommodation and she has a mental health team to support her.)

I will keep you updated on my progress.

I will update again once I am at my first contract in Australia

Several of my former colleagues have already gone, so I know what to expect.

Instead of paying off a mortgage in 25 to 30 years, I expect I would have paid it off within six years total.

I think I am doing very well. my property was only $400,000 to purchase. It is very very nice though. I am very happy.

Ideally, I would just stay in New Zealand; but I need to go to Australia to get double my base rate, to afford to pay off my mortgage. Then I will start working on my retirement savings once I am mortgage free.

Once I am mortgage free, I obviously won’t have to do as many contracts. I will have more free time for work life balance and my passion of surfing.

I will work for 2 to 3 months and come back for 2 to 3 weeks

I will be staying with a cousin and renting a room from her when I come back. I will be renting out my house but not for the first contract.

(Yes, I do understand about tax on a rental property when I am an Australian resident and I have considered everything)

My colleagues who have gone to do contract work have told me about tax etc .

My nursing specialty is mental health

I will keep you updated.

I am feeling very positive about my future after such a battle with mental illness and now 15 years sober of alcohol.

Life is good.

My daughter-30 has mental illness. She lives with her Dad who also has mental illness. Trust fund house set up by wealthy grandparents

Anyway I am on my days off work. I work as nurse in mental health.

I told my daughter yesterday she could come and stay with me for 1 night with her dog - husky x and we were supposed to do some nice things together today.

Except she didn’t sleep so I ended up walking her dog by myself on the local beach today.

Now she’s just come into my room and told me

“I’m exercising my squatters rights. I’m staying here until Monday until I can afford to buy a tent to go and live in the Oval “

Oval is aka “tent city” Dunedin

I’m trying to see the funny side of this as there’s no way she will follow through with living in a tent in the Oval especially since she has a home to live in.

Prior to her squatters rights statement she asked me to lend her $22 to buy a tent. I said no.

It’s slightly comedic but also it isn’t

It’s my days off work. I just needed to vent. This is an ongoing saga for the last 15 years.

I also need emotional support from some reddit comrades.

I will call her mental health team on Monday.

UPDATE We are watching a movie and she made me pasta. She can stay tonight as it’s 30 minutes drive back

Anybody who banks with a ANZ will be aware of their mortgage repayment protocols.

You can pay off ONE lump sum ONLY at any time during the fixed term as long as it is less than 15% of the amount owing on the mortgage

Currently, I have $5000 spare. If I pay that now my mortgage will be $299,000
Then of course I will saving interest on the 5000 I pay off.

Or I could wait and I am estimating. I can save another $5000 in about 6 -8 months.

Then I would have $10,000 as a lump sum . However I would be paying more interest until I save the extra $5000.

What would you do - pay the $5000 now or wait until you have $10,000 saved knowing that you are incurring and paying interest all that time?

Also, there is an option to increase my repayments, but I don’t feel comfortable financially to do so right now

I increased them slightly when I refixed in March

What do you think?

I could probably afford to increase my repayments by $40 per fortnight

So from 1260 a fortnight to $1300 a fortnight.

Yes, I’m paying a lot because I’m 54 and I’m fast tracking. I want my mortgage gone A.S.A.P.

My current mortgage is a 11 year term.

When I refixed in March I paid $11,000 lump sum.
It is very clear that I can pay a further lump sum as long as it is within the parameters I have described.

Or I could go for the middle ground and wait till I’ve saved $3000 more and then pay $8000 lump sum in 3-4 months

Any advice highly appreciated.

I work as a registered nurse.

I have historical criminal convictions from over 14 years ago when I was mentally ill and addicted to alcohol .

I am now 14 years sober and mentally stable .
I disclosed these convictions when I applied for my current job back in 2023.

I also disclosed them to my prior employers in 2020 and 2022 .

My employers had no issue with the convictions because they were so long ago and the nursing council was aware. I am able to practice as a registered nurse with no restrictions on my practising certificate

Fast forward to March of this year when I went on a holiday to the Gold Coast.

I was concerned about the convictions, so I phoned the Australian department of home affairs.

They told me to get a record of my convictions and take a letter with me which would be reviewed at the border.

Therefore, I requested a copy of my criminal convictions online from the ministry of justice.

Email from MOJ came back that I had NO criminal convictions recorded

Pertinently, I was very clear with the ministry of Justice that I required the document for travelling and I was definitely not eligible for a clean slate.

I phoned the Ministry of Justice. I told them that I knew I had criminal convictions. I told them I was not eligible for clean slate.

They looked me up and I have NO convictions recorded at all, ever.

My Psychologist had even written a letter to Australian immigration explaining that I was addicted to alcohol around 15 plus years ago when I had four DUI convictions

I even called the nursing council and spoke at length to one of the Nurse advisors there.

She told me not to declare any convictions at the border because I have an email letter from MOJ saying I I have none.

Therefore, at the border on the computer screen I selected NO when I was asked if I have any criminal convictions

The problem is that I am going to work in Australia next year and of course they will do Police Vetting.

My Psychologist and nursing council say it won’t be a problem for me to work in Australia because the convictions are now very long ago

My mental illness is stable. I am 14 years sober of alcohol. I have no conditions on my nursing practising certificate etc.

My next step will be to ask my current manager if when she did police vetting for me back in late 2023, did the convictions come up.

Either way, I know I can go and work in Australia because:

1. The convictions are a long time ago.
2. I was not working as a Nurse when I offended against the law
3. New Zealand nursing council has cleared me to practice with no restrictions.

The woman on the phone at ministry of justice says that she has NEVER ever had this happen before

Also, the convictions were not all at once. They were separate convictions at separate times spanning about two or three years when I was severely mentally ill and addicted to alcohol. (Schizoaffective disorder)

Does anybody here understand what could have happened?

My fourth conviction was indefinite disqualification from driving which is ineligible for clean slate.

Therefore, the convictions should have shown up .

(Btw- I now have a full clean driver’s license as I had to resit it after a period of not driving for 2 years.)

When I apply for my work in Australia, am I supposed to say I have criminal convictions or not?

This advisor at the nursing council said to say no I don’t because I have legal documentation from ministry of justice which says I don’t have any.

This is a very confusing situation. I fully intend to be honest but if I say I have convictions and the police vetting says I don’t, it will seem very strange to a prospective employer.

That is what the nursing council advisor told me - she told me that I have a document from MOJ saying I have no convictions, that is what will be taken as a fact- not my word.

Usually, it would be the other way around. A person with convictions on their record trying to convince an employer that they have none.

In my case, I have no convictions on record and me saying that I have some seems absurd.

Additionally the ministry of Justice person said that police vetting get their information from Ministry of Justice so police vetting will most likely show no convictions

What do you think has happened Reddit Legal advice people?

(I have not capitalised every word because it’s too difficult to go back and do so - please excuse these grammatical errors)