I’m here in the office, after having put away my new stamp: C2, airmail. After lo, these many years, I’m still accumulating additions to my stamp collection. I’ve focused on U.S. for at least 15 years, though. I used to buy a stamp a month, but now I can’t afford that. The money goes down the ol’ house rathole.
I never realized just how expensive it is to own a house. If I were in this house on my salary alone ($31,000, about) the only way I could afford it would be to sell my car, buy an old $500 model, and go nowhere, do nothing, buy nothing. As it is we have little savings, though I’m managing to put away $100 a paycheck into retirement and after next fall, my car will be paid off—like an instant 10% salary increase! If I keep this car as long as I kept the 72 Chevy, I should be able to save lots n’ lots.
I’d like to return to investing in the stock market—I had a little invested in the early 80s, but that all went to Cambridge education, along with my retirement from MSU, savings, all my summer employment money, and even then, a loan from my mother. Well, $50,000, that education cost. I paid about half; scholarship, grants, fellowships picked up the other half. About $14,000 alone came from Rotary Foundation. I’ve been lucky. Not many people not somehow independently wealthy can afford Cambridge—though it’s no more costly than Ivy League schools, perhaps less costly than some.
—March 2, 1997, Fargo
OtD 