Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Priceless: Saving Money

Today I had two realizations: both revelatory, one negative, one positive.

First, I learned that I actually did myself a disservice by cancelling the credit card I have had for four years, but who's reward service pales in comparison to the new card I received this year. I thought by cancelling the unused card I would be eliminating the potential for identity theft of the account, and reduce my potential debt on my credit score. Apparently, I did a bad thing.

Last night I read that by cancelling this card account I thus eliminated my credit history on that card. Not good. Now I only have a years worth of credit to my name as opposed to five. Is there really no way this card will stay on my record? Frustrating, as I literally just cancelled this card last week.

The second, and good, revelation is that I lowered my monthly car payment $200 by refinancing my loan from Toyota's 8% interest rate to a new, 5.4% interest rate with a different company. FABULOUS. I didn't realize you could refinance a car loan, and I also realized too late I was paying far too much per month on my auto loan. $200 banked is an excellent feeling. It will feel even better when I actually authorize a lower payment for the first time.

The third issue of the night is not revelatory at all but has gone on too long unchecked. My boyfriend and I practically live like we're married but he refuses to talk about marriage until next year. This is frustrating as I put all the effort in to coming to his place everyday, I moved to this city for him, and we talk about living together when his lease is up but members of my family would not think well of me if I did this, and living together was something I'd always looked forward to post-marriage. Can I even afford to live on my own without him splitting the bills with me?

I don't want to pressure him into marrying me, (that wouldn't work, anyway), but it upsets me that he won't talk about it sooner than "next year," and just assumes I'll keep coming over and helping keep house at his convenience.

Is this a common problem in relationships? Sometimes I tell myself to stop coming over, but that rarely works out.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've heard about the credit card thing- that's all I keep reminding myself when I want to cancel the first card I got.
Also, why the strict "no talking about it 'til next year" rule?

Also, hi! I'm Sandy, and if you see me a bunch on your sitemeter, I promise I'm not blog stalking, just getting caught up on the archives :) haha I'm sorry, huge nerd here.

Amanda said...

There's not too many archives yet - I was keeping a teaching only blog but realized there's only so much I can say about teaching - I had to branch out - I'm glad you are here!

About cancelling cards - yes, it seems counterintuitive to keep a live account with all of the "identity theif" hype. But from what I've read, you'll be glad you have that credit history when you go to buy a car or house

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