This is the message today when I check my credit score on one of my credit card sites.  It actually shows the esteemed 850/850 score.

This validates that my aggressive debt payoff plan is working.

I'll have to figure which of the three credit agencies this is from. 850 is obviously the high score; the other two are currently 840 and 821.

In other news, I went for my annual thyroid ultrasound yesterday.  I think this is my 7th year of doing this.  Anyways, I have a large (5 cm) nodule on one half of my thyroid and a smaller (1 cm) nodule on the other.  I did have it biopsied back when the nodules were first discovered, but they came up with results that are "indeterminate."  Because of this, I was advised back then to have a hemi-thyroidectomy--that is, to remove the half of my thyroid with the large nodule so that they could biopsy it to assure themselves that it is not cancerous.

I did some research at that time, and, while many people do fine after such an operation, there's a significant minority have to start taking thyroid medication (for the rest of their lives) and who claim that they just don't feel the same after the surgery.  Also, there are now other procedures (e.g. radiofrequency ablation, or RFA) that shrink the size of the nodule. Because the nodule is so large, they tell me that further biopsies are not warranted--it would be a hit or miss game, with too high a chance of missing a potential cancerous spot.

Every year after the ultrasound, I have a consultation with a surgeon, who again advises me to have the operation because it is "the standard of care."  After I found out about RFA and asked her about it, she now admits that RFA may well become the standard of care in a few years.  So I tell her that, so long as the nodules are stable, I am not having half of my thyroid removed. (They can't remove just the nodules; it's either half or the whole thyroid that goes.  Also, the thyroid is key to your metabolism; it affects every other part of your body and you use it for your whole life. It's not like a "female part," which, as a post-menopausal woman, I would not particularly be relying on at this stage of my life.) I will continue to monitor my thyroid annually with the ultrasound and if there IS significant change, I will have the recommended surgery.

In any case, the form of thyroid cancer that I am at risk for is slow-moving, and my ultrasound results indicate a "low suspicion pattern."  (There are also very low suspicion patterns, so mine is not the least risk, but still low risk.)  If RFA ever does become the standard of care, I will have it done.  In the meantime, I feel relieved that I can expect to avoid this surgery for another year.

So my last entry was on New Years Eve.  What I didn't mention at that time was that I lost my planned PTO days of December 30 and 31, which I usually devote to year-end catch-up and planning, to a last-minute change in our computer systems by the company that acquired us.  I got the morning of the 30th off, but because my work is so busy at the beginning of the year, I couldn't wait on upgrading my computer, so I lost half of the 30th and the day of the 31st to working on technology upgrades for work.

It's now February 9 and I'm still feeling annoyed about that.  My job is so busy at the beginning of the year that whatever time I have off is just lost to catching up on R&R.  Even if I have time, i don't have the mental energy at the beginning of the year for any decision making.  So just color me annoyed.

So, what's been happening in Dido's world YTD?

Well, I''m happy that I received a 5% raise and a bonus of about 14% in January.  Those just appeared in my pay without any communication from the company.  Very nice to have, but yet another failure of communication.

I had accrued a little bit of debt on my HELOC the end of the year, which is not unusual--there seem to be more expenses and little additional income then (while in comparison, near the beginning of the year, there's usually a bonus from work and a tax refund).  So I was able to pay off the HELOC and some other debt.  My total debt currently stands at around $43,500 (of which about 24.5k is my mortgage; the rest is either loans or one 0% balance transfer card ($4k) where the rate expires in June.

My HELOC's 10-year draw period expires in November.  I will need to talk with the issuing bank (which also holds my mortgage and my checking and savings accounts) because I foresee needing funds in the not-too-distant future to fix up my house.  While I have some projects (more cosmetic than structural) planned for post-retirement to increase the eventual sales price I can ask, I have one project that is planned for this year.  My neighbor and I share a concrete staircase in the front that has been crumbling for a decade.  Every spring, our neighbor Jim (two doors down from me) patches it up, but the erosion is steady.  Additionally the stairs are uneven and some of them are as much as 1.5" higher than the current code.  (In fact, I'm really not quite sure why the city hasn't required any change in the stairs during the past few sales--2020, 2010, 2005.)

So I went into a local bank yesterday where I maintain a checking account because this bank is known for good rates and service, and I talked with a banker.  Now of course, rates depend on the rates set by the Fed, but I can currently get a fixed rate loan for the stair project at 4.99%, and a HELOC with *no end to the draw period* currently for 1.99% for the first 6 months and the rate currently at prime + 0%.

So I've pretty much decided to do that, which will require that I close out the current HELOC. Then I can apply for the new fixed rate loan and LOC in the spring. Before closing the current HELOC, I need to see if I will lose anything (like free monthly fees on my checking and savings accounts or my free annual safety deposit box fee if I do that)--but I'm pretty sure that the only thing I would lose is that I'd need to start paying a $75 annual fee if I want to keep the SD box.  And I'm really better off getting a home safe for the papers and old family photos that I keep in there.

The thing I'm thinking about now is whether I pay down the 0% balance transfer credit card early.  I have the $4,000 in my brokerage account thanks to the bonus, invested in a money market fund earning around 4%.  Since the pay-off date isn't until June, I was planning on just paying it down by $100 a month in the interim, using my March dividends to pay down a little more, then paying off the remaining balance (projected to then be $3,300) in June.  Paying it off will boost my credit score, but I'm back over 800 (818! higher than I recalled).  I might do that in the near future since it takes the credit scores a couple of months to catch up with the actual balances and because it would bring total debt down under 40k and consumer debt down under 15k - until the money is spent for the stair project (which would count in the housing debt rather than the consumer debt column).

I still need to plan for other upcoming expenses--I need to do my estate plan this year, I want to hire someone to help me do some decluttering this year (to ensure that it actually gets done), I am contemplating a trip in June to Texas with a women's group that I have been involved with online, plus I need to decide how I am allocating my "fitness dollars"--currently paying for weekly online fitness coaching for Q1 that I do "live online" to ensure that it gets done.  Plus I would love to feel that I am ready to adopt a new pair of kitties by later this year.  I need mental space for that planning, which I really don't have right now.

Other than that, I've been obsessing about the current political situation, doing jigsaw puzzles, training for another online 5k on 3/1 (I already did one on 1/1 and a baseline for the 3/1 "race" on 2/1), working with an online personal trainer once a week, and taking an online weekly meditation class.  And work.  Endless work.  Gotta get back to it now!