[geeks] a warning to the self assured

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Tue, Apr 02, 2002 at 09:49:56AM -0500, alex j avriette wrote:

> all i can do is pay the comcast bill. which i know is an error. for 
> $250. and swallow my pride. and keep track of my damn cash flow in the 
> future.
> 
> what makes me sick is i didnt make a mistake here, comcast made a 
> mistake. i did in fact pay my bills. this, i guess, is similar to the 
> adage "youre only as safe as the least safe driver on the road" -- you 
> shouldnt drive around without a seatbelt because you are convinced you 
> wont get yourself into a car accident.
> 
> ive met many geeks (interestingly, mostly all unix geeks) who practice 
> this banking-by-iq methodology. perhaps this stems from the "that could 
> never happen, i know every byte of every file on this machine" ideology. 
> at any rate, consider this fair warning that the idiots out there will 
> take advantage of your trust in them (and your trust in yourself).

I keep every copy of my bank statement, credit statement, etc.  It is a large
and unwieldy file that I keep meaning to organize, but it is there in case of
trouble.

But, what I really need to do is set a budget and figure out how to use my
palm to track stuff.  Previously (two years ago) my only expenses were tuition
and miscellaneous stuff.  Now, I have a car, and every repair ends up causing
me a lot of trouble because while I meant to be saving for it, I never actually
did.  Now I'm thinking about an apartment, diamond ring, the joys of paying
for a wedding (nothing definate yet, just contemplating currently), and I
clearly don't have money for those unless I stop spending as much on other
things.

So, I left my CC at home for one thing this week (an attempt to force myself
to only spend $x on food, drink, etc).  I've been stashing $50 a paycheck 
away into a seperate acount also.  But, I really should do more.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd