Yellow Rose's Garden

My house looks like a cyclone hit it, but last week was a good one!

My husband is officially retired! That’s a big relief. It will take an act of Congress to return him to active duty. My oldest daughter will finish five years in the Navy in December. My son is also talking about doing some time in the Armed Forces when his time comes. The other daughter, well…. I love her, but why do I always wonder when the cops are coming to haul her ass off?

The final active duty paycheck from Uncle Sam was a shocker! They paid him for 45 days of leave that he hadn’t taken. We paid off an old credit card bill and are on our way to being free of unsecured debt. I have it planned out. If no unforeseen problems occur, our credit card debt will be paid off in November 2005. No more dealing with these weenies that say, “Oh, we can save you oodles of money.” Fact is… they don’t save you shit. The company that sent info recently said they could help us get our debt paid off in 6.5 years. Riight… 6.5 years is (12*6)+6 = 78 months. They told me that they charge no fees… Riiiiight… that’s why there’s a $38 monthly service fee stuck in there. 38*78, that’s 2964 over the course of the time we are paying. I did some calculations based on current income and expenses. We will have the stuff paid off faster and keep a good credit rating using my plan as opposed to theirs. I showed the figures to my husband. He was astounded at how quickly we can do this. Afterward, the money we are paying can be saved or used to pay additional funds on the principle of our house.

That plan is providing that he doesn’t let his darling talk him out of a wad of cash for a car. That’s another tale.