Suzi, we need to get you down to Ti Couz and do some dessert crepes. My favorite is the one with apples, caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream, topped with chantilly.

Are you trying to kill me? (If so, don't stop.) Sounds delish!

Oh yes, those six-month cruises were SO MUCH FUN. (Where is that sarcasm font?) The two that DH went on while we were together ran each end of the spectrum. The first cruise they had the least amount shore leave cause they had the least senior captain and he was trying to make brownie points. On the second cruise, his captain outranked the captain on the carrier that they were escorting. They hit all the sweet ports and were in Singapore on New Years, even though that had not been on "the schedule". BUT gosh, somehow a bunch of us wives were also in Singapore that same New Years Eve. Utter coincidence, I tell you.

Attack Olivia! What an adorable image. She sounds like she is going to be quite a handful.

I really didn't mean to fall back to sleep for quite so long. In my defense, the death cramps came 2 weeks early.

Suzi, we need to get you down to Ti Couz and do some dessert crepes. My favorite is the one with apples, caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream, topped with chantilly.

Oh. My. God. WHY have you not taken me to Ti Couz?!?!? All the times I'm schlepped my ass out to your fair city, and I've been denied crepes such as these?!?!?!?

Oh, the trauma.

I love the image of attack Olivia.

Heh. I need to remember to check myself now. It's not always Owen who's instigating and I have to suppress the urge to assume it's him taking her toys. She's learned quickly, that one.

P-C, I was also going to suggest a money market account or something for your savings--anything to get a higher interest rate than a regular savings account while still giving you plenty of access to your money. And you are lucky--not a lot of people can say they have enough of a cushion in their savings to wonder if they should pay off their debt, so relish the choices you have.

Gah. Toddler Zone was freakin' crowded today and full of craxy parents/grandparents. One grandma was walking around trying to SORT THE TOYS. Right out from under Owen. Who then freaked out and tried to take a toy out of her hands. She held on for dear life (which, I guess is her perogative) but then I had to swoop in with the "we don't steal toys" speech that I have to give him when he takes toys from other kids. When I realized he was only going to keep stealing toys, I decided to leave early. Which ended badly.

His pitched fit was worse than usual and I had to strap him into the stroller screaming. And to top things off, the offices inside the building were filled with some sort of tour and EVERYONE was staring while I tried to get him calmed down enough to push the stroller out the door. One guy actually stopped in the parking lot and watched the whole time as I had to strap Owen into his car seat kicking and screaming. I hope he wasn't an expectant father.

And now, I pack for Pittsburgh for a weekend on my own with my college friend. DH gets the kids all weekend and I get to drink wine and sleep late.

His pitched fit was worse than usual and I had to strap him into the stroller screaming.

I told you: vodka. (In *his* bottle, not your travel mug.)

I love the image of attack Olivia.

She was such a sweet honeybunny when you visited, I can't imagine her going all banshee.

(((Cashmere))) That must have been difficult. Enjoy your free weekend and best of luck to your DH.

First, you're doing very well. People at your stage of life are more likely to be worrying about how to pay the rent than whether to use savings to pay off debt completely. So feel good about yourself for having that kind of problem.

Thanks. I will admit that I'm partly in this position since my dad paid off the unsubsidized half of the loan a long time ago. And, like, I've thought about saving up money to pay him back, but...he doesn't care about that sort of thing.

The conventional wisdom is to have at least 3-6 months' expenses socked away (my goal is to have at least 6 paychecks, or 12 weeks' take-home pay, which is more than 3 months' expenses). So I'd suggest that you not pay off the student loan if it takes your savings below that level.

I would have about that much left, especially if I, you know, continued to have a job. But even without the job, I would have enough to live on for 3-6 months, I think.

Can't argue with the folks encouraging you to look at consolidation or other options that may reduce the interest rate.

I looked into consolidation, but as far as I could tell, I can't do that if I only have ONE LOAN. I mean...you can't consolidate one thing. So I don't know how to get this interest rate reduced.

But I'll add that you can pay down the principal without paying off completely. Either in a lump sum or by adding a little something extra every month. (We do the latter with our mortgage -- it's surprising how fast the benefits show up on monthly statements!)

Is there a way I can specify all my money go to principal? I was sort of annoyed when I made my thousand-dollar slam a month ago because I'd miscalculated the timing and ended up using a lot for interest. I think the way my loan works, actually, all I have to do is make the payment the day after my monthly payment is due. Because the interest is calculated between payments. So if I make a small payment followed by a large payment, there's very little interest for the large payment.

Finally, a subject that neither you nor anyone else raised, but it crossed my mind. How well are your savings working for you? I recently moved a fair amount of my liquid reserve (that 3-6 months expenses I was talking about above) from a bank account paying 0.2% to a bank account paying over 4%. Same safety, big difference in return. (A short-term corporate bond mutual fund is a little riskier -- but not a lot -- and can also offer decent return.)

I've been thinking about this too since, yeah, I just have it all in a savings account that's probably doing very little for me. Few dollars a month.

On a similar topic, if you have your liquid reserve in place, you might want to look at investing with a longer timeframe in mind. I'm not giving any advice on specifics, but if you want to look in that direction, find a copy of Investing for Dummies, Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, or the like.

Investing scares me. But it sure is fun to have stock options, which didn't cost me a thing and can only ever give me money. I do have money to play with, though. The company also has an employee purchase plan that pays off after quarters (you get to buy at the lowest price and sell at the highest price within the quarter, so you always win).

Oh, and speaking of investing: any advice on where to put my 401(k)? I was given a list of choices but had no idea what they were, so I'm actually not sure where it's going at the moment.

Thanks a lot for the advice, Fred!

P-C, I was also going to suggest a money market account or something for your savings--anything to get a higher interest rate than a regular savings account while still giving you plenty of access to your money.

Money market accounts still give me the same access as a regular savings account? I was thinking about CDs, which I know keep my money away from me. Money market accounts have high fees or something, though, right?

there would have been a few months where there were no carries in the Iran/Iraq region

Ah, this is where things get tricky. You have to remember we have carriers out of both the east and the west coast. There is always one out from each coast all the time. I'm guessing whoever is out of the west coast right now was intended to relieve the Enterprise (and probably still is), but the Ike was sent out early to give 2 ship coverage with whichever west coast carrier is currently deployed.

P-C, I was also going to suggest a money market account or something for your savings--anything to get a higher interest rate than a regular savings account while still giving you plenty of access to your money.

We love the ING account. We have 4!

I've heard about that thing. I think my uncle used it too.