Medical Expenses

Well, I guess it was inevitable. I can no longer access my blog at work. Don’t worry, taxpayers. I wasn’t blogging on work time, but often spent my lunch break drafting up posts. I suppose that’s still an option, if I just email the posts to myself and then post them later, but my track record for that sort of thing is pretty sketchy.

So for now, I can post from my phone. Exciting.

I have been waiting to post about this until I knew more and until my friends knew what was up. I’ve been going through some health issues as of late. I am pretty sure it boils down to allergies, stubborn fluid buildup in my ears, and stress, but it has meant a trip to the ER (I got dizzy at work and that is the standard office response – and it meant missing PF Blogger Happy Hour), a myriad of tests, and some various medications.

So far, it looks like I’m fine. But it has made me do a ton of thinking. Of course, all these tests aren’t free, and while I have insurance, it will cost me a pretty penny, but I can’t bring myself to care. In fact, to try to destress and ignore my upcoming MRI, yesterday I hit up the bookstore and bought a new release, something I rarely do.

The thought of being sick has really reinforced just how far I am from my family. I am not planning to move anytime soon, but I really understand why one of my friends left a sweet job in a fun city to move back to her hometown after her dad had a major health scare. But it has made me realize how great my friends are. I had a friend sit with me through my MRI which was awesome. (Note to anyone freaked out by an MRI – having someone sit in the room with their hand on your ankle hemps incredibly.) So far, the tests have all come back clear, meaning that its probably just allergies and stress. But it has reinforced what is really important in life.

Megan Smith

Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:

In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance.  It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information.  It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck.  While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.

While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.

Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.

So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan.  I needed to budget.  I needed to know what I was spending my money on.  I needed to prepare for the future.

I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way.  I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.