An Irreverent Ruckus

This is how it works for me:  once I’ve got even partial clarity in my mind about what I want to write, all cleverness in presentation begins to fail.   Hopefully cleverness reappears in some relatively pleasant-to-read form.   There are going to be some changes here on An Irreverent Ruckus.   For starters, I’ll be writing more.   I’m a touch pent up.   I’ve wanted to write more for two years now, and have all kinds of drafts started.   In 2021, my plan is to purge the drafts folder, polish them to a semi-gloss, and get them posted.   Done is better than perfect.   What’s kept me from writing?   I think I hinted at it in a previous post; it honestly boils down to: I’ve cared about what people will think.   In neurotic detail: I know that I’ve changed in ways that might surprise my good friends from other chapters of my life.   Sure we’ve got social media, but we don’t have genuine time together anymore.   There’s no intimacy, no privacy, where we could really share about the events of

Note: I realize at this date that my financial life is NOT the most important thing to be blogging about.   I’m just putting this out there “for the record” as I document my journey out of debt.   Please go pay attention to what you can do to address the multi-layered crises we are in: pandemic, protests, and (finally!   maybe!) a serious conversation about the role of police in society.   We are approaching halfway through what seems like the most tumultuous year in… I’m not sure, but it’s definitely the most extreme calendar year of my life so far.   2020.   Barf.   Pandemic.   And a shamefully inadequate response in my country.   A revelation for many of us, of the state of our supply chains, particularly medical and food.   Further revelation of the polarization and disintegration of our common institutions, and our inability to hold conversation in pursuit of the truth and of best practices.   It’s ugly and stupid out here.   And then, the repeated - though finally be

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!   I was happily surprised yesterday at work to learn that I would be able to take today off, in addition to Christmas Day.   After sleeping in, wrapping gifts, making lemon curd, and cleaning up after myself, there’s time to write!   Which I have been needing and wanting to do.   In my own (occasionally humble) opinion, I accomplished a lot in 2019.   I love living in Sandpoint, and am still so happy that I chose to move.   It is wonderful, everything I hoped for, to be close to family and simplify my life.   In 2019, I paid off $16,674 of debt!   My net income was $24,625.   Folks, this was hard to do.   Not how you might expect.   Sure, the math gets tight.   But the hardest thing is my internal battle between instant and delayed gratification.   And when every, and I mean every single transaction is a choice between dopamine now or debt paid off, I’ve gotten exhausted and given in way more than I really want to.   Cup of coffee,

As many people say, back where I’m from, uff da.   I have been doing some hard work!    In my previous post, I faced the ugly truth that having access to a credit card was a little doorway to trouble, for me.   The recovery has been slow, but thorough.   In August and September I got back up to using over 50% of my net income for debt payment.   And now, October, nearly 72%!   I feel a little silly to need this discipline, but, I leave my wallet at home most of the time now.   Without access to my funds, I have to sit with and notice my impulses to buy something (lookin’ at you, chicharrones).   I don’t have the option of instant gratification and then forgetting the incident until I look at my statements.   I can’t claim that this is making me less of a spender.   That’s clearly my tendency.   But it is putting a necessary, hard boundary around that shit.   Humbling, and good.   Another hard work part of this was that in both August and September, I got hired

(Hey look!  The blog is now back in real time!)   Yesterday (7/20/19, in truth) was kind of a tough day.   It was bill-pay-day, and usually it’s a very motivating day each month.   Usually I get a rush when each payment confirmation number pops up.   Usually I feel like a complete badass, calculating what percent of my net income I’ve managed to use toward debt.   But yesterday was tough, because for the second month in a row, my income has been lower and my percentage used toward debt has dropped.   (51% June, 46% July)   I’ve lost some momentum toward my goal.   In one sense, my lower income is a measure of improvement and integrity: I’m getting more efficient at my job, and I’m not the kind of person who milks the timeclock.   Once I’ve finished my responsibilities, I look around for more that I can do to support my co-workers, but sometimes there isn’t anything pressing.   I feel horribly guilty if I drag tasks out, just to stretch my work to my scheduled hour

originally published 1/26/2019 Hi, I’m 36, and I just raided my piggy-bank so that I could write a first draft of this in the luxury of a coffee shop.  This americano was not a budgeted expense.  Sometimes that is How, Exactly, I’m Doing This.  Also, there are more swears here than I have published lately.  My apologies if they distract.  Thank you to the many friends who responded with encouragement to a recent Facebook post:  “Folks paying off debt: make it a game. You got this. This is not to brag, it's the simple fact that talking about my debt is incredibly motivating to me. My game is to use as much of my income as possible every month as debt payment. This month, I've used 71.9% of my net income to pay debt. Think you couldn't? Dare you.”  Some folks PM’d me, asking how this is possible.  A few asked right in their comment.  71.9% of my net income, when I’m only making $13/hr is, let’s say, unusual.  So I thought I’d do a breakdown of how