I took Uber to the Metro this morning, and the driver told me that when he first signed in, there were a few snow flurries. I bought the right coat and I am warm enough, but I need one of those hipster hats, because a baseball cap just doesn’t cut it. Plus, my office is like a meat freezer, so I’d feel comfortable in a toque all day… maybe a wool porkpie, as is my usual. I used to have one that I bought at Roots, with the Canadian winter Olympics logos on it, but one of the cats peed on it and it was never the same afterward, despite washing it and spraying it with 91% alcohol. The long and short of it is that it’s time to go shopping.
I don’t know when I’ll get my first paycheck, but it will be very, very soon… and despite the time I took off when my driver’s license was on it’s way, I’ll still have two weeks and some change on it. I’ll have enough to put away money and get the few things I need to make life comfortable. I have decided that after I get my emergency fund in place, it’s time to start saving for a cheap car. It’s not getting to work that’s killing me. It’s getting home. I am generally perky in the morning, because I go to bed very early, but it is killing me to get home an hour before bed and never making it to choir on time EVER.
But the car can wait. I can put it off as long as necessary, because my financial security has to come first. My hospitalization last year wasn’t cheap, and I need to pay it off myself, but not after the thousand dollars Dave Ramsey recommends to get myself out of trouble if I need it. I don’t believe what Ramsey does in terms of theology, but I follow his financial advice as if it were Egg McMuffins, if that gives you any indication of how much I like it.
So, you start with the thousand dollar emergency fund, and then as you pay off debt, you start to accrue three to six months worth of living expenses as well. That’s why it’s so important to me to buy a car instead of leasing or financing one. I don’t want a car payment in addition to everything else I need to pay. I also want to put some money into one of those medical savings accounts so that I can pay for my doctor’s visits and medication with it. I won’t worry about extra for emergency room co-pays, because I hardly ever need them. I don’t want to take a chance on putting too much in, because that’s money I’ll never get back if I don’t use it. Right now, I don’t know how much my doctor’s visits and medication will cost since I am switching over from Medicaid to an HMO provided by DSI.
We’ll just have to see. The main idea in this essay is to be financially responsible for what’s coming in, and to bless my bank account like I bless everything else. How you feel about money is just as important as how you spend it. I have an incredible road ahead of me financially, because I’m not responsible for anything I don’t want to be… although truth be told, Medicaid was so excellent that I am wary about switching plans, but at the same time, Medicaid is for people without income, and it needs to stay that way. I am so thankful that my safety net remained intact, and I will never be able to repay my gratitude except in what I do from here on out. Giving back to my community in Silver Spring is so important, with the exception that after grad school, I don’t want to locate my church here, because CCC is such an important part of my life that I do not want to “compete” with it.
It’s about my own journey now, the one where I am ultimately responsible for everything that happens in my life, because I do not have a partner to share it with. This is not a problem, this is just reality.
Reality is fun. I think. I’ll keep you posted. 😛
Stories That Are All True 