Tuesday night ramble

Was the Citibank associate being ironic when she said, "all you need to do is change your card information for the accounts where you have automatic billing"?

I just spent the last hour doing that. Because Citi had a data breach. So all I have to do is change my payment info.

Well, in revenge, I'm changing my f*ing automatic payment info to another credit card. However, if credit card companies do start charging annual fees and/or interest from the moment a transaction occurs, I'm going to have to move to a cash economy. That'll curtail my spending like nothing else.

Which is a good thing, because according what Suze Orman thinks my emergency fund should be, if I stop spending money on anything fun now, and avoid needing to tap into said emergency fund, I can get there in 2-3 years.

Speaking of LPW's piece on Suze, she (LPW) alluded to the same thing that NYT guy did: different rules apply to different people, unfair as that may be, and awareness of that can make one sloppy. So, in response to ETC's comment, I'm glad he admitted that he got caught in a "I'm educated enough to know better, so it won't happen to me trap" in terms of mortgages, but not in terms of love-conquers-all delusions with regard to managing money in a marriage. Did they really think they didn't have to talk about it, it being the something like the second highest cause of marital discord?

One great way not to overspend is to not fall into the status symbol trap, because nobody else cares

Also, in response to ETC's previous comment, as for how to deal with aggressive talkers: you don't owe them anything. It's your time, they have no right to appropriate it. Feeling bad about refusing to let them waste your time isn't fair to you. If they don't get it, it's perfectly okay to be firm. As Ian kept telling me and Kate when we were failing to haggle effectively in the bazaar in Istanbul, "you are the one in control," even though the other people are masters of making it seem like it's the other way around.