It’s happened again. Another one of my financial cards has been compromised. This time, it was my debit card. The one that’s linked to my actual checking account. It looks like the bank caught it in time. It’s doubtful that I’ll actually get stuck with any of the charges, and even if I do, the amounts aren’t all that high. Still, it’s frustrating.

Over the last few years, this has happened to me five or six times with different accounts. Usually, it’s been credit cards. This is the first time it’s happened with the debit card.

I have no idea how it is that my card numbers keep getting stolen. It’s especially curious with the debit card as I really only use it these days for ATM transactions.

Maybe this has something to do with it.

(Thanks to Jen for the video.)

Tags: life, money
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After nearly 1.5 weeks of constant pain in my left arm (and some helpful prodding from friends on Facebook), I went to a doctor today to get things checked out. The arm problem turned out to be nothing more than an injured muscle. I was relieved to know that I wasn’t having a grabber. Still, I put going to the doctor off as long as possible. I have no health insurance, and in the time between making the doctor’s appointment and getting the grabber-free diagnosis, I imagined I’d get sucked into a spiral of tests and exams that’d cause the dollar signs to quickly pile up. I got lucky. The total cost for the office visit was $97.00. Sure, my bank balance is looking pretty sad right now. But it won’t look that way forever. However, had I needed anything beyond just the office visit, the situation would likely be much worse.

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Tags: health, life, money
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Yesterday morning, Jen and I jumped through the final hoop in our ongoing quest for life insurance. A nurse who was hired by the insurance company came to our home and performed basic physical exams on both of us. (These “exams” included blood pressure and weight measurements, blood and urine sample collections, some questions about prescription-drug use and a few more questions about our personal histories with tobacco/nicotine. This last part is apparently really important, as there were some very specific questions there.) The exams themselves weren’t bad and the nurse gave us the impression that we were good, prepared patients. Now we wait for the insurance company’s final decision as to whether or not we’re insurable.

If we’re accepted, we’ll (obviously) have the life insurance. Of course, we’ll still be without health insurance. It’s absurd and kinda hilarious that getting life insurance is typically so much easier than getting health insurance. There are many reasons for why this is. And for us, it mostly comes down to finances. Regardless, this condition really says something about the state of modern American existence. Yeah, sure. We can help out your family with a payout after you’re dead. But screw you while you’re alive HA HA!

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Tags: life, money
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Jen and I met with our insurance agent today. We wanted to go over our existing homeowners and car insurance policies to make sure they were still adequate for our needs, and we also wanted to get some information on life insurance as well as health insurance.

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Tags: life, money
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I visited a local record store today, armed with gift card in hand. I didn’t buy anything.

Also, trains.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 14:48 — 8.5MB)

Tags: Amtrak, California, money, music, San Luis Obispo
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In a post from last week, I wrote about how the California EDD is claiming an overpayment on Jen’s unemployment benefits, and that they’re expecting to get this money back. Along with the letter that (sorta) explained the reasons for the overpayment was a request-for-waiver form. The idea is that, if you feel you shouldn’t have to repay on the overpayment, you fill out the request-for-waiver form and send it back to the EDD. They’ll use the information provided on the form to determine whether or not they’ll continue pursuing the collection of the overpayment. I’m not entirely certain what criteria the EDD uses to make this decision. They don’t bother to tell you that. Regardless, I spent my evening last Tuesday filling out this form.

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Tags: life, money
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I’ve been editing the All Things Azeroth podcast for a few months now. I took on this duty for a few reasons. For one thing, it’s a fun challenge to take a bunch of someone else’s audio (each episode consists of anywhere from two to six different files) and mold it into a coherent piece. More importantly, I do make some money for my time, and money is good. As the show’s tag line states, All Things Azeroth is indeed “your World of Warcraft podcast.” And I’ve never been a World of Warcraft player. That is, until today.

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Tags: All Things Azeroth, money, podcasting, World of Warcraft
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Since Jen lost her job last fall, there have been a lot of financial ups and downs for us. Before her unemployment benefits finally kicked in last year, I had a consultation with a local attorney’s office about filing for bankruptcy. My thinking was that, if we could clear out our unsecured debt, that’d free up enough cash to make it possible for us to, you know, continue living indoors and eating food. The big problem we had at the time with filing for bankruptcy was that we would have to file against ALL of our debts, including our mortgage. The lawyer’s office I spoke to at the time said that, as long as we continued to pay on the mortgage, it’d be unlikely that the mortgage company would care about the bankruptcy. But there was still a chance that they could get antsy and decide to take some action against us. It was a calculated risk, but a risk just the same. Jen’s unemployment checks equalized our household income shortly after that and the talk of bankruptcy was abandoned.

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Tags: life, money
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Last year, I wrote about how I was trying to save some money on my monthly expenses. At the time, I was able to get my cell phone and home phone bills lowered. Since then, I’ve upgraded my cell phone to an iPhone, and that’s caused the cell phone bill to go back up. I found out earlier this month that AT&T has reconfigured its iPhone rate plans for data, and the company is now offering a $15.00/month plan for users who transfer less than 200 MB worth of data over AT&T’s network. I downgraded to this new plan from the $30.00/month “unlimited” plan I’ve had since I first got the iPhone. I checked my statement for last month, and found that I only used about 25 MB, so 200 MB should be fine. Also, AT&T only counts data that’s transferred over their 3G network, so when my iPhone’s connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi, that doesn’t matter.

This configuration wouldn’t work for everyone, and AT&T has received a lot of well-deserved criticism for the nature of its restrictive policies in relation to the iPhone. But I’m glad that the company is now offering alternative rate plans to the original $30.00/month plan. Saving money is good.

Tags: iPhone, money
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This bit of audio was recorded while I was out for a walk last Monday afternoon. It contains a monologue about my feelings on “creators vs consumers.” I also give some thoughts on trying to achieve balance in life.

Plus, ServPro vans.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 21:42 — 12.5MB)

Tags: guitar, life, money, music, podcast, work
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