I bought some Forever Stamps today. I figured if we went to the trouble to reserve this domain last year and compose all of these interesting articles for our readers, we should at least buy a few. The new postal rates don’t go into effect until May 14^th, but I did not want to get stuck with half a book of those soon to be useless $0.39 stamps. Hmm, maybe this Forever Stamp thing will catch on…

Yes, I still pay most of my bills through the mail. Some bills I just don’t have the option to pay online or through automatic withdrawals. I like having a paper trail through which I can follow the flow of my money anyway. With the dawn of electronic banking, balancing your checkbook is as easy as going online or hitting balance query at the local ATM, so paying bills is my way of following where my money goes.

I have a pretty good idea of what my finances are at any given moment because I have to sit down to pay bills every month. Sure, writing checks is a chore, but using my credit card consolidates most of my check writing, and I can quickly scan my monthly statement for any billing discrepancies. How do people with automatic bill paying sleep at night? Are they so financially secure that they aren’t worried about being overcharged or double billed? Even with my paper trail, I ended up shelling out three months of payments for an unwanted service I was automatically enrolled in when I bought some “free” business cards last year. Bite me VistaPrint.

There is something cathartic about the act of writing a check. I actually know how much I pay for my monthly Internet service, cell phone plan, satellite tv, etc. How many of you can say that? By symbolically signing this piece of paper and placing it into an envelope, I have made a conscious effort to divest myself of wealth. I’m not totally ready to give in to the age of electronic bill paying, and with a pile of envelopes, some bad checks and a book of Forever Stamps, I can continue to sit on my bills and make the monthly minimums for a very long time.

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