I Sold My Car Today

For the first time since I was 16, I am officially carless. There's not a single piece of heavy machinery registered under the name "Michael Briddon" in the state of Massachusetts. No, sir. No ride. No wheels. No whip.

I sold my Nissan today at 10:30 AM as part of our new plan, hatched by my beautiful wife, to pay off all of our debt in 2013. This chunky transaction is going to help me annihilate the rest of my college and graduate school loans. In a word: Boom. In four words: Take that, higher education.

What's amazing is how fast it all happened. On Tuesday, Bridget suggested a creative, aggressive financial plan she'll be discussing in an upcoming post. On Wednesday, we had a family meeting. On Thursday, I agreed.

And just like that, we committed to becoming a one-car family.

We opted to go to CarMax, which I highly recommend if you are looking to get rid of your vehicle. It took exactly 74 minutes from the moment we walked in the door to the moment we walked out with a check in hand. We met with a nice guy named Rob, someone drove my car for two miles, and we left with 500 dollars more than I expected. (They even returned the Explosions in the Sky CD I'd left in the player.) It was that easy.

As we drove away in Bridget's, er, our, car, I expected to feel a moment of panic. Didn't I just give up my freedom? What if I wanted to drive across the country next weekend? What if we got a huge fight about turning the cable off and the only escape was the open road? None of those thoughts, though, gave me pause. Instead, I was excited about paying off my loans and taking another giant leap toward a better financial future.

Plus, there were these reasons:

• We live in Cambridge and every mode of public transportation is minutes away on foot. 
• I was really sick of moving my car for street cleaning. (I'll never forget the day I came home and panicked because I thought our cars were stolen. Two hundred forty bucks later, I had them both back. It wasn't the best night of my life.)
• I don't have to pay an excise tax anymore. I don't really know what it is anyway. Do you? I mean, sure, I could Google it in a few seconds, but I'd rather just be ignorant on this one. Stupid excise tax. 

Are there risks with having only one car? Sure. It could break down. We could get in an accident. We could both want it some Saturday afternoon. But I think the benefits far outweigh the detriments and it's the right decision in the long run.

Just don't tell 16-year-old Mike. He'd think it was a dumb idea. 

The Second Annual Summer Concert Series

Eddie Vedder

In just more than four months of marriage, I've realized many things. Here are five quick lessons: Sometimes just say "yes" even if you mean "no." Don't argue about $4 soap. She'll never like golf as much as I do. No matter how stupid I think E! is, it will be on sometimes. And, it's okay to be wrong.

Above all else, though, I've realized it's really, really important to have things in common. (I often wondered about this when I was younger. Is it really important to like many of the same things? Yes, young Mike, yes it is.)

And, fortunately, Bridget and I have one very important thing in common: Musical taste. (In case you were curious, a study actually found that music predicts sexual attraction.) Having the same taste in tunes makes it much easier to be on long drives together, hang out in the same room, and spend money on concerts.

During the summer we fell in love, last summer, in fact, we went to 10 different live shows:

1. Paul Simon
2. Eddie Vedder
3. Joe Purdy
4. Florence and the Machine
5. James Taylor
6. The Damnwells
7. Bon Iver
8. Led Zeppelin 2
9. Ben Harper
10. Explosions in the Sky

Bridget liked Bon Iver the most; I chose Eddie Vedder.

The Head and the Heart

This summer, music continues to be a huge part of our relationship. We've already seen Joe Purdy, The Head and the Heart, and Josh Ritter and Brandi Carlile. The setlist continues this summer and fall:

• The Lumineers
• Bon Iver
• Ben Harper

And even though some of the shows won't be fantastic (Ben Harper was lousy last summer, for example), it's much, much more enjoyable watching them with someone you love. Awww...