What's Your Name, What's Your Number?

"It's official!" my husband cried as he walked in the door, waving the mail in his hand.

I knew what he was talking about when I saw the return address on the envelope he was holding: Social Security Administration. I opened it up, and there it was. My new social security card, complete with my new last name. Official, indeed.

I've had bank cards with my new name for a week or so now, and I got new checks the other day. I've been using the new name at work since I got married. But social security really has the final say in what one's name is, so seeing it in print on this new card made me feel...well, official.

I'm pretty much used my new last name, although it doesn't really roll off the tongue -- not that my old one did, either, but I'd lived with it for almost 30 years, so it didn't sound strange to me. But with the new one, there are times I still don't recognize it as my name.

Right before the wedding, I had a bit of an identity crisis about my name. Don't get me wrong -- I am proud to take my husband's name, and other than not wanting to go to the trouble of having all of my records changed over, I didn't see any point in not changing it. But it was still a little jarring to think that the person I'd been all my life would suddenly not exist anymore.

But then I started thinking, maybe this is a good thing. After all, I was preparing to enter a whole new phase of my life, so why not just consider it a whole new me? For example, the old me was afraid to fly. The new me would not be afraid to fly. (And, in fact, we flew to Hawaii on our honeymoon and I did not get nervous at all, so it must have worked).

And unlike the old me, the new me would be good with money. Like many who leave home seeking their fortune and finding low-paying jobs, I'd found myself in my early 20s relying on credit cards. I knew they could mean trouble, but at the time, I didn't have much of a choice. Considering that some people find themselves owing tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, my debt of just a few thousand was a drop in the bucket, but then again, I wasn't making enough money to even cover my normal expenses, let alone pay down a debt, so it was tough.

Nonetheless, it was my debt, and I had to pay it off. So I lowered my expenses and eventually got a new, better paying job, so I was able to put enough money toward my debt every month to actually see the balance going down.

One of my two credit cards was paid off in a matter of months. No drama, I just paid and was eventually done. The other credit card company, however, made things difficult. They just couldn't seem to get enough of my money. (I just know that someday that will be in a book of quotes, because it is such a brilliant and keen observation that no one else would make). Even after I'd paid off the balance, they socked me with interest charges from the month before, then interest on the interest, until eventually, they were actually sending me a notice that I owed two dollars. Two days before my wedding, I paid the last little bit, hoping (but not at all sure) that this would be it.

I gave them four weeks, fully expecting them to charge me interest on that two dollars, but I heard nothing. Today, I called them, and they told me the words I'd been longing to hear for a long time -- "your balance is zero." I've met my goal -- I might not have learned it till today, but I was debt free before I got married, just as I wanted to be.

I'm pretty disappointed in myself to have gotten into this mess, but I'm hardly the first person to have trouble managing money. Anyway, that was the old me. I'm a whole new person now.

And I've got the documentation to prove it.