Uhm, if I had a couple spare grand hanging around it wouldn't be as much of a problem. Right now, I can consistently keep my account north of 1K, and going higher, but it only takes take a bad month to blow that away and leave me with nothing. Right now, I'm putting about 30% of my after-tax into housing, and another 40% into repaying my school loans which I've begged and pleaded as low as I can get them.

I'm thinking of this thing as the financial equivalent of a suture kit and tourniquet. Can I use either one? My class work says I can us the latter, and I've been taught by friends how to use the former, but I'm pretty sure I never want to.