Bills

My wife has dental issues.

For whatever reason, she needs a lot of work, so she’s been seeing the dental school faculty at UF for checkups and some basic maintenance.

Their latest bill just came, and because I’m grateful she was able to arrange a pay-as-you-go program, I don’t like to let things get behind.

“I’ll pay you tomorrow! I’ll pay you tomorrow!” I said to the envelope.

This is what money is for. Things break down, you have to fix them. You really can’t take it with you, no matter how tightly my Scottish nature wants to pinch and hoard to the point of death.

Another bill that needs paying is my student loan. I let things slide, and I need to get back on speaking terms with Texas Guaranteed. It’s not going to be as bad as I think. Nothing is. I just have to cough up. That’s what money is for,(damn it!)

It’s no use whining and dwelling on how unjust it is to loan thousands and thousands of dollars to woefully clueless teenagers without heavily counseling them about the gravity of the situation—literally, the grave they’re digging.

It’s no use bemoaning the lack of real education in the world, that doesn’t tell you the two most basic things a human being needs to know:

1) who you are
2) how to make money

All the information I was given during my time in school was just that—information. Stacks of facts and figures I neither remember now nor gave a damn about then.

No one told me, “Here’s what it means to take out a loan, that you’ll be carrying a load of debt around for years, and that each time you receive an envelope from the loan holder your life will shorten incrementally from worry and stress.”

No one told me that three things have to be gotten rid of as quickly as possible:
1) debt
2) disease
3) fire

I think that’s Chanakya Pandit. It sure as hell wasn’t Syracuse Savings Bank.