In Other Zen News

In other Zen news, I don't think we can really achieve "financial and domestic Zen" until our debt is paid off. So far this year, we've paid off well over half of the credit card debt. Looking back, I know that it wasn't exactly mathematically wise to pay off the interest free medical bills before the disgustingly interest FULL credit card debt. But that's where Zen comes in. If we had plugged along on our payment plan, we wouldn't have paid off the bills until March. And each time I had to pay them, it hurt my soul. I had to relive the reasons behind the bill and it hurt terribly. I have a sort of emotional detatchment from the credit cards bills. I wrote about this before but I'm bringing it up again cuz we just got over the hump and are on the downhill stretch of the credit cards. (*wiggle, wiggle*)Once these debts are gone, we have to either payoff the second mortgage or start in on the student loans. Gah. There's pros and cons both ways. The mortgage has the higher interest rate, it's secured (as in they could take our frickin' house if I flip my lid and stop paying), and it was a bad bad decision at a bad bad time in my life. One of the worst actually. I can see myself that day in my mind's eye. I'm sitting in the white room with the fake wood desk and the grey chairs and the flourescent lights. Sitting gingerly. I just damn near died and I'm on the beginning steps of some serious PTSD. We just drained the account that's been holding our down payment money... $30,000. We hand over the official check. We sign our lives away. They reiterate that to dodge PMI, we're doing a second mortgage at an ungodly rate (a smidge shy of 10%). $20,000. We'll pay that off fast, within a year, right? WRONG! Thus was our undoing and the undoing of Countrywide as well. (Don't let your customers dodge PMI!!! That's your safety net! Retards...) Hell, we couldn't even afford the regular mortgage on our salaries. They NEVER should've approved us. EVER. *eye roll* We were dumb, and so were they. Anyway, I lost my job. We went on an expensive vacation (to celebrate being alive). I got pregnant. The rest is history.
The student loans. They have a relatively low interest rate. They're unsecured (they can't come steal the diploma). The only con is they can't be wiped out in the event of a bankruptcy but I'm going to fight tooth and nail to make sure that never happens.
Ultimately, for once, the mathematical choice and the psychological choice are one in the same. The mortgage has got to go.