Completed certified automated interactive credit counseling. I'd heard suggestion that it's a pro forma, unchecked exercise with no real bearing on the rest of the process, and that I could rush through it making up quick guesstimates. But I figured if I have to jump through that hoop in the first place, it was probably to my own benefit to take it at least somewhat seriously and learn what I could from it. It was not as educational as the defensive driving course I took to mitigate a speeding ticket back in '98.

But it wasn't a complete waste of time, as did expose a framework in which actual financial planners look at personal budgeting, and forced me to review my own situation in terms of that. It did not reveal anything I didn't know, merely sharpened focus on what I already knew.