I
teetered off the edge into depression with an unexpected financial hit. Every
year, I set realistic goals for hacking down on credit card debt, and every
year something screws up my plan. By substituting almost every day this year, I
believed that one credit card would be halved by this summer and paid in full
well before Christmas. My positive attitude towards working after retirement
flourishes under the assumption that my extra work will pull us out from the
enormous balances we carry on a couple of credit cards. When I originally used
one of the cards, I didn’t sweat an easy payoff as I planned on paying $650 a
month over the minimum payment. A new car payment halved that goal and helping
maintain the property taxes for my brother’s home ate up the rest. I readjusted
my target to have the card cleared within two years, but life keeps knocking it
back month-by-month.
This
year, due to all of my extra work days, I reveled in certitude that finally the
credit card balance would be less than half of the current total. We got
pummeled with an increase in property taxes, and income taxes took a huge chunk
of my spring income. Yet optimism reigned as even that double pounding still
left us with enough to pay down half of the card’s balance during June.
Enter
Saturday morning. A lovely Texas spring day dawned with promise of doing a
little shopping and eating at our favorite Greek restaurant. I practically
skipped out of the house with excitement over spending a splendid day enjoying
time off with my family.
My
jubilation punctured immediately with the sight of an extremely flat tire.
Needless to say, we ended up purchasing four new tires. We didn’t take the
cheapest brand offered, but settled on the next level up with a product we’d
used in the past on previous cars. Even with the less expensive choice, our
total tipped over $600. The only card with that kind of clearance, of course,
was the one I’ve worked so hard to clear.
I
tell myself I should be thankful that we could absorb this financial punch
without getting knocked out. Still, the blow has me stunned and off-kiltered;
shaking my head in numb disbelief that, once again, we’ve suffered a setback.
Copyright 2019 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman
