Windfalls

I have to give good news some air time, especially in a recession when I’m all doom and gloom and daydreaming about buying cheap vacant lots in Detroit just in case I need arable land near fresh water in which to grow food.

I’m happy, then, to report a surprise influx of money, some of which is my spent money being returned to its rightful owner:

• $1,450 – Security deposit from the apartment I left in March
• $34 – PG&E refund (which PG&E can’t explain, so I finally stopped trying to understand and cashed it)
• $1,350 (pre-tax, so less) – Work bonus from last year that my company couldn’t afford to pay out last year during less prosperous times – surprise!  It will be deposited tonight with my paycheck.

Forthcoming:

• $1,330 – Monthly rent from my tenants (yeah, sure, I get this each month, but it still feels like a windfall since I push it right into savings and pretend it doesn’t exist for another 30 days)
• $??? – Some number of Bush Bucks (reduced from $600 due to my income limits, but it’s still money, even though it’s technically a loan)
• $1,500 (also pre-tax, also to be reduced) – A hiring bonus for recruiting a friend we’ve hired.  He needs to last for 90 days ,but then I get this bonus (my second hiring/recruiting bonus at this job).

Sorry to be so boring, but all of this is going straight into savings.  I’m happy to report that there is absolutely nothing I want badly enough to spend money on it.  Not a darned thing.  Believe me, I’m trying to come up with something.  Really.  I guess my neurons just don’t fire that way anymore!

Good Riddance, Bad Data: AT&T

This is the first post in a series about my experiences dealing with bad data. I have become increasingly frustrated with the data contained in credit reports, which informs our FICO scores. Why? Because you and I are not told the source of this data about us (if the credit reporting agencies even know it) but bear sole responsibility for correcting it. Entities who provide data don’t have to identify their sources or verify information: The onus is on you and I to disprove them.

Cases in point for me include:

• Proving I’ve never been married, twice (neither to a female roommate nor to my father)
• Proving I didn’t open an AT&T account that I… well, didn’t open
• Proving my live-in boyfriend’s undergraduate loans, which he took out long before he met me, were not my responsibility
• Proving the amount I owed on student loans was half what was reported (each loan I had was listed twice)

My grand theory, which these posts will explore, is that data quality may be getting worse.  In my experience, the word is getting around about this and, because of lower data quality, some people and organizations are increasingly skeptical of said data and thus assigning lower weight to it.

If you’re interested in the topic of data about you, I highly recommend Jim Harper’s book called Identity Crisis, particularly for its descriptions of data piggybacking and the persistence of bad data. I also recommend The Digital Person by Daniel J. Solove. Do you know the digital you?

Now for the post!  Long text ahead!

Good Riddance, Bad Data: AT&T

Preface: I have never, ever had AT&T phone service of any kind in my name. Keep this information nugget in your pocket.

In 2001, I moved to Chicago and rented an apartment. I checked my credit report and found it had a ding on it for a 30-day overdue AT&T account.  This didn’t prevent me from getting the apartment, but of course I called AT&T about it.

I told AT&T that I had never had an AT&T account. They insisted I did. I asked them to provide details about the account, you know, foolish questions like:

• What kind of service was this for?
• Was the account currently open or closed?
• When had I supposedly signed up for it?
• To what address was the service connected? (I didn’t have a cell phone yet).
• What was the phone number on the account?
• Where was the contract or service agreement in my name?

But how dare I, really?  AT&T refused to answer all of these questions, and could produce no evidence that I had ever opened an account with them. They said they were not obligated to provide that information – though of course I was still obligated to pay them.

AT&T would only say that the account had been opened in January 2001 (which was also on my credit report). I pointed out that my credit report also said that the account was only 30 days late. Clearly, I must have been paying them for most of 2001, if the account was only 30 days overdue since January, and not 90 days or more.  Surely, then, I must have paid them something at some point.  Could they please provide me with evidence that I had paid them?

Of course they couldn’t.  I had never written a check to AT&T (no online payment yet, either – it was 2001 remember), which was easy to prove with a run through my bank records, which I sent.  Did this change anything?  Of course not.

Naturally, I refused to pay the balance of $180.  AT&T punted the account to NCO Financial Systems for collection, where it was conveniently not their problem anymore.  The collection stayed on my credit report for a couple of years and I did absolutely nothing about it.  It wasn’t bad: After all, since I didn’t have a phone number with AT&T, it’s not like NCO knew where to call me.  I could not stand dealing with the pure irrationality and unfairness of the situation.

Think about this for a moment.  A perfect stranger walks up to you on the street and says “You owe me money.”  You’ve never seen the person before and have no prior relationship with them.  Assuming you have no abandoned children who might have found you, would you just pay this person whatever s/he asked?  Of course not.

Life went on unaffected.  I got cell phones, credit cards, and more with great rates and no problems.

In the meantime, incredibly enough, NCO Financial Systems started calling my dad, with whom I’d not lived for seven years at the time.  They insisted that the $180 AT&T balance was his and he had to pay it. Now, my dad and I have very similar names – different by one letter at the end of my name to make it girly. Still, how did this account end up on his credit report, under a completely different social security number?

My father, of the 800+ credit score and Max Midwestern frugality, was shocked and awed, mostly because it was all magical: My parents hadn’t had AT&T service in about a decade – and certainly no account opened in January 2001. My dad then lost several hours of his life having the same arguments with NCO and AT&T that I did – asking for proof of an account, for proof of any payment ever being made on said account – and NCO and AT&T refused to provide it.

My dad, in his proud 6′4″ factory-worker, Midwestern gun-owner way, made it equally clear that he had no responsibility to pay, wasn’t moving or buying a home soon, and didn’t care if it sat on his credit report until the day he died.

I found out about the magical account move accidentally. While visiting my dad, I heard a voicemail message from NCO, the collection agency. My dad proceeded to tell me the story, and I told him about my situation with the same account.  We ordered credit reports online immediately. Sure enough, the $180 AT&T balance was now on his credit report, not on mine.

And so the account remained off of my credit report and on my dad’s for a few years. I have the credit report from when I purchased my first condo in 2004, and my second condo in September 2006. It’s not on either report. It’s also not on my free annual credit reports from February 2006, 2007, or 2008.

But guess what? It’s baaaaack.

I applied for a credit card yesterday with my credit union.  They said “We’ll approve it as soon as you clear up this delinquent account.”

I promptly felt panicked and surpised.  What delinquent account could this be?! I checked the PDF of my annual credit report from two months ago.  Not a single delinquency on it.  Maybe a mortgage payment didn’t get acknowledged?!  Then the guy tells me…

“It’s an AT&T account from 2001 for $180.”

Oh. My. God.  WHAT THE EVER LIVING HELL?  I mean REALLY.

In my Exhausted Modern Consumer voice, I told him the story. I offer to send reams of credit reports, both with the account on it in 2001 and after it was removed. And then, thinking of the whole draining seven years past, I said, “You know what, I’m tired of dealing with this. I don’t need the credit card. Sorry about this.”

But what did he say? “Oh, don’t worry about it. I consider that clearing up the delinquency by providing us with an explanation.”

My only guess this time around is the magical account may have reappeared because the “delinquency” will disappear after this year, since it was reported in 2001 and seven years will have passed.

Walk with me down the path o’ paranoia for a moment, though, to consider this possibility: Assume that many consumers don’t do what my dad and I did, which is to not pay.  Assume that many people (like my grandparents or my mom) would have just paid the damned thing to get it off of their credit reports.  Assume that AT&T knows this, and can do it on person.  Think of how much money they make if they do this to 10,000 or 100,000 people, and even some of them pay the balance.

Good riddance to bad data.  I think we’d all save a lot of money.

I’ve got the recession spirit!

First, treat yourself to “How I learned to stop worrying and love the recession” over at Salon. Heather Havrilesky nails it.  I, too, have been eating my share of chickpea salads and lentil soup lately.

Also in the recession spirit, I cannot wait until May.  The Cinta Aveda Institute (beauty school) opens in less than a month.  Check the price list for their services!  These are low for San Francisco, folks.
http://www.cintaavedainstitute.com/hair.htm

In a further sign of panic about the future, I increased my 401(k) contributions from 2% to 5% today.  I know it’s still less than it should be (10% or more), but I still have 2007 property taxes to pay off, dear hearts.  After those taxes are paid for, though, I have no excuses.

Finally, I applied and was approved for a new $5,000 limit credit card with my credit union.  I don’t need it – I have a $10,000 card (with a $0 balance – sorry, just have to say it), but having a bit more credit in my name with no balances won’t hurt.

Debt Culture

This is an absolute must-read article by Jim Jubak: U.S. Deep in Debt and Still Digging. This is one of those articles I rely on when I need a succinct, clear way to explain how it is that you and I come to pay thousands of dollars for government debt. Most people truly don’t understand that we pay for this, or how much; as Jim Jubak spells it out, “The taxes you paid on your recently filed 1040 included roughly $4,300 to cover your household’s annual share of the interest payments on the $9.4 trillion in public debt owed by the U.S. government.”

That’s just the interest.  In case you missed that.  Just the interest… on debt you did not willingly incur!  For stuff you didn’t get to enjoy or choose to buy!  Think, for a moment, of how much better off you’d be if you had that $4,300 to put toward your OWN debt.  Note to CPA: Is there anything we can do about this?

Jubak also includes a little nugget about why it’s important to think about the origin of the products you buy: “That $9.4 trillion is just part of what we as a nation owe collectively. There’s also the $700 billion trade deficit we ran up in 2007 as a result of importing more than we exported.”

A much darker, doomsday commentary on the cultural shift we need to make away from consumption is here: What a Way to Go, a movie. I encourage you to be critical about the presentation and message, but also open minded. As we should be with all messages others try to use to influence us!

In brighter news, I haven’t bought anything in two days (yesterday and today, and today is pay day). I love that feeling.

Our usual toothpaste was $2 off per box on Sunday. I had a financial geek moment in the Walgreen’s. You know, that insane joker-like grin you get when you find something you really love and normally buy at full price with a major markdown? And you’re happy because you’re not compromising at all and buying the cheaper brand you hate instead? Yeah. I bought three, which is all that Tiny But Inexpensive Apartment has room for right now.

I’ve also started using the library again.  With online renewals and this LINK + fanciness (in which the book I want, if found anywhere in the California Republic, essentially, is sent to the local branch of my choosing), I have no excuses.  This is another case where frugal is greener: I read most books once.  To spend the money on them, to say nothing of the raw materials (trees) used to make the books and the Amazon boxes they’re shipped in, and never mind the fuel used to ship them here, well, it’s a travesty.  I need to get in the library habit for a lot of reasons.

Make today a Roth IRA day!

I recently asked my CPA, “If I’ve already filed my federal income taxes, do I need to amend my return if I contribute to a Roth IRA for the 2007 tax year?” The answer was a big NO, so I did.

I opened my second Roth IRA today, and took $3,000 out of my $10,000 emergency savings fund to do so. I didn’t contribute the maximum ($4,000 for 2007) but it’s better than nothing. I will save to contribute the maximum next year

I waffled about this Roth IRA day, because seeing that $10,000+ balance in my savings, all tidy in one place, is so rewarding. Still, I think it was the right choice to make before April 15. I contributed almost nothing to retirement savings in 2007 because I focused on paying off nearly $10,000 of credit card debt, and I want to get back on the retirement band wagon. So, I started today – the pre-April 15 date handily forced my decision.

The low rates are always shocking. The rate on my first Roth IRA, opened a few years ago, was 9%. Today, it was 4% and that’s the special 12-month rate. Sigh.

In an attempt to raise my spirits about the visual blow to my emergency fund balance (it went down by a digit field, meh), my dad reminded me that a Roth IRA can, technically, be used as an emergency fund if absolutely necessary.  I found a helpful article from the Motley Fool on this (there’s solid Roth IRA information in there if you can make it past the part about having lots of kids even when it means high-risk pregnancy).

The main point?

“Unlike the money in a traditional IRA or an employer-sponsored retirement account — which is taxed and penalized if withdrawn before the account owner turns 59 1/2 in most cases — contributions to a Roth IRA can be withdrawn anytime and for any reason, penalty- and tax-free. However, the earnings will be taxed and penalized if withdrawn before that magic age (with some exceptions).”

But also…

“The earnings can be withdrawn penalty-free as long as the account has been open for five years, but you’ll still have to pay taxes.

Made in China to Cost More?

MSN Money says to say goodbye to era of cheap Chinese imports. The article misses a major point though: Chinese inflation isn’t the only reason the cost of Chinese goods will increase. A perhaps even greater one is the Chinese people, including factory owners, wanting to keep more of their own money, rather than lending it to us. Just a thought. I refer to this issue in an earlier post, but the real story is here.

Material Girl

I never would have used the word “materialistic” to describe myself… until yesterday. Yesterday, I bought my very first surfboard (with cash, of course) without an iota of guilt over a $450 splurge. I bought it from a small start-up surfboard manufacturer (two guys) in California, out of the back of a truck at the Safeway on La Playa. There isn’t a more perfect transaction for a Detroiter-cum-surfer, let me tell you.

Besides learning a new life lesson on the potential objects have to cause emotional reactions (more on that later), I learned a lesson about debt. How was spending $450 a lesson in debt, and not just pure spending?

It’s simple. The lesson is: I should love everything I buy as much as my surfboard. If I’d followed this rule (which would mean having had the surfboard baseline earlier), I never would have accumulated any debt in the first place: I wouldn’t have loved anything enough to pay for it.

More than 24 hours have passed since a lovely locally made longboard made its way into my heart and, then, my car share. I am absolutely smitten, visibly giddy, about it. I am 31-years-old and no object has ever made me happier: Not cars, not jewelry, not shoes, not even (and I mean this, for better or worse) the degrees in my file boxes. No object has ever had this effect on me.  Experiences have, of course, but those are another story.

Yes, the act of surfing makes me even happier, but there are no words for that; it’s beyond simple happiness. When I try to explain how I feel during and after surfing, I sound like I have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and start rambling about seizing the day and flying and it’s not how many years you have in your life, it’s the life in your years… man… That’s how I get, with the surfing.  You don’t want me to write that way, I promise.

I’m fortunate enough to feel this way only about a surfboard. What if I were equally enthralled by other things? Do people like this exist? They must. I think, for the first time, that I can understand how some people get into debt just from buying things they love. If everything made me feel as overjoyed as my surfboard, I’d be in serious trouble.

I am going to try to remember this feeling. Suze Orman lists three questions people should ask themselves before buying something:

1. Is it kind?
2. Is it necessary?
3. Is it true?

I’ve never understood questions #1 and #3, honestly; I don’t know how objects can be “kind” or “true,” though I suppose the act of purchasing something (when your family is already in debt, say, or you have dependents) could be considered unkind.

Now I only need one question that DOES make sense to me: “Do I like it as much as my surfboard?” If not, down it goes. That should curtail just about all spending. This probably isn’t completely realistic, but it’s a great reminder.

Money News, Self-Centered Version

ATA filed for Chapter 11 yesterday, and my friend is stuck in Hawaii as a result. Flights were just totally suspended (at least they use the words “total shutdown”), and nothing required them to tell anyone. Are all people permitted to walk away from their obligations this easily? If so, let me know,

Michael Brush at MSN has Five Reasons Gold is Headed to $1,500. Brush doesn’t mention the Central Fund of Canada (CEF on the American Stock Exchange). I purchased $600 worth of shares in CEF two years ago after reading about choosing gold funds in the Motley Fool. This particular fund has its holdings primarily in gold and silver bullion, which is good. When you’re researching gold funds, you should look for funds that have most of their holdings in bullion. Be wary of “gold funds” that are primarily invested in mining and more appropriately dubbed “optimistic, higher-risk gold mining funds.” High oil and a weak U.S. dollar have been on my CEF side for the past two years, and my fund has a lot more than $600 in it right now (and the same number of shares). The only problem now? I don’t know when to sell. How much higher will gold go? Every time I consider selling, it rises another notch.

MSN Money also asks if high-earning women are Too Successful for a Mate, because they are “staying single in droves.” It seems that this article continues to make the unfortunate mistake of using “single” and “not married” as synonyms. I’m 31, I make more than $110,000/year, I’ve never been married, I have real estate and other investments, and I’m about eight months away from finishing my Ph.D. Not to have an inflated sense of self, but I’m betting that I’d be counted “single” and “successful” by MSN.

Allow this single, successful woman from D-Town to represent for a moment.

First, I’m calling bullshit on that first video that purports to describe “What women are thinking,” because I don’t think any of those things, ever.  No, I would never intentionally talk down about myself to hook a man.  Sorry.  That’s a lie of omission and he’ll find out sometime anyway.  No, I don’t even think about sacrificing my dreams and ambition to have a mate.  It’s not even an option.

Yep. I’m single. I mean, the title to my house says it belongs to “Penny L. – an Unmarried Woman” (verbatim), so it must be true. Though I’m single, I’m rarely single. Men don’t seem too intimidated by me to date me, but then they’re successful too. I was shacked up with my ex for four years, and we owned a home together and were both on the title BUT, like so many of our friends of the gay persuasion, we were each of us still counted as “single.” I was really truly single for about seven months (which was not long enough to be truly alone, since I honestly enjoy solitude, but these things happen). Then, I fell smitten with Mans and have moved in with him after a blissful year (somewhat in a panic, since I relish my solitude).

I love Mans to the stars, but I love living alone. Maybe it was the variety of college roommates that made me love it so, or maybe it’s just that I relish my independence. I like having my own space, and I love having my own money. And that’s why I don’t understand why it’s supposedly a bad thing for me not to be married (especially since neither of us wants children in the slightest). Most married people I know are happy, despite so much media to the contrary, but they only got married right before they decided to have children. They lived together for years, but children still seem to warrant a marriage first (for them).

So if we don’t want children, and neither of us is religious (so there’s no sacrament business involved), what’s the difference? We have our own money. I don’t need or want his. We just like being together, and we’ll stay together for as long as we do, but I feel absolutely no desire to have a wedding and get married, all vapid train wrecks of Lifetime TV programs aside. There are the legal benefits, certainly – and those may be reason enough. But otherwise I just don’t know. So I can have some jewelry? I can buy that myself, too.

A friend of mine got married at 25, and her family was horrified to find her and husband making separate ATM withdrawals, from separate fun-spending accounts, on a vacation. I was horrified that they were horrified. They could not conceive of a married couple having separate money – and I can’t conceive of having everything combined. The lack of control would kill me. A joint account for the mortgage is one thing, but I cannot conceive of, for instance, Mans paying for my haircut or me his. Yes, if we fall on hard times, absolutely. But I don’t feel at all entitled to the money he earns.

The point here being: The longer you’re in control of your own life and your own money, yes, the harder it is to change that. I think I was (partially) more likely to have kids at 24 than I am now, because I’m used to having a certain amount of money for certain things (housing, my retirement, dad’s retirement, helping young cousin with useless parents pay for college, and yes, yoga and hair dye and so on). I am sure this is one reason why high-earning women tend to stay single. I’m finally hitting my stride, not struggling, finishing grad school, and getting a good nest egg together. Telling me I now have to fork over $1,200/month for daycare would be tough to stomach and, with the financial experience I’ve gained since age 18, I now know exactly how difficult that would be to manage AND have enough savings, retirement, etc.

I also can’t fathom, no matter how much I love him, anyone having access to my money to derail my financial plans and efforts. I learned this from my mom’s divorced friends: Always have your own money.

Minty Fresh Analysis

First, a quick nod to Tricia at Blogging Away Debt whose recent posts about garage sales and Craigslist inspired me to sell some things during my move to a new apartment. I sold:

• Clothes – $58
• Mattress – $75
  
• A bookcase – $50 (which I handed right over to my honey for getting the car share to move things, coming over and waiting for the Craigslist stranger, disassembling the book case, and helping the buyer take it to his car… with which my honey promptly paid for our $40 late-night, moving, no-food-left-in-the-house dinner. Easy come, easy go on this one!
• And, unrelated, a check for $58 for participating in a linguistics study arrived.
• TOTAL – $241

Second, I spent some time looking at my Mint.com data, which is more meaningful with a few months’ worth of data. Findings?

Back to Cash Tracking
I have almost $2,000 in cash expenditures (ATM withdrawals in Mint-speak) since Jan. 1 – and I don’t know what they are. I need to get back in the manual cash tracking habit. Oh Mint, when will you add this capability?

Where It’s Going, Where It Went
Mint counts “top merchants” according to your number of visits, not according to the amount of money given them. This was interesting.

• Merchant #1: City Car Share – $155 (3 months)
  I’ve never spent the time to analyze how much I spend on car share services by analyzing my account information. I simply utter the vague notion “It’s cheaper than owning a car” and sort of wave my hands around. Now I KNOW I spend about $50/month – which is a LOT less expensive than owning a car. If I owned a car, I would pay nearly $155/month for insurance alone in San Francisco.
• Merchant #2: Amazon – $84
  Oh, if only the library were an efficient operation. It really and truly was, in Chicago. If you’re employed, try to get to the San Francisco branches when they’re open AND return the book on time to avoid fees (which I’ve never been good at with my travel schedule). Maybe I’ll give it another shot, but Amazon Prime makes it too easy to just buy a book and kill the earth by having each individual shipped to me via gas-guzzling-something in its own packaging.

“No. F**ing. Way.”
I had no idea I’ve spent $338 on gifts and charities in three months – more than $100/month?! Really?! This is so much more than I would have ever budgeted for. Considering that I donate $25/month to the EFF, and this $338 horror is for the past three months, I am shocked. This means I’m a little too generous with friend gifts.

I probably think this song is about me…
I’ve spent $374 on “personal care” since January 1. It’s the hair. And the product. I need to get back on the wagon. I had this rule, you recall? The one that said I had to use up ALL of my existing product before I could buy anything new? I just know I will keep having my hair done at approximately this price. I know it.  It’s something about the salon itself, maybe.  I haven’t really deviated from this since college: Even when I had no money, and I mean $5 between pay days, my hair was done.

Do you know, I paid $190 to have my hair done in Tokyo on my 31st birthday with less-toxic Aveda dye?  Oh, I still love the EcoColors, believe me.  But Chie-san made it blonde and brown and deep perfect violet (her choice) and I love it. Every strand was worth every penny, I swear. But… I’m at least getting it done in Michgian when I go to visit, since an Aveda salon there costs fully 30-50% less than it does here. Haircuts, for example, are $30 at Salon Tru and the average here is $75. And the good hair stylists of my economically depressed home Michissippi deserve it, damnit!

Yummy Yums – $848 on food and dining
This is why I need to track cash: I’m surprised this isn’t more. I know we eat out often and we have wine with meals. We do a good job of picking up the tab 50/50, but I bet this $848 is more like $1,500. We’ll see in a few more months.

Outlier Skew
I’ve spent $1,057 on shopping in three months, or $300+ per month. This isn’t representative, though, because I’d deliberately set aside money for some new clothes and shoes, a grand total of almost $800. I am half proud, half embarrassed to tell you that I was wearing sweaters that I got as Christmas gifts in high school (evidence that J. Crew is, in fact, timeless). You could say some of them were looking a little worn.

Last, and So Not Least
Make sure you’re sitting down for this, not being a meanderthal on your iPhone. Deep Ujjayi breaths, now. I wanna’ hear ‘em.

I’ve spent $11, 400 on housing in three months.

Couldn’t you just DIE? I could. It positively kills me to see that number. There are 12 months in a year, so that’s $45,600 per annum.

All those wise financial sages say a maximum of 40% of your income (and really more like 30-35%) should be used for housing. What percentage am I spending? Let’s look at that.

• Current post-tax monthly salary (take home, aka real, income): $6,000/month or $78,000/year (Not bad, but I’m not putting enough in retirement so this really should be lower)
• Rental income from my condo: $1,330/month or $15,600 a year
• Total annual real income: $93,600.

You know, I try to act like that rent check doesn’t exist and just put it in savings (behavior that has helped give me exactly $10,500 in an emergency fund). But when I saw that shift from $78,000/year to almost $94,000/year, I felt a renewed sense of appreciation for that rent check.

Anyway, 50% of $93,600 (total annual real income) is $46,800 (total annual housing), so almost exactly 50% of my take-home income goes to housing. Mother of heaven!

But wait, there’s more, and it’s worse. That $46,800 number? That doesn’t reflect the recent increase in my mortgage payment due to 2007 property taxes. I won’t go into a detailed description of the Cook Country triennial reassessment of property taxes and what the evil mortgage lender tells you they will be (“no more than $2,200, we’re certain”) versus what they turn out to be ($5,000), leaving you with 2007 taxes AND current 2008 tax installment payments. I will only tell you, dear reader, that my monthly payment on a 30-year fixed mortgage still rose by $800/month due to taxes ($500/month for 2007, $300/month for 2008 installments).

Fortunately, I just decreased my monthly rent payment by $600/month, so in real dollars I am paying $200 more per month for housing, even after this tax debacle. Could I spend more than half of emergency fund and pay it off today? Yes. Do I want to? No, not yet. I’m still doing OK, I like the cash cushion, and there’s no interest on the taxes. If I still had credit card debt, I’d feel very differently, but I don’t and that’s OK.

But enough about me. How are you?