karniv0re's Journal: Updates And Things

Some updates on things!

Operation: Moneybags is proceeding in the right direction. I am getting a decent tax return, proportional to the increase in money I made last year. I don't know my bonus size at the moment. Probably won't have that until later. I hope hope HOPE it's not less than last year. As long as it's the same (or more!) than last year, I'm good. I hate speculating on my bonus though because it's like counting your chickens before they're even eggs.

But if I get at least as much as last year, then I've got a solid plan for paying down debt.

I'm going to pay off my line of credit that has been maxed out since sometime last year (after paying it off last year). That will free me from my bank. Then I will pay off my furniture account,
because while that is 0% interest, it is a fairly big payment per month. Then I should still have enough left over to pay off my debt reduction account which is also a big monthly payment, and it's
two credit cards that I can just be done with and never think about again. So that puts more money in my hands every month, which would just be fucking fantastic.

The next step is to transition from my crappy home town bank to Simple. I have been test driving Simple for the last month and I absolutely love it. The mobile app is slick, the search is powerful,
the charts are illuminating, and the Safe-to-Spend thing is going to be a life saver. The features are things that until now I didn't know I was really missing from every bank I have. When online
banking came out, we thought everything was so much easier. No, it didn't make anything easier. It just made the current information more accessible. Simple gives you MORE information. Leave a tip at
a restaurant? It'll tell you how much you tipped. Then you can SEARCH FOR TRANSACTIONS WITH TIPS. God knows how many times I've been screwed by shady waiters and waitresses giving themselves a bigger
tip. Now I'll know. It's shit like that that infuriates me knowing that the banks have had the power to give us this information but don't.

Sorry, I can't shut the fuck up about Simple because I am so excited. The only thing I'm waiting on to switch my direct deposit/withdrawls is getting my tax return. That will serve as some buffer
cash while I transition over. I need to make sure I get that in before the end of the month. I had that fucker done the day I got my W-2s, which was the 15th (had to wait till the 17th to do state).

Next update, I finally got my new developer PC. 16GB of RAM and a 3.4 GHz Intel I7. I can't say I notice it being that much faster at normal tasks, but what I can say is it's never slow. The old PC
would grind to a halt when doing Eclipse + Browsers + DBViz + PL/SQL Developer + anything else. Now I don't notice that anymore. Awesome. Only took 'em a year.

Back to Op: Moneybags, I have also rediscovered my love for Mint. Now, it's no substitute for good banking, but when you can't get away from shitty credit cards, loans, and banks, it serves as a nice
abstraction layer. God, can I also just mention that Simple records the TIME of the transaction?! WHY CAN'T BANKS DO THAT?! Because they're assholes, that's why. Time is something I'm very interested
in when it comes to transactions. Sometimes things come down to hours and minutes, not DAYS.

All in all, I'm pretty stoked for this. Last year I was all excited to pay shit off, but I got sidetracked and remembered that I liked having fun so I went to two music festivals (one on a cruise).
I'm glad I did it, but now is the time to get my shit straight. This year, I'm going to do that.