financial freedom... or not so much

Oh, what a feeling... paying off your vehicle! It's so great not to have a car payment, isn't it?

So why is it, that you no sooner get the balance to $0, and something goes wrong. Say, the alternator? And when you try to take it to the shop it breaks down in the middle of the road in a not-so-nice part of town? And the state police trooper pulls over to make sure everything is okay, but people still are gawking at us, probably because I didn't think I needed to change out of my bleach-stained sweatpants and t-shirt, and I look I am blending in perfectly with the trashy neighborhood, and being reprimanded by the trooper for some heinous crime?

Yeah. It's a great feeling :)