the_gneech | All Righty Then!

So I got home and thought, "All righty then, Kung Fu!" To which my body said, "No! Back to sleep for you! Or else!"

*thunk!* Zzzzzzzzzz...

Um. So when I finally dragged myself back to the land of the living, I tried to decide what to do with my evening. I wanted to draw, or do Bowflex, or work on BESM d20, do something goal-oriented, but I just didn't have the energy. So I decided I'd be better served to update finances and pay bills instead. There've been too many times where I've let it slip, only to find a stack of bills that were due, like, yesterday. :P

The good news is, being steadily employed for a while, and the use of hard-earned financial discipline, has really paid off in terms of our financial security. We aren't anywhere near the "year's salary saved up" point that we once were, but we've started to rebuild the safety net, and have put the debt into very controllable form. Debt in general, and credit cards in particular, has a very sinister way of taking over your financial life, until all you're ever doing is paying interest on the interest on money that was loaned to you years ago. I'm generally a laissez-faire sort of guy when it comes to financial regulation, but I think in the case of personal debt, there is a reasonable case to be made about tightening just how much credit companies can extend to people -- particularly people in lower income ranges who have extremely limited means to pay off that debt (i.e., the exact sort of people the credit card companies love to prey on). Certainly if food prep and medical certification are going to have regulations, then the Mastercard/Visa Confidence Scheme should be subject to it.

Proper education on the matter would certainly help. For all the screaming we hear about the mostly-useless subject of creation vs. evolution, when was the last time that basic personal finance was a core subject at school?

Speaking of basic personal finance, now that we're on an even keel again, I really need to start up the ol' retirement plan again. I've started three separate 401(k) plans, only to have them all get blown to bits by dire financial need during periods of unemployment. However, I'm starting to reach the age where big returns at the end are going to be too little too late if I don't get started! Well, that'll happen soon. I finally feel secure enough that I'm ready to devote resources to it.

That's all for today; maybe if I can get a good night's sleep, I'll be able to actually accomplish something tomorrow. G'nite, all!

-The Gneech