Lots of talk about money.

Last week I got a big surprise in my bank account. Since finding Mint, I haven't been using my Golden1 credit union account much because I can't keep track of on there and I like the idea of understanding my spending better. Because of that I haven't been checking my balance very often, why would I if it hasn't changed? I got an email through Sac State's online interface (or whatever) saying that my eRefund had been sent. I didn't really know why that would be, so I checked my account, and there was a deposit of $1,524 from Sac State!

This was a huge surprise, and I was blown away. If that had come through a week earlier I probably would have been a little bit stupid and quit my job out of spite following a couple of difficult days at the beginning. Luckily though, I found it on a day that I had a lot of fun at work and then I had a day off, so my mind was more on what "extra" I could do with the money and not on how it could cover living expenses.

I quickly made plans to pay off about a third of my credit card debt with a large chunk of this money and get a good start on a real savings account with the rest. With all of this going through my head and knowing that I didn't have to work the next day I stayed up later than I would have and did a little research.

I found the email that I'd gotten a week before about my financial aid being revised, and I tracked down where it said that I would be getting this grant. I also found something else in that research. The first $1,524 was for the Spring 2009 semester, but I was also supposed to be getting the same amount for Fall 2008. I found this along with a second email notifying me that my eRefund had been sent.

That's right, on Thursday night I had a new $1,524 in my account, and I found out that another $1,524 was headed my way.

I thought of quitting my job right away. With 3 grand I could easily get through a couple more months without having to think about money for a second. Fortunately for me though, I've just witnessed a friend having less luck than he deserves when it comes to money issues and I realized that working and continuing to earn an income is a very good idea while working toward other goals.

I had a lot of fun looking up where I wanted to start a high yield savings account that night. I found a great direct online savings bank with the following mission:

"ShoreBank invests in people and their communities to create economic equity and a healthy environment."

Um, if you happen to be reading this and you don't know me, that could kind of be my own personal mission statement. (If you do know me, I hope that you already knew that.) I'm really looking forward to setting up payments to credit cards and transfers to a new savings account in the next few days. I'm also looking forward to knowing that even paying off so much and setting up savings I still have a couple months of bills that I don't have to think about.

Sorry for the text heavy entries lately. Here's a little something from one of my favorite webcomics.

**I forgot to add, while I am glad that I was able to learn from my friend's actions, I genuinely hope that things turn out for the best for him very soon!