You never know when you’ll miss an important letter.
My sister dropped off a pile of mail, which was mostly junk and student loan invoices (which, since I have the loan payments directly deposited, aren’t a worry). So I spent a few minutes this morning disposing of magazine subscription offers, credit card offers, Republican party fundraisers, and coffee-of-the-month club offers. (Not that the coffee-of-the-month thing wasn’t tempting. It’s great coffee.)
I usually don’t check the loan invoices because everything’s pretty automatic. Stupid me.
The annoyance came when I discovered that, in November, my student loan company was “pleased to accept your request for deferment until May 2006” which is when I graduate. I didn’t ask for a bloody deferment. I intended to keep making loan payments throughout my time in school. But either someone asked or assumed on my behalf. So I figured I’d just call and start it up again, or mail them money, or something.
The next annoyance came in another envelope, where the company informed me (again in November) that because of my deferment, I’m no longer eligible for an interest rate deduction. True, it’s a small percentage, but it adds up. So now I’m out possibly hundreds of dollars because I didn’t check my mail.
Learn from my mistakes, people. Check your mail.
Kent’s Recommended Listen:
Miles Davis:
Kind of Blue
On the up side, I now have the speakers my dad gave me for Christmas, which I can now crank up to 11. They render the little speakers I got with my iMac useless; the iMac speakers don’t plug into anything else. And, unfortunately, now I can hear the hiss on all my vintage jazz CDs. Kind of Blue with hiss makes me kind of annoyed; I thought I had the digitally remastered version. But I can now play my U2 albums loud enough to shake the structural foundations of the building.
If it’s too loud, you’re too old!