401k Rollover Answers

For many Americans a payday loan is a common thing. Maybe not something that they access every month, but more than 4 times in a calendar year. As a culture we are drawn to quick solutions. We want to identify the solution, implement it and move on. Same day loans feed right into that mentality. And it is dangerous. The interest rate on payday loans/same day loans is staggering — if you recalculate it from the daily figures that they post online. Did you want to pay 4 times the loan amount in interest? You borrow a hundred dollars now and owe $400 in return!

News articles talk about how these places prey on the working poor, but the more upscale versions prey on the struggling middle class, too. No matter your place in the social strata, these payday advance loans places take advantage of your troubled situation.

With a little elbow grease and determination, however, you can avoid ever going near one of these shops again. The two keys to making a break with quick cash loans are planning and self control. You can begin to save money instead of spend it!

Think about it — same day cash loans are necessary because you need cash quick. Why do you need the money so quickly? Is rent due or a credit card payment? Then you have to ask yourself a hard, hard question — Where did your paycheck go? How did you spend the money you earned from working? Of course, you could say that it is no one’s business how you spend your hard-earned paycheck. And that is true. Only you have the power to change this cycle. No one else can do it for you.

This is where planning and self control come in. First: planning. Emergencies happen. The car gets a flat tire. The dog needs shots. You take care of those and then when the phone bill comes due, you have to find the money somehow. Since we know that emergencies happen, you can be better prepared for them. To save money and not touch it takes serious self control — at least at first. Sit down with a list of monthly expenses. On a separate sheet of paper put them in order of importance. Start with the obvious things like rent and food and lights. Keep listing them down the sheet of paper. Now beside them, list how much they cost per month. At what point do you run out of paycheck? What is left unpaid on your expense list? Are they things you can live without, like cable? Or things that you have to have, like a phone?

As you look at your list, imagine that your financial situation is like a boat. Your boat is danger of sinking unless you throw some things overboard to lighten the load. What can be thrown away and crossed off your list? How much is your car payment? That is often a high dollar item. What percentage of your monthly check goes to that car payment? If it is more than 15%, you have got to ditch that car and get something cheaper.

I know this doesn’t sound like much fun. It sounds like a bleak life of denial. No eating out, no cable, driving some junky old car, but it is only for a little while. As you build up an emergency fund and as you learn to control your impulse to spend, you will find that money management is easy and you will honestly wonder how you ever found it so hard.