Cheap Personal Loan

As previously mentioned, I'm moving in a few days. Moving is expensive. I had set aside a few grand to cover moving costs. But as the market has been plummeting, I couldn't pass up a chance to buy in at rock bottom prices. So rather than floating a credit card balance for a month to keep extra cash on hand, I took out a small personal loan.

*Gasp*

Really, it isn't that bad. And I'm someone who REALLY hates debt. In fact, this "personal loan" is probably the best financial instrument I've ever seen.

I've had an ING Direct checking account for about a year now. They pay great interest on checking and savings, which most people are already aware of. What people aren't aware of, is the checking account comes with an overdraft line of credit. They charge you a low rate (currently 8.5%) on the amount you are overdrawn. Interest compounds daily and ends whenever your balance becomes positive.

So to come up with the huge ass deposit San Francisco rents require, I am going to be around $2000 overdrawn for about 20 days over the course of the next month. Total interest charge: $9.30. If I had just skipped paying off my credit card for a month, I would have ended up paying over $37 in interest. And of course, I'm buying securities at very low prices which will be awesome when I'm ready to retire.