Today, I made the very last payment ever on our Bank of America credit card. We banked with them in Arizona, and, for years, I had a credit card with them, through my college. When we moved from Arizona to California in 1998, my parents sent us some money to help with our expenses. The bank "lost" that money. Initially, they told us the check had not cleared in time to be included when we closed our account, but that they would keep the account open just long enough for the check to clear, then close the account, and mail us a check. They told us they would mail the check, but never did.
Fast forward a few years. Shane has just wrapped up a project, and we are on our way to Amsterdam, to spend 10 glorious days with our little family, before the girls and I return to school and Shane stays on to work there. As the time for our departure approaches, the producer of the aforementioned project has failed to produce a check, but assures us it will be deposited to our account the day after we leave. We should go, and have a wonderful time! We do! Such a wonderful time. It is probably the best trip our family has ever taken together, despite the fact that the apartment we had rented has been demolished...and that the check (not surprisingly) never comes through.
It's funny, I guess, that it surprised us. We are (still) very trusting people. If you tell us the check is in the mail, we believe you. Well...sorta.
The year we went to Amsterdam was, as the book says, the best of times and the worst of times. We did tons of traveling ~ Amsterdam, San Francisco, Northern California, Las Vegas, Arizona...! There were also some deaths in our families, and some trips that weren't all fun and games.
That check that never came through was worth somewhere in the neighbourhood of $26,000. Sometimes, people wonder why we don't own a house yet, considering that Shane has a good, decent'paying job. Well, here's the thing:
When you don't have much in savings, and you have to take a couple of unscheduled trips for, say, funerals, and people in the family are ill, and then someone defaults on a $26,000 contract, it is very easy to find yourself deep in debt. I'll admit, we made some poor decisions when we were young newly(and, for that first year, not-quite)weds. The same kind of poor decisions virtually everyone makes, I'll wager (I won't really wager ~ we don't play with our money like that), but I think we had recovered nicely from them, and were right on track. It was that $26,000 ~ the lack of that $26,000, all at once, that is ~ that sealed our financial fate.
We were in debt.
Thank God we had those credit cards when we needed them. Otherwise, I don't know how we would have fed our children, paid for gas to get to and from work and school, paid the bills...we tried to use credit only when we absolutely had to, but there were times when it probably literally saved our lives.
Now, I am not advocating wanton credit card use. That's not what I came here to say. What I came here to say was this:
We learned a lot that year. We learned the importance of being true to our word and making good on our debts, because we saw firsthand how deeply debt can affect someone. We learned to make do with just the necessities. We learned that family is more important than just about anything else. We learned not to spend money before we have it in our hand. And, perhaps most importantly, we learned to take the phrase, "The check's in the mail" with a grain of salt.
So, it meant a lot to me, today, when I got to make that final payment. It is a relief to know that we will no longer be paying out that $140 each month. While we are not entirely debt-free yet, we are much closer, and having that extra money each month will surely help us get there. It is a great relief to know we no longer have that debt hanging over us, especially to Bank of America, with whom we did not have a very amicable relationship.
Most importantly for me, however, it felt good to know that, when I say, "The check's in the mail," I mean it.
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