So I'll be completely honest with you: Closing on my house was very anticlimactic. It wasn't an event loaded with great excitement—certainly no balloons or party horns. And it didn't leave me with a feeling of deep responsibility while a rendition of Chopin's Funeral March 
played in the background.
Really, it was kind of "eh." I went, signed/initialed, shook some hands, and headed out a homeowner.
There was only one thing that gave me pause: the Truth in Lending disclosure . It's the document that lays out exactly what your loan entails, basically:
- Here's what you're borrowing.
- Here's what we're charging you.
- Here's what you'll end up paying us when all is said and done.
If you've borrowed a student loan, you likely saw something similar when you entered repayment.
I've told you before that I had calculated what I'd be paying in the long run. But seeing the number on a very official-looking document and initialing that piece of paper to signify my commitment? It was a wee bit intense. And even more intense was seeing the tens of thousands of dollars in debt automatically displayed in my online banking session after I closed on my loan!
Remember when I was first looking at loans? The number was what really scared me. And in the end, it kind of did—at first. Yes, I had to take some deep breaths when faced with the number at closing and online, but now the number doesn't really scare me. It keeps me grounded.
Every time I log in to check my account balances (I check them a lot, but mainly before I go shopping), I'm faced with that number. Thus far, it's helped me stay on the frugal side. You see, as I'm browsing the aisles, I recall not only my checking account balance but also the number two accounts down: my mortgage balance. So I find myself putting back that full-priced item and instead opting for an equally effective clearance or generic item—or sometimes, no item at all.
For the sake of my bottom line, I'm hoping this trend continues!
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