Cash Confusion

“They say the best things in life are free;
But you can tell that to the birds and bees
I want Money…”

I have to admit that I am somewhat of a stupid schmuck when it comes to money; I really do not understand it. Two scenarios have occurred which makes me feel more than foolish.

I entered one of those NCAA Basketball Pools at work. I know about as much about college basketball as I do brain surgery; but I picked some games, I knew Kansas was/is good; so I figured what the heck—give it a shot. In the south section, I won every game; in whatever conference Davidson is in I, like everyone else, was burned a bit; but I still had Kansas winning. The other two conferences, I guessed well enough. In any event, I was in first place as of Monday when I came back from break and as of this evening, I am still in first place.

If Memphis wins, I get third and if Memphis loses, I get first. Huh? Shouldn’t I get second? Just curious. Anyway, first place is $118.00; second is $50-something; and third is $18.00 or something like that. Go Jayhawks.

Hell, I have no idea how I did that well.

I also entered a bizarre scenario with my house. The mortgage rates dropped and I was told that if it drops ½ a percentage point, you should refinance. OK, so it did since November and I contacted my mortgage broker and she said the refinance was free. Then we figured the payments and how I would save about 20-18 K over the thirty year loan (a loan which I will shorten). However, this “free re-finance” was going to cost me $3,000.00 that I would “get back.” When I called to inquire as to how, no one called me back.

I somewhat figured it was time to cancel that deal. If the rates continue to drop (and as long as our boy George is sitting on the toilet seat next to the oval office it will), why not wait until it drops a whole point and THEN pay $3,000.00 in like October or something.

I figured out the mortgage broker is getting a cut—with some explanation from my Dad and his friend’s website. His friend is some sort of mortgage professional at a bank and his site showed that at the time of my re-finance, the rates were actually a quarter point lower than what the mortgage broker told me.

Since the divorce I have had to figure out my own finances, which has been a pain in the neck; but I am doing better.

I have always earned money well; the trick is to control it.

So I decided to cut back on eating out—as I need to lose weight; splurging on big ticket items—although I usually do not buy them; backing off buying CD’s; and wasting cash. I have also, over the last year backed off the comics; so all of the money should be pouring in soon.

Now for the real challenge—selling stuff I no longer need nor want on eBay.

I will be putting up the Kiss album collection soon. Any takers?