Dear Credit Union,
I appreciate that you still give me the option of requesting funds from your Automated Teller Machines in $5 increments as well as $20 increments, but did you have to give me the entire $60 I withdrew this evening in $5 bills? Thanks.
One Perplexed Moose
The sure cure to panic over things like, say, moving, for me at least, is to sit down and make a list. Started that today, writing down those items I’m thinking about buying for the new place (TV, shelving, etc.), putting a cost (item cost, shipping, tax…) to them, and where I’ve found something, the name and vendor. It does help make the whole thing more manageable and not quite so overwhelming. I’m lucky in that the seller’s credit I’m getting at closing will leave me with more cash than I was expecting to have, so I’ll be in a position to pick up a couple of things sooner rather than later (TV…), which should make the home a tad more comfortable.
Overall the image of the place is coming together in my head. The acid test, of course, will be getting the existing furniture in there so I can see what will and will not work, but I’m liking the concepts I’ve got floating around. The one big thing I’m doing that’s different from previous apartments is that my “office space” is not going into the bedroom, it’s going to be out in the living room. I want the bedroom to be just that, a bedroom, and not to spend all of my time sitting in there at the computer. To keep with that, I’m looking at flat TVs that can be an “all-in-one” solution, meaning it can be TV, computer monitor, and (eventually) gaming console monitor. Any thoughts on that are welcome as I do my research (and yes, I’m pretty much set in getting one device rather than at least two).
Heading out to Tysons this weekend to do some in-person shopping at West Elm to get a feel for a couple of their pieces. I’m very much the “I want to see it and touch it and make sure it looks in person like it does on the web site/in the catalog” kind of shopper, when that option is available. Also have to pick out/up a mattress. After the closing Friday I’m going to try and sit down with the desk folks at the building and chat about package delivery and how that works, but that’s not an immediate need, and could be done over the phone if needed.
Woke up at 5 this morning and knew I wasn’t going back to bed, so I putzed for a bit, then got the gym to swim at 7. It was very quiet there, and I was able to get into a lane, shared at first with one other gentleman, then alone for the last half. This was about an hour before I normally get in there, but it was just as un-crowded at 8 when I was getting out as it was at 7 when I got in.
The resolutioners seem to have resolutioned out, finally. Thank heavens.
I think I freaked out my office by getting in at 8:30. Not early for most people, I know, but since I normally get in at 9:30-9:45, it was a tad strange for the rest of the folks here. I’ll use the extra time today to take less time off tomorrow when I go to fill out paperwork with my agent for the offer on the apartment.
(OMG, NPR is talking about the case of Marshall v. Marshall, aka the “Anna Nicole Smith” case, and I have to say, I knew she was a train wreck, but the description by Nina Totenberg is just Too Fraking Funny)
Will be slightly crazy here at work, even without the home buying stuff (my mortgage broker called when I was in the gym this morning). Whee.
I’m in the process of putting an offer in on a co-op apartment down in southwest DC, near the Waterfront Metro station. Nothing quite like contemplating more than doubling my debt load (after student loans) in one fell swoop. Thank heavens for the tax benefits that come along with mortgage interest payments in this country.
I’ve otherwise been busy, helping with the club’s new triathlete program, working out myself, and just generally living. My calf is still out of commission; tried running last Thursday, a week and some after the initial injury, but ten minutes in at a moderate pace I could tell it was not ready yet. I’ll take this entire week off and try to be patient. Thankfully swimming and biking have not been affected by the calf’s little injury, so I’ve been able to stay up with those in the meantime.
For reasons I’ll not go into here I broke things off with CT last week. For the first time since the Clinton administration I’m single. And you know, I’m okay with that; I’m looking forward to having some “down time” from dating, to be honest. I want to get the new apartment arranged, do my race, get the new triathletes through their first race(s), and simply take things day by day otherwise. Heaven knows I need to take some of the down time and retool my eating habits; I’ve been eating for stress, not for hunger and fueling my body, and the scale’s been showing it this year. Not that buying the apartment and breaking up are doing wonders for my stress levels, but this has been just plain silly. There’s no reason my eating should have been that out of whack. Ah well, live, learn, and move on.
Got a starter Prince’s Wand (link not safe for work) last week. The starter version was nice, after a ton of cleaning (it was obvious they hadn’t cleaned it before they shipped it), but if I were to continue with one I think I’d have to go and get a custom one done by Steel Werks Extreme (again, link not safe for work). The starter one fits okay, but a more customized version would be needed for more than just hanging out in it, if you will.
(how sad, I just realized I didn’t have a “sex” category for that last bit of text; shows how little I’ve been doing anything in that department lately)
Anyway, brought some work home tonight so I need to go read that and get prepped for a semi-big meeting with my chief deputy poo-bah tomorrow.
I should update those things I’ve already done on the Uberlist, but I’ll save that for later.
Richard came back in the apartment yesterday morning to tell me the wonderful news that they were painting the bed bug boys’ apartment and that the boys were now gone. Hooray! Keep your fingers crossed that the next person/bunch is better than this previous group was.
I’m still vascillating on the whole buying real estate thing, though am leaning more heavily toward buying. The listings aren’t bad, and reading more on the subject makes me more hopeful. Chatted with my bank about some short-term investment options as well, and the rates don’t seem terribly useful for that at the moment. Of course, the flip side of that is that borrowing rates for mortgages aren’t too terrible, either.
Today was the last day of physical therapy left from the car accident last month. Loved the therapist, she was very helpful, and we (finally) went over more stretches for my IT bands that should help with that little problem. Overall she seemed pleased with the stretching I’m doing now after we went over it, which was good to see.
Otherwise I’m staying busy between training and gearing up for the new triathlete program (sign-ups begin next week!).
Okay, I admit it, I’m in over my head here with this stuff. Anyone know of any good financial planners here in DC that they’d recommend to me?
I find myself wary of crossing streets. Go fig. Actually, I find myself wanting to have a large mace or sledge hammer prominently held in hand with which to threaten errant drivers (and just think of the weight lifting benefits of hauling one around!), but I don’t suppose that’s practical in this day and age.
I also find it sad that “a good night out drinking” is having two glasses of wine before dinner and being happy I don’t have a hangover (even if my nose is a little sniffly from the lovely Steele zinfandel I was sipping).
I’m currently talking to a realtor about co-ops/condos down in the SW Waterfront area of DC. I like the concept of owning, and the tax benefits therefrom, but the whole house hunting part is just nerve wracking & stomach churning, and this after all I’ve done is skim listings online & fill out some basic loan information. Oy. This being an adult thing can be difficult.
Closed one card in its entirety today, lowered the interest rate on one of the remaining ones, and removed a third one from my wallet.
I called the large servicer of my two main cards to dump the low-limit ($700) bank-I’m-not-with-any-more visa I had with them. Since I no longer have an account at said bank, it’s not needed for overdraft protection, and I don’t have particularly fond memories of the bank anyway, so Die, Die, Die. It was my oldest credit card, which is supposedly worth keeping on the report, but screw it, I was simply ready (emotionally) to get rid of the thing. It had been the little credit card I started with, waaaay back under a previous bank, and it had been one of the most reasonable ones for making payments and interest rates and what not, but as soon as previous and not-with-any-more merged, not-with-any-more farmed out their card serving to the large servicer instead of handling it in-house, and the servicer promptly jacked up the interest rate on the card. Jerks.
They did get rid of the card, but in a sneaky way. The servicer merged the credit limit into the other visa I have with them (upping it by the aforementioned $700), and somehow merged the accounts so that the remaining visa now looks like it’s the old one, to keep the “cardholder since” longevity. Whatever. So long as a card died today, I’m happy. The old one is now tacked to my bulletin board, along with the other ones I’ve paid off.
Oh, and the servicer was so happy with me for completely paying off the cards that they lowered the interest rate on the remaining card to their lowest available one. One that is less than half what I had on the card a year ago, and is actually lower than the original rate I’d had waaay back when under the previous bank. Wunderbar.
DiscoverCard™, on the other hand, did not want to play when I called about an interest rate deduction. Instead of processing a rate reduction over the phone, as they’ve done the past 3-4 times I’ve talked to them., they’re sending me paperwork to fill out (!!!!!) to request a rate decrease from the current one, which is also now somehow a floating prime+ rate instead of the fixed rate I’ve always had with them. So that got the card removed from the wallet so it won’t be used. Don’t want to play nice, I don’t have to give you any business – no transaction fees for you! Meh. Not like their “cash back” rates are any good anyway, unless you’re participating in one of their specials. AmEx has better return rates (on paper, at least).
And at this point, it’s “who can give me the most for giving them the business” when it comes to cards. I’m going to try AmEx once their new card arrives and see how I like them. I’ve heard very good things about them, and I like the options available on their web site (payments can be made every 2-3 days, not every 8 [!!!], nor do you have to “schedule” payments several days in advance before they credit to the account), so we’ll see how that works. No more carry-over balances for this man, that’s for sure.
Is much happier to be in this position than the one I was in a year ago, owing out the whazoo and begging for rate reductions to get rid of balances faster, and not seeing any end in site to the debt. I still have a good chunk of debt (student loans – oy!), but there’s an end in sight, and I’m in a much better position to actually be able to plan for things like, say, buying a place of my own now, rather than simply spending all my money and psychic energy dealing with existing debt. Definitely a happier place to be.