Complex Numbers

Decisions

I got a Sears Mastercard in the mail today. I didn't ask for one, you understand. Hell, I'd even forgotten that I had an account with Sears, but I opened one back in '94 so I could finance the purchase of a washer and dryer. It was, looking back, the thing that put me on the road to finally figuring out how to handle money and credit, because I worked out early on that if I just paid the minimum $1.50 monthly payment, I'd be paying for that washer/dryer until the world ends in 2012, and beyond if the Mayans turn out to be wrong.

Okay, yes, I'm exaggerating, but the point remains.

So since then, Sears has gone from being a finance company with a showroom to a department store that happens to have its own imprint on a MasterCard. Once I paid off the appliances (in 1995), I don't think I ever used that account again - and didn't bother closing it because, hell, there's no annual fee so it costs me nothing to have it. They raised my credit line somewhere in there, too. Next they'll probably send me "convenience checks" to try to trick me into paying finance charges, which I refuse to do on principle. (Get it? Principal? Principle? Oh, nevermind. Finance puns are the worst kind.)

Anyway, it made me think about a decision I'm going to have to make soon, which is to get a new truck or not. There's nothing wrong with my old one, you understand; it's paid off, it runs, and just broke 90,000 miles which is, like, toddler status for a Nissan. But with my back the way it is (sending fiery, shooting pain down my right leg every time I get up in the morning and reminding me all day that Something Isn't Right), it occurred to me that maybe driving a stick shift isn't the best thing for my back - the clutch works nasties on my back.

Thing is, like I said, I don't pay finance charges. It's against my religion (okay, I make an exception for my mortgage, and for certain business expenses; both are tax-advantaged). I've been making "car payments" to myself for the past few years, saving up enough for a brand new used truck. That way, the bank pays me finance charges, in the form of interest. The problem is, my goal has been to keep saving until next July, so I can buy a nicer used truck. If I stop now, I'll have to compromise - either make some payments with finance charges, or get a not-so-great used truck, and remember, the thing will need to last me for 10 years.

And oh, yeah, I do want a truck. I've always driven a light truck. It's just part of what I am. With gas prices the way they are, I should be able to get one cheap because they have the reputation of being guzzlers and people are selling theirs.

So that's the decision I have to make, and it all hinges on one question, really: Will it help relieve my back problems? Because if I can be assured that it'll make the pain go away, I'll even pay finance charges.

For a little while.