A few weeks ago, I got a bill in the mail from the propane company for…. *drumroll* a finance charge. That’s it. Normally, a 72 cent finance charge would be fine and swell, if not for the fact that it’s on top of a $47 balance on an account that was closed two years ago. The last thing I got in the mail from them was a check for the gas left in the tank, but on checking my account on their website, I see a $45 “service invoice” from January 27th. I neither requested nor received service, nor did I get an invoice for it.

So, I sent them an email relating all of the above, and suggesting that they just forget about it. It’ll probably be cheaper for them that way, because I certainly have no intention of paying. I guess we’ll see, then.

In other news, I went back to work last night 4 hours after I left work to drive a truck full of showers up to who-the-hell-knows-where. That was fun, but an easy 11 hours of overtime. Speaking of overtime, check just came in, and I am filthy stinkin rich for the time being. I missed these huge paychecks. At 54 hours this week, I’m on my way to doing it again.

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The ides of March have passed, and a full balancing of the books shows that, with the exception of the new phone purchase (and FINCON11 registration), I am right on track. I’m a bit surprised by this myself, but considering the whole phone issue happened right at the beginning of the month, I was pretty careful about my spending right off the bat.

The big news, of course, is FINCON! I went ahead and paid for the super early bird registration for the cost savings, as well as to commit myself to going. I’m glad it’s in a rather centralized city (West coast can suck it), but there are still quite a few things I need to work out. Thankfully, I have plenty of time, since it’s in October. It would take me two days to get there by scooter whilst avoiding interstates, so I’m hoping to hop a ride with someone else, as well as room with someone. The other option would be to make it part of my vacation, but that would be a really bad time of year to do so – tons of lost overtime, and not exactly the warmest out there. And then, of course, quite a bit of saving to be done. Lots of things to do, and lots of time to do it, and in the meantime I’ll just sit around super excited – I mean, really, look at the people who are already registered! Who doesn’t want to hang out with that group?

And finally, I managed to get around to watching The Place Promised in our Early Days (Kumo no Muk?, Yakusoku no Basho / Beyond The Clouds, The Promised Place), by Shinkai Makoto. The animation and scenery are stunning, and very reminiscent of his 5 Centimeters Per Second. The story itself, of course, is absolutely beautiful, and unless you have no heart, it will make you cry. Capped off by an amazing ending theme by Kawashima Ai, and it easily makes my list of top movies. I highly recommend you check it out.

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I never thought that I would have to write this post, but commenter Yadgyu has kind of forced my hand. The levels of bizarre astounded me. If you haven’t seen it, go read his comment first before continuing on. I’ll wait.

You’re back? What the hell, right? Yadgyu, I think you’ve been brainwashed by too many television commercials.

Debt is a part of life.

We usually hear these words specifically with regards to car payments, but obviously the answer is the same: Debt is only a part of life if you allow it to be. To paraphrase from one of my favorite movies (five free internets to whoever guesses which one), I need debt in my life like I need an asshole on my elbow.

The sooner you realize that, the less time and money you can waste trying to eliminate it.

Wrong, wrong, wrongity wrong wrooooooong. The sooner I get out of debt, the less time and money I can waste servicing that debt. It would take you over 12 years to pay off a credit card with a $1,000 balance at 18% interest by just making the minimum payments. Right now, I could pay off that same credit card in 2-3 months, and not have to worry about it ever again. Not one year from now, not five years, not twelve. Who in their right mind would go the other way around when they have the means not to?

As soon as you become ambivalent to your debt, the better quality of life you can live.

Wrong again. The sooner I get out of debt, the better quality of life I can live. Do you know why? $12,723.01. That’s the amount of money I spent on debt payments last year. I brought home $21,295.79 last year. That’s just shy of 60% of my income that I wasted paying off my debt. Do you have any idea how nice it would be to have that money back? I could live in my own apartment. I could have a car. I could have bought my old truck 10 times over, or two decent used cars. Instead, I’m living with my grandfather and my cousin (who is also in debt). Not exactly the ideal living arrangements for a 24 year old single guy. I have no car or truck, because I couldn’t afford to fix my truck (and it wasn’t worth fixing anymore, a direct result of buying such a shitty old truck because – you guessed it – it’s all I could afford). I have a Honda scooter that my mom had to buy for me because I couldn’t get a loan for it myself. I have another scooter that I haven’t seen in years, and has been floating around the midstate as people try to fix it that I borrowed money from my sister to buy. I ride to work in the rain. Likewise, I walk to work in the snow. My current quality of life is not a result of focusing on paying off all of my debt, it’s a result of being in debt in the first place!

The only other interpretation I can think of for that sentence is that you think we should all just stop making payments on our debt, whilst continuing to enjoy the fruits of it. To that, sir, I say you are an idiot, because there’s no better way I can think of to put it. While I do believe that strategic default is a legitimate business decision to get out of a mortgage, for most consumer debt it is essentially a dick move, even when done to a faceless corporation. Nobody put a gun to your head and made you borrow that money to buy and enjoy nice shiny things.

Besides, being debt-free is not going to make you rich. Many rich people are in debt and they even manage to get richer while being in debt.

I have never said that I want to be rich, nor am I trying to. There’s an obvious problem with defining “rich,” though, but I would certainly feel rich, and as a consequence I would essentially be rich, if it weren’t for my debt. There are many things I could do with all that money I’ve been spending on debt over the years, and that’s what being rich really means for me – to be able to do whatever I want, whenever I want, without having to worry too much about the costs. There’s a pretty good chance that if it weren’t for all that, I’d be in business for myself right now. The only thing holding me back is all these payments. To go with what I imagine is your definition of “rich,” the truly rich do not carry consumer debt. The only ones who do are those who think they are richer than they really are. Warren Buffet abhors debt, and he’s currently the third wealthiest person in the world! He made his first million by working hard, working for himself, and knowing the right people. Not by going in to debt. So, no, you do not need debt in order to get rich. Hell, Dave Ramsey is rich because he got out of debt, not because he got in to it.

And that’s about all I’ve got to say about that. To my regular readers, sorry for the week of silence (though I’m sure I’m the only one who noticed), I was working a lot of overtime last week to pay for the new phone. Because that’s what responsible people do. And playing Dragon Age II. Because that’s what I do.

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I suppose I could just leave it at that. I wanted to upgrade to the iPhone 4, but not like this. I just need to hope that I can get the contract price, and hopefully without forcing my mom to get a new one or lose her chance to do so right now.

If I’m so lucky, still…. that’s $200. Out of a $300 budget. And I was planning on getting Dragon Age 2 when it comes out in five days, which will be another $60.

Oh, March, you silly bitch you.

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