Cell phones and scooters are empowering innovations for women

A recent issue of the Economist featured a cover story about “gendercide” in countries like China where new ultrasound-scan technology has resulted in a significant sex-ratio imbalance.  The use of ultrasound scans to detect the sex of embryos for the purpose of aborting females in countries where male offspring are valued more highly is a frightening example of how a technological innovation can benefit the sexes disproportionately.

Ultrasound scans are widely used and inexpensive even in developing countries.  Few people have to wait until pay day or visit a payday loan store to pay for one.

The internet is man-friendly

Other less controversial innovations also benefit men more than women.  In many countries, for example, the internet benefits men disproportionately.  According to an online Economist article, it is estimated that in Africa only 25% of internet users are female.  In Asia 22%, in Latin America 38%, and in the Middle East just 6% of internet users are female.

Some innovations are inherently woman-friendly

Other innovations, however, have served to directly empower women. Birth control drugs may be the most widespread innovation ever to offer disproportionate benefits for women.  This is especially true in developing countries where education for women — far and away the most effective thing ever devised for improving the lives of women — is still not widely available.  The automatic clothes washer, and in more affluent countries the automatic dishwasher, are other innovations that have benefited women almost exclusively.

A report issued by the International Centre for Research on Women notes that social innovations – some of which might more aptly be called horror-reduction programs – such as the land-titling movement in Peru and the anti-foot-binding campaign in China have had massive beneficial impacts on women’s lives.  How, you might reasonably ask, could something so fundamental as discouraging the intentional crippling of young girls for the pleasure of men have anything other than a massively beneficial impact on the lives of women?

Other innovations are unexpectedly woman-friendly

The beneficial effects of other innovations, however, are not so starkly evident.  Recently, a panel of experts convened by the ICRW examined several less obvious innovations that have helped to empower women and promote gender equality.  The panel concluded that governments and businesses around the world are now at a “critical juncture to use social and technological innovations to benefit women.”

Microcredit lending

Among the innovations reviewed by the panel, microcredit lending has received a fair amount of public attention.  Microcredit is a lending system that makes very small business loans to extremely poor people, most of whom are female.  Microcredit lending has been very successful in helping small business owners in poor countries graduate from miserable poverty to at least marginal self-sufficiency.

Cell phones

A first-world citizen with a cell phone in the car, a cell phone in the golf cart, a cell phone at the office, and three cell phones in the house may find this beyond imagining, but many women in countries like Bangladesh have dramatically improved their lives by investing in a cell phone and renting it out to less technologically advanced villagers.

Motor scooters

Increasing sales of motorized scooters have helped to empower women in China, India, and several other Asian countries. The past decade has seen a dramatic surge in the use of motor scooters by Asian women; in India 60% of scooter purchases are now made by women.  Motor scooters provide a reasonably safe and reliable way for women who would otherwise be house-bound to seek out employment and education.

Cell phones, revisited

Matthew Bishop, a member of the ICRW panel and co-author with Michael Green of Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World, predicts that developments in health-care technology, especially maternal health, are on the horizon. He suggests, for example, that mobile phones could be used to provide remote medical care or to text information about childcare to isolated women.  Bishop suggests that governments as well as private enterprises should incorporate the goal of improving women’s lives into the development of new products and services.

Involving women in innovation

The ICRW panelists concluded that in order to optimize the effectiveness of an innovation that stands to benefit women, women should be involved in innovation strategies from the start. This seemingly simple insight may turn out to be the most innovative of all woman-friendly innovations.

Case in point: A campaign to encourage people in poor countries to switch to environmentally friendly stoves did not succeed until the stoves were redesigned using input from women’s groups.  The redesigned stoves now require less cooking time as well as less fossil fuel, and are a running success.  Fuel is conserved and women who formerly devoted large portions of each day to gathering wood and standing over the stove now have more time to devote to other things.

More woman-friendly innovations on the way

The ICRW panel hopes that governments and business will increasingly make woman-friendly innovations available to developing countries — things like foot-pedaled water pumps, micro-franchised electricity in rural areas not served by public utilities, and new ways to distribute basic health-care information. These kinds of innovative products and services, in combination with major social campaigns to upgrade the education and status of women in poor countries, have the potential to liberate millions of people.

Mount Everest from base camp one (photo: flickr.com)

On May 16, 1975, Japanese mountain climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to scale Mount Everest. One of fifteen women chosen to make the climb, Tabei, who is now 70 years old, reached the summit of the world’s highest mountain peak after being buried in an avalanche and rescued by a Sherpa guide. According to Wikipedia, her expedition followed the same route taken by in 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the first persons known to have reached the summit.

She conquered Mt. Everest

For centuries known to Tibetans as Chomolungma, Everest is considered the highest mountain peak in the world. Everest is approximately 8850 feet high, forms part of the Himalaya mountain system, and is located in Nepal. The mountain attracts climbers of all levels.  It is said that, at least compared to other peaks, the mountain does not pose technical climbing difficulties on the standard routes, so much as it presents the many dangers inherent in its weather and altitude.

Everest climbers are a significant source of tourism income for Nepal. A government-issued climbing permit costs up to $25,000 so it may well be that a serious mountain climber would have to get a personal loan from a payday lender before attempting Mount Everest. Many climbers have perished along the standard climbing routes.

She scaled the rest of the Seven Summits

A recognized mountain climber in Japan before the Everest expedition, Tabei has also climbed Mount Fuji the Swiss Matterhorn. In 1992, she became the first woman to complete the Seven Summits, a mountaineering challenge that requires scaling the highest mountain of each of the seven continents.

Among mountaineers, there is a difference of opinion concerning which mountains actually meet that description, but the “eight” Seven Summits listed in Wikipedia are: Kilmanjaro in Africa (Tanzania), Vinson Massif of the Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica, Kosciuszko of the Great Dividing Range in Australia, Carstensz Pyramid of the Maoke Mountains in Australia (Indonesia), Everest of the Himalaya range in Asia (Nepal), Elbrus of the Caucasus in Europe (Russia), Mount McKinley of the Alaska Range in North American (United States), and Aconcagua of the Andes in South America (Argentina).

She may yet climb the highest peak of every country in the world

Tabia, who has a university degree in English literature, is said to have a goal of climbing the highest peak in every country of the world. Although at age 70 she has now moderated her climbing activities, she may yet achieve that goal. Tabei is also the director of Himalayan Adventure Trust of Japan, an organization working to preserve mountain environments.

A lone restaurant stands in the rubble of the February quake in Port au Prince (photo: flickr.com)

A House bill was introduced yesterday which, if signed into law, will allow taxpayers to deduct last-minute, charitable donations for disaster relief in Chile from their 2009 tax returns rather than waiting to claim the deductions on their 2010 returns. In order to qualify as deductions for the 2009 tax year under the proposed bill, donations must be made to qualified, tax-exempt charities before the April 15, 2010, filing deadline.

In January, Congress passed a law making charitable donations to Haiti between January 11 and March 1 tax-deductible on 2009 tax returns. The new bill would also extend the time for making donations to Haiti until the April 15 filing deadline.

Worthy causes for cash advances

Taxpayers who have already filed returns and wish to make additional or last-minute donations may amend their 2009 returns or wait until next year to claim the deductions. The causes are so worthy and the tax-incentives so appealing that cash-strapped taxpayers may want to consider cash advance loans or even cash advances on credit cards as ways to get funds for donation.

Hoping to encourage further donations

According to CNNMoney.com, it is hoped that the bill, introduced by Sander Levin, the Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means committee, and Dave Camp, a Republican on the committee, will encourage further charitable donations to these two countries, both of which are in dire need of aid.

Millions homeless and in need of essentials

It is estimated that 2 million people in Chile have been affected by the February earthquake and 708 have been reported dead. The January earthquake in Haiti left more than a million people homeless and an estimated 212,000 dead. The Haiti situation is now complicated by an outbreak of typhoid fever and officials fear that a cholera outbreak may ensue.

Generosity demonstrated even in tough economic times

Despite uncertain economic times, millions of individuals have given selflessly to these two countries recently struck by natural disasters unfathomable proportions. According to the US Chamber of Commerce, which tracks corporate donations for disaster relief have also been impressive. More than 350 corporate donors have provided a combined total approaching $150 million of disaster relief for Haiti.

Sweet Williams are the superlative variety of garden pinks

Pink Floyd is a very popular online search topic today. Before turning to more interesting uses of the word pink, I shall first bow to any readers who may be looking for  information about Pink Floyd by pointing out that musical recordings can be purchased with the proceeds of small cash loans and then briefly summarizing the relevant Wikipedia entry.

According to Wikipedia

I just read the Wikipedia entry for Pink Floyd. It would appear that the English rock band earned recognition for its psychedelic music in the 1960s and its progressive rock music in the 1970s. Actually, I remember Pink Floyd, but I can’t think of anything to add to what Wikipedia has already said, except that when musicians like Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Richard Wright, and Syd Barrett are members of a collective noun like band, the noun is singular and requires singular verbs and pronouns.

Thus, “the band was” is the proper verb inflection, and not “the band were.”  Similarly, “it evolved” (not “they evolved”) and “its progressive rock music” (not “their progressive rock music”) are the correct pronoun usages when referring to the band. I think these things would be true even if the Wikipedia entry was — as I suspect — written by an Englishman in the mother tongue. Then again, when it comes to matters of grammar and spelling in the mother tongue, I know better than to be certain of anything. In any event, the Wikipedia entry, being very long and heavily linked, is adequate for anyone who wants to read about Pink Floyd.

In the very pink of mode or misery

To be honest, after those grammatical hooks in the first sentence of the Wikipedia entry, I stopped reading about Pink Floyd. I have always liked the expression “in the very pink,” however.

In the mid-1800s, William Thackeray used “in the very pink of the mode” to mean “at the very height of fashion.” Around the same time, Charles Dickens used “the very pink of hideousness and squalid misery” to describe Fondi, a city of his disliking in central Italy, halfway between Rome and Naples. And so it is, today, that Pink Floyd may be at the very height of something on a scale ranging all the way from fashionable to miserable.

A garden variety of pink

Some say the color of pink came to connote the superlative degree of comparison because Elizabeth I had a royal fondness for certain Old World carnations called pinks (Dianthus caryophyllus).  If you’re a gardening enthusiast and you like pinks, you can purchase them in flats at local nurseries with proceeds from same day loans.

It may be nothing more than my personal reaction to anything remotely aristocratic as well as the unrelenting “pinkness” of the English when it comes to etymology, but I prefer to think that those little pink flowers are so called because of the perfect saw-toothed edges cut along their petals. I have no etymological or other opinion, however, concerning the current pinkness of Pink Floyd.

Many will remember the noughties as a decade-long job search

Real GDP in America grew by an average of 1.9% per year during the 2000s. That may not sound too terrible when you consider that the noughties — the decade beginning January 1, 2000, and ending December 31, 2009 — ten years that economically speaking came to nothing — included one short recession and one unusually long and pronounced one. Still, the noughties — which propelled debt repair and paycheck loans to new heights — marked the worst economic performance the country had seen in many decades. By way of comparison, in the previous six decades, the real GDP grew by an average of 3.9% a year.

America’s worst decade since the 1930s

Only in the 1930s, when the Great Depression was in full swing around the world, was growth of the real GDP worse than in the decade just passed. The 1930s — the decade typically employed as a measure of how far the world’s economy can decline – marked the most longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 1930s, real GDP growth was a mere 0.9% per year. Statistics like that are the reason why the 2000s, which more closely resemble the economic conditions of the Great Depression than those of any other decade since, are being hailed by pundits as a lost decade.

Is now said to be at an end

For reasons that few people would really understand if they took the time to think about it – and that no one still unemployed after six months of job-searching could possibly comprehend – the lost years are supposedly at an end. Although the economy has grown for the past two quarters, personal incomes and consumption rates are still the lowest they’ve been since the 1930s and the unemployment rate has only just begun to inch downwards. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the years between 1940 and 1999, the number of Americans employed outside farming grew by an average of 27% each decade. In the 2000s, that number fell by 0.8%. In January of 2010, the number of people who have been unemployed for more than six months topped 6.3 million.

Although many people haven’t noticed

The chronically unemployed, along with hoards of job-seekers working two or more low-paying part-time jobs (not to mention skilled and educated people now working menial jobs, and certainly not to mention workers continuing to work past retirement age) have little appreciation of frenzied proclamations by economists, politicians, and the media. No matter how many times the good news is shouted in the ears of these people, for them the recession is not over.

And few have the luxury to really care

Today, the unemployment rate is hovering somewhere between 9.7% and 17.3%, depending on whose version of the facts you choose to espouse. Many people, however, simply don’t have the luxury to care.  By some measures the economic situation is better today than it was a couple of years ago — even more so than it was in the 1930s when unemployment topped out at 25% — but the miserable economic performance of the noughties is a pain that will be felt by the unemployed, the underemployed, and the still-employed for a long time to come.

Bretton Woods report tracks overdraft fees

According to a recent Associated Press release and a related article on BusinessWire.com, a new report by Bretton Woods Inc., a bank strategy and consulting firm that has been tracking and recording bank fees since 1998, shows that in 2009 the average U.S. household with a bank account paid overdraft and insufficient funds fees on ATM or debit-card purchases 12.7 times, for a total average cost of $376. That’s a 7% increase over the year before, when the average household incurred such fees 11.9 times, for a total average cost of $343. The full Bretton Woods report can be read online at http://bretton-woods.com/71801.html.

Overdraft fees are a major source of bank revenue

For anyone who’s ever made a $4 purchase with a debit card only to discover after the fact that the transaction cost more like $34, Regulation E is good news. But for the banks and credit unions that generated more than $38 billion in overdraft and non-sufficient funds fees in 2009, (10% more than 2008 and 27% more than 2005) Regulation E threatens to erode the bottom line significantly.  Bretton Woods predicts that in 2010 Regulation E will decrease Bank revenues from overdraft and insufficient-funds fees by at least $7.3 billion.

Overdraft fees have risen consistently for several years

According to the Associated Press release, overdraft fees have been rising consistently for several years, and reached an all-time high average of $29.58 in 2009. Between the years 2005 and 2009, not only did the average overdraft fee increase, the number of debits presented against insufficient funds increased by 18% for a total of 1.3 billion debits

Overdraft protection is a form of short-term consumer credit

Overdraft protection is a form of short-term consumer credit, in essence automatic loans to cover overdrafts. Of course, when it happens to you, overdraft protection may not feel at all like a credit transaction. Overdraft protection may feel more like punishment — a fine of sorts, especially when the overdraft in question is a very small amount and is promptly covered by a payroll or other deposit to your account — but when a bank pays an overdraft and charges you a fee for doing so, the transaction is a lending transaction, however brief and expensive it may be.

Regulation E will affect consumer credit as well as bank revenues

Bretton Woods predicts that short-term consumer loans in the form of overdraft protection on ATM and debit-card transactions will be reduced by $6.3 billion in 2010. Both the Associated Press and BusinessWire quote Bretton Woods CEO Michael Flores as saying that “Once Regulation E goes into effect, consumers will have to opt-into these fees. Banks will struggle to recover that revenue and consumers will need to replace $6.3 billion in short-term credit.”

Consumers will turn to payday loans and banks will find another way

For consumers facing short-term cash shortages, payday loans are the most likely financing alternative to overdraft protection. According to BusinessWire, the Bretton Woods report shows that households in states where payday cash advances are permitted pay up to 13% less in overdraft and insufficient fund fees than households in states where such loans are prohibited. Banks, on the other hand, have proved themselves very adept at finding new ways to assess fees.  There can be little doubt that once Regulation E takes effect, banks will come up with other creative ways to pad the bottom line.

Weakened incomes plus increased spending equals increased consumer debt

Although there are signs that things are picking up, many experts believe recent economic growth cannot be sustained without increased spending by consumers. Consumers may be doing just that, thanks in some part to payday lenders.

The Federal Reserve has reported that in January 2010 U.S. consumer debt increased for the first time since January 2009. According to MarketWatch, in January 2010 the total seasonally adjusted debt (a measure of total debt incurred by individuals) rose at an annual rate of 2.4% and increased by $4.96 billion, for a total of $2.46 trillion.

A minority opinion is borne out

Based on a survey of economists, MarketWatch had expected a $6 billion decline in January. Instead, January 2010 marked the largest increase in consumer debt since January 2008. Not all the experts agreed with the forecasted decline and a few even predicted an increase.

According to MarketWatch, Ed McKelvey, an economist for Goldman Sachs believed that weakened incomes combined with recent reports of increased consumer spending could only mean that consumers were purchasing more items on credit. The Federal Reserve report concerning the January 2010 debt increase now bears that out.

Personal loans are the main source of the increase

Non-revolving debt rose by 5% or $6.62 billion to make up the lion’s share of the overall debt increase. Non-revolving debt includes such things as such as auto loans; personal loans including easy cash loans, overnight loans, and other types of internet loans; auto financing; and student loans. Not surprisingly, given all the recent consumer-unfriendly changes concerning credit-card borrowing, such as reduced lines of credit and higher interests rates, credit-card debt decreased. In fact, January 2010 was the 16th consecutive monthly decrease in overall consumer credit-card debt. Credit-card debt dropped by 2.4% for a healthy decrease of $1.67 billion, bringing the national total down to $864.4 billion.

Coffee? Check. Tea? Check. Pastry? Check. Gun?

Some people love guns and some people who love guns love caffeine. In states where it’s legal to bear arms in public, it’s becoming popular for coffee-loving gun owners to wear their weapons at Starbucks. Naturally, controversy is brewing, and as CNNMoney so aptly put it, Starbucks is “caught in the crosshairs.”

Staying out of the crossfire

Some people hate guns and some people who hate guns love caffeine. Starbucks may be caught in the crosshairs, but so far it has stayed out of direct crossfire. In the 43 states where it’s legal to bear arms in public, businesses have the right to prohibit guns on their premises. Starbucks, however, has refused to do so.  To the company’s credit, there has not been so much as one little shooting in any Starbucks coffee house.

Catching the wave

A gun is probably more expensive than a cup of coffee, even if you buy that cup of coffee at Starbucks.  But if you’re interested in catching the wave of this new controversy, you might be able to buy a gun, a $4 cup of coffee, and a $2 pastry without borrowing money.  If not, emergency cash loans are always an option.

Staying calm and collected

With guns in the coffee houses and anger all around, according to CNNMoney a calm and collected Starbucks spokesperson said, “Advocacy groups from both sides of this issue have chosen to use Starbucks as a way to draw attention to their positions. As the public debate continues, we are asking all interested parties to refrain from putting Starbucks or our partners in the middle of this divisive issue.”

Accessibility is the price of ubiquity

CNNMoney reports that gun-toting gatherings at Starbucks got underway in Northern California. When San Francisco-based Peet’s Coffee & Tea and California Pizza Kitchen started prohibiting firearms on their premises, armed gun-fans simply wandered across the street to Starbucks. Gun lovers can be nomadic sorts.

Another good reason to stay home

Acknowledging the fact that it has every right to ban firearms from its coffee houses, Starbucks has said that doing so might endanger employees charged with the unenviable task of asking coffee drinkers hunting for caffeine and armed with deadly weapons to leave the premises. Acknowledging the fact that I think it’s crazy for someone to carry a gun into a coffee house — no matter how badly he or she needs a caffeine fix — all this brouhaha makes me glad I neither work at nor patronize Starbucks.

February job losses did not result in any significant change in the number of unemployed persons, and the official government unemployment rate remains at 9.7%. Had the job economists been right, the unemployment rate for February would have increased to 9.8%.

The revolving door of unemployment

Taking the February unemployment report to a level that matters, 36,000 people lost jobs in February and about that many found jobs. Many thousands of previously unemployed workers will at last start bringing home paychecks and in just a short time, they’ll also be able to obtain short term personal loans and emergency money when needed. Just as many recently employed workers will be out of luck, however, and may eventually find themselves in serious need of credit repair.

Unemployment rates can depend on the weather

This may be of no consolation whatsoever to those 36,000 newly unemployed workers, but unemployment rates are fickle things: They can depend on the weather. Severe winter storms on the east coast last month may have affected the government’s unemployment report.

According to the CNNMoney article, the Labor Department conducted its job survey in the middle of February when blizzards were blanketing the area with several feet of snow. Businesses were temporarily closed because of the storms and snowed-in workers, especially retail, manufacturing, and construction employees, who did not work and went without pay were not included in the government’s payroll survey.

Underemployment rates can depend on the weather, too

Underemployment, apparently, can also depend on the weather. Snows in the east may have skewed the number of people working only part-time hours while seeking full-time employment. The underemployment figure for February rose by nearly 400,000, resulting in an underemployment rate increase from 16.5% in January to 16.8% in February.

Incentives of $4.35 billion

Race to the Top is a $4.35 billion incentive program created by the Department of Education to encourage progressive reforms in state and local district K-12 education. Much, much larger than the largest possible instant cash loan, and larger even than a whole boatload of payday loan companies, $4.35 billion is a large sum of money.

Funded as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the program was announced by President Obama in July, 2009. Forty states and the District of Columbia applied for funding under Phase 1 of the program. The winners selected from the finalists listed above will be announced next month. Winners under Phase 2 will be announced in September.

Selection criteria

In descending order of weighted importance, selection criteria for funding under the program include:

• Techniques to improve the quality, distribution, support and effectiveness of teachers
• Articulation of reform agendas, capacity to implement reforms, and progress in raising achievement levels
• Development of common standards, transition to enhance standards, and implementation of assessments
• Cultivation of high-performing charters and prioritization of education funding
• Intervention in and turn-around of lowest-achieving schools
• Implementation and use of statewide longitudinal data systems
• Prioritization of science, technology, engineering, and math

Voluntary changes at state levels

According to Bloomberg.com, many states took immediate action in connection with their applications for funding to improve their educational systems. Illinois, for example, removed the cap on the number of charter schools the state allows. Although it failed to make the cut, and despite growing concerns about tying teacher compensation to student performance under high-stakes testing laws, West Virginia proposed a merit-pay system for teachers based in part on student achievement. Massachusetts cleared the way for children attending low-performance schools to enroll in charter schools.

Stern opposition

Despite the fact that many states have made significant changes in an attempt to satisfy application guidelines, Race to the Top has met with stern opposition. Texas Governor Rick Perry summed it up when he told news sources that Texas would not be applying for Race to the Top funding, saying “We would be foolish and irresponsible to place our children’s future in the hands of unelected bureaucrats and special interest groups thousands of miles away in Washington.” Teachers unions have also opposed what they view as unwarranted interference by the federal government in matters of education.

A tight race, as promised

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan had said all along that fewer than half the states applying for under the program will receive grants because their proposals are not stringent enough. That promise has is now corroborated by today’s narrowing of the race to 16 states.

Sumo matches turn on moral, economic, and social incentives (photo: picasa via chinyankeat)

Thanks to the federal No Child Left Behind act and other high-stakes testing laws, schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have something in common. According to Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, authors of the 2005 best-selling Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, they both cheat.

High-stakes testing

This article is limited to the freaky economics of high-stakes testing in public schools.  If you’re interested in learning more about why sumo wrestlers cheat, why drug dealers still live with their mothers, how the legalization of abortion lowered crime rates, or how much parents really matter, a little instant cash or a small personal loan is all that stands between you and your very own paperback copy of Freakonomics. It’s easy for almost anyone — even someone with bad credit — interested in reading about global cooling, patriotic prostitutes, and why suicide bombers should buy life insurance to fund the purchase of Levitt and Dubner’s 2009 hardcover book SuperFreakonomics with an installment loan.

Laudable if laughable goals

The federal government mandated high-stakes testing as part of the No Child Left Behind law signed by President Bush in 2002. The theory behind high-stakes testing is that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals improves individual outcomes in education. The NCLB law requires states to develop tests of basic skills to be administered to all students in certain grades as a prerequisite for federal funding.

Strong incentives to cheat

For as long as there have been tests, Levitt and Dubner point out, students have been motivated to cheat. But high-stakes testing has significantly increased the incentives for cheating on the part of teachers. In a high-stakes testing regime, if students test well, teachers may be praised or promoted. In some states, they may even receive bonuses. At one time, for example, the state of California rewarded teachers whose students made significant test-score improvements with bonuses of $25,000.

If, on the other hand, a teacher’s students test poorly, the teacher may be censured or passed over for a pay increase or promotion. If an entire school tests poorly, federal funding can be withheld, the school can be placed on probation, and teachers can lose their jobs.

Even before the NCLB law was enacted, many states administered annual standardized tests to elementary and secondary school students, and some states sanctioned schools that didn’t do well. The advent of high-stakes testing laws, however, has radically changed the incentives for teachers to cheat.

Teachers cheat in Chicago

It’s actually pretty easy for teachers to cheat on standardized tests administered to students. They might, for example, simply give the answers to students, as one brazen fifth-grade teacher did in Oakland, according to Levitt and Dubner. They might allow extra time for testing, prepare students ahead of time for specific questions, teach testing techniques to the exclusion of worthier curricular pursuits, or simply fill in blank answers or correct wrong answers before turning test sheets in for electronic scanning. This last technique — the artificial boosting of classroom achievement scores by altering students’ answer sheets — was the one identified by Levitt.

From a database of nearly 100 million test answers

Levitt analyzed a database provided by the Chicago Public School system of nearly 100 million individual test answers for every student from third grade through seventh grade for the years 1993 to 2000. He found, for example, that in one sixth-grade classroom 15 students out of 22 all managed to reel off the same consecutive string of six correct answers on their test sheets. The string of six questions occurred near the end of the test, where questions tend to be the most difficult. Several of the 15 students who answered the series of six questions correctly left at least four questions in the same section blank, indicating that they would probably not have been able to answer the string of six questions correctly on their own.

Levitt found evidence of cheating in more than 200 classrooms per year

Levitt’s algorithmic analysis was able to identify only the most extreme cases of cheating — the cases in which teachers systematically changed students’ answers — and not the many subtler ways a teacher might cheat. Even so, his analysis revealed evidence of cheating in more than 200 classrooms per year, about 5% of the total. Tellingly, the sixth-graders described in the example above performed poorly in fifth grade, made nearly twice the expected improvement in sixth grade, and returned to their previous low-performance levels in seventh grade. Levitt’s analysis also showed a pronounced spike in cheating in 1996, the year when the Chicago Public School system introduced high-stakes testing.

Teachers cheat in Atlanta, too

A recent statewide review of standardized tests taken by school children suggests widespread cheating by teachers in Georgia, too. In an online article, the Economist reports that cheating may have occurred in 191 elementary and middle schools, including 69% of such schools in Atlanta. At one middle school in southwestern Atlanta, nearly 90% of the classrooms had suspicious test results.

Thirteen times more erasures than average

Following Levitt’s lead, the Georgia review looked for unusually high numbers of test sheet erasures involving a wrong answer changed to a right one. The number of wrong-to-right changes in the classrooms suspected of cheating were 13 times higher than average. The company analyzing the test sheets flagged those classrooms whose number of wrong-to-right erasures exceeded three standard deviations from the mean. The probability of that many erasures happening without manipulation is one-tenth of one per cent.

Resulted in 13 lashes

Georgia’s experience with high-stakes testing evidences a predictable trend. In 2005, 83%, 80% and 68% of the state’s eighth-grade students passed reading, language-arts, and math tests, respectively. By 2009, those percentages had risen to 93, 92 and 70. In Atlanta, scores in all grades and subjects rose continuously between the years 2000 and 2008. In 2009, after years of solid improvement in the test scores of Georgia’s public schools, 13 teachers, including the principal and assistant principal at one elementary school, were punished for cheating.

And a mixed bag of incentives for 2010

The effects on test scores of the punishments dished out in Georgia are yet to be seen. In economic terms, teachers — along with sumo wrestlers, drug dealers, parents, and everyone else — respond to incentives, negative and positive, moral, economic, and social. Incentives in the high-stakes testing environment of the Georgia public schools, where teachers now know that cheating is likely to have the same consequences as poor student performance, are a very mixed bag.

Some people worry that retirement will be boring

Today, lots of people over age 60 are saying they’ll never be able to retire. Lots, however, is one thing; seventy-two percent is quite another. According to a new survey conducted by CareerBuilder, 72% percent of workers over age 60 are now delaying retirement because they cannot afford it, and need more time to come up with a cash advance towards their own retirement.

Pessimism is on the rise

The 72% figure is significant increase over survey the results from CareerBuilder’s survey on the same subject last year. According to last year’s survey, 60% of retirement-aged workers were postponing retirement due to economic conditions. They may not be candidates for debt settlement relief, but older workers are worrying about money now.

Women have more to worry about

The new survey, which included more than 700 U.S. workers age 60 and older, was conducted between November 5 and November 23, 2009, showed that pessimism about retirement is higher among women than men. Seventy-six percent of women and 64% of men surveyed said they were not financially secure enough to stop working.

According to Tom Warschauer, a finance professor at San Diego State University, who was recently interviewed by CNNMoney.com, Women may have good reason to be more worried about retirement than men are. “Women live 4 to 5 years longer than men on average,” Warschauer said. “If men and women save the same amount, women would be less prepared.”

Pessimism is only one reason for putting off retirement

Clearly, people of retirement age are worried about the economy and afraid to leave their employers, although may of the workers who said they are not ready to retire cited additional reasons. Seventy-one percent said they enjoy their jobs and don’t want to leave them. Other reasons for continuing to work included the continued need for health insurance and other employer benefits (50%); the fear that retirement may be boring (24%); and the desire to feel needed (15%).

There’s some good news, too

According to the survey many employers are happy to keep experienced retirement-age workers onboard. Twenty-seven percent of hiring managers surveyed reported that they been approached by workers within the last year about continuing their employment beyond retirement age and were amenable to retaining them.

Put off retirement, don’t put off talking about it

Jason Ferrara, senior career adviser at CareerBuilder, advises retirement-age employees who do not wish to retire to speak up. Experienced and mature workers have much to offers employers in the way of intellectual and training abilities. “The key,” Ferrara says, “is to let your employer know sooner [rather] than later that you would like to put off your plans to leave.”

A TV show with "a large set of stone stairs" for a plot can be highly forgettable

I’m not going to try to answer that question, but I’d like to know why no one at all cares about the old 227 TV show. I’ve never heard of it, of course, but in a larger sense, neither have a lot of other people. Being a strict empiricist, I didn’t glean this information from random internet sources; I asked around in the real world.

Researching the issue

In the course of my research, I interviewed two diverse groups of people about the old 227 show, which aired on NBC for five long years from 1985 to 1990. The gal who sits on my left here at the office has never heard of it. From this, I infer that she has never seen it. The guy who sits directly in front of me hates it. From this, I infer that he has seen it once. I then verified my empirical data with self-reflection and concluded that no one at all cares about 227.

Framing the question

Why is 227 a spicy Google trend today if no one cares about it? By spicy, I mean that 227 is getting more attention right now than payday cash, and payday cash is something everyone cares about. I have a theory.

Identifying the usual suspect

Lately, the Today Show has been hosting reunions for cast members of old TV shows. By itself, that circumstance may not seem suspicious, but things have been going awry on the Today Show. I began to suspect that the Today Show was up to no good when I discovered that on March 1, Evan Rich’s entire TV family of eight children and two parents appeared on the the morning news and talk show without him.

That fact alone would have confirmed my hazy suspicions about the Today Show, but the very next day, matters became even more suspicious, if no less hazy.  On March 2, the cast of a highly untalented musical TV family appeared on the Today Show without Susan Dey. How could this be anything but suspicious, given that Susan Dey had such amazing clothes and hair in the 1970s that even I remember her?

Drawing a reasonable inference

A reasonable person might say that one missing celebrity per Today Show episode is not such an incriminating circumstance. This morning, however, only five members of the 227 cast appeared on the Today Show. I did a little (as little as possible, naturally) online research and found photographs portraying as many as eight family members. Wikipedia – in my opinion frequently the best choice for the least unreliable online information – names 15 cast members. Imbd.com names 66. Choose your source; in every case, it’s more than five.

Jumping to conclusions

I’m not going to make any effort to sort this mess out. Instead, I’m going to jump straight to my conclusions about this most recent round of missing celebrities.

227 was a boring story even for TV

According to imdb.com, the plot of the 227 TV show was an “apartment building” where “the cast would frequently be found sitting outside on a large set of stone stairs.” When the plot is a noun, in this case an apartment building, a story cannot offer much in the way of action. According to realtvaddict.com, “one of the most interesting questions” asked about 227 this morning was “why the cast thought networks didn’t make shows like 227 anymore.”

I won’t argue about the overlooked fact that most of the 227 cast members weren’t present and had no opportunity to answer that question; and I won’t digress about the suspected cognitive workings of anything with a name like Real TV Addict. Instead, I’ll skip straight to this: According to realtvaddict.com this inquiry was “a thought-provoking question, indeed.”

The 227 cast members are old

According to usnewsdot.com, (which, by the way, is where I discovered that only five 227 cast members appeared on the Today Show this morning), “Oh my [the cast members] have changed a lot.” So there’s that to consider.

Sit coms are a dime a dozen

Another conclusion to be drawn is that, according to various online experts, 227 was and may still be a situation comedy. Wikipedia says that a situation comedy consists of recurring characters in a common environment. The laugh tracks and studio audiences trained to laugh on cue which define this narrative TV form make it entirely possible that 227 was both very, very funny and very, very forgettable.

Awards, yes; quick payday, no

In all fairness, I should mention that, missing or not, a few members of the 227 cast won or were nominated for certain self-congratulatory awards that Hollywood types covet almost as much as instant money. Regina King was nominated for Best Young Actress Starring in a New Television Series in 1986 and for Exceptional Performance by a Young Actress in a Long Running Series Comedy or Drama in 1987. Jackée Harry won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1987 and was nominated for the same award 1988. None of the awards came with extra cash.

In many rural districts the USPS is still the most reliable connection to the larger world

In an effort to curb anticipated shortfalls, the U.S. Postal Service may discontinue Saturday delivery service, cut down on overtime, raise postal rates, and layoff about 30,000 of its 596,000 employees. According to a new article on Reuters.com, USPS chief financial officer Joseph Corbet made that announcement just hours ago.

The recent proliferation of private delivery companies and the surging popularity of electronic communications are expected to reduce the volume of first class mail in 2010 by 10 billion pieces. By 2020, mail volume is expected to drop by 37 percent, leaving the UPSP with a potential revenue shortfall of $238 billion by that time. No level of debt management would make so much as a dent in a shortfall like that.

Losses, losses, and more losses

The postal service has been reporting net losses since 2007. Last month it reported a loss of $297 million for the first quarter of its fiscal year. The competition created by FedEx and United Parcel Service, along with the increasing number of grocery stores and other retail establishments that now sell postage stamps and mail-related services, could soon cause post-office buildings to start boarding up.

Retiree health benefits

To make matters worse, according to the Reuter’s article, the Postal Service has warned that it may be unable to make cash payments of $6.6 billion this coming fall required to cover workers’ compensation liabilities and to fund retiree health plans. Similar payments were restructured by Congress last year, but there are no assurances that the same legislative leniency will be forthcoming this year.

PRC chair Ruth Y. Goldway

Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) chair Ruth Y. Goldway does not favor discontinuing Saturday mail service. According to a recent post on CBSnews.com, Goldway believes that cutting Saturday delivery would threaten the monopoly status of the postal service and undermine “the vitality of the mail system.”

Postmaster General John E. Potter

Possibly as a strategy to obtain other concessions, Postmaster General John E. Potter is pushing to eliminate Saturday service. CBSnews.com suggests that Potter may believe Congress and the PRC are more likely to relieve the USPS from its government-mandated obligations to provide health benefits for retirees rather than agree to a reduction in service days.

Postal customers

One thing is virtually certain: There will be another round of postage rate increases. Legal loopholes allow the USPS to make greater-than-inflation increases in extraordinary situations. The current situation probably qualifies as extraordinary by almost anyone’s definition. When you think about your own bottom line, remember that U.S. postal rates are significantly lower than those in most other places around the world.  By the same token, if you’ll be making any bulk mailings in the near future, the anticipated price hike is one more good reason to keep same day cash loans in mind.

Susan Dey never got to be on Gilligan's Island, and this isn't the real Gilligan's cast, anyway. (Photo from flickr.com)

Just yesterday, I wrote a fascinating article about some guy of uncertain age who had gone missing.  His name is uncertain now, too, but I recall that he was reported to be the youngest member in an entire family of eight children and two parents, an uncaring bunch of celebrity people who appeared without him on the Today Show.

I’m almost certain I mentioned in yesterday’s article about celebrity disappearances that the story was much hotter than a lot of other topics, including things like tax debt and installment loans.  If I didn’t, I should have, and I meant to.

Next in a series of missing celebrities

I was on the reporting edge of that first celebrity crisis without having ever seen or heard of the missing person in question. And here I am again, reporting that Susan Dey has also gone missing from the Today Show. This time I can speak from personal experience, without my usual in-depth online research, because I do, in fact, remember this Susan Dey.

There’s a pattern here

Then again, a little online research may be in order because I am beginning to see a pattern here. These celebrities, I see now, both went missing under suspicious circumstances surrounding scheduled appearances on the Today Show. No doubt Wikipedia knows something about the Today Show, so I shall take a close look at that right now. Here we go, just as I suspected, according to Wikipedia: “Today (also referred to as The Today Show) is an American morning news and talk show airing every morning on NBC.”

Susan Dey was a real knockout

Turning now to Susan Dey’s disappearance — actually, let’s skip that and talk about her appearance. From 1970 to 1974 when the Partridge Family was broadcast on ABC, Susan Dey played the part of Laurie Partridge, and — so much more memorably — she was the most beautiful girl. Ever.

She had the most perfect clothes

She wore the most perfect clothes imaginable, except when her controlling mother Shirley Partridge (played by the controlling Shirley Jones who wouldn’t even concede to part with her own first name for purposes of the show) cowed her and the rest of her untalented family band into wearing those horrid maroon vests and big white blouses with billowy long sleeves. There were preppy striped sweaters, crisp plaid blouses, pleated mini-skirts, and sometimes — primarily when traveling in the family-band tour bus — a heavy, white, wool poncho edged with a desert-colored diamond pattern and thick, chunky, yarn fringe.

And the most amazing hair

If her clothes were perfect — and believe me, they were — her hair was nothing short of amazing. Neither too thick nor too thin. A medium brunette, neither too dark nor too light. Cut just above mid-back; neither too short nor too long. Flowing in long smooth waves and splashing into a loosely layered flip; neither too straight nor too curly. She had nice eyes; legs, too. Susan Dey had it all.

She came from a substandard TV family

But I never liked her TV family and I hated her show. I did, however, like Gilligan’s Island, which aired from 1964 to 1967 and chronicled the comic adventures of seven ship-wrecked castaways on a previously uninhabited island. Susan Dey, I thought at the time and still do, should have been on Gilligan’s Island.

She should have hooked up with Bob Denver when she had the chance

That way, the worthy Mary Ann could have had the handsome Professor for herself; that trashy movie star Ginger Grant could have been voted off the island altogether; and the matchless Susan Dey could have hooked up with Bob Denver who played Gilligan, the bumbling, accident-prone crewman of the S.S. Minnow.

She could have taken all her clothes and hair products with her

Susan Dey could have taken all her clothes and hair products with her to the island.  That trashy Ginger did.  So did Eunice “Lovey” Wentworth Howell. All this, however, is lost opportunity. Water under the bridge. Bob Denver is dead and Susan Dey, as I started to tell you, has gone missing.

I don’t know what happened to Susan Dey

As it turns out, I have no explanation for Susan Dey’s disappearance, so I Googled it and found this revelation in an article on entertainmentandshowbiz.com: “There have been no updates why she didn’t appeared in the show but accourding to our sources viewers really enjoyed today’s feature as got to meet their favorites from the past.”

I’m not just a grammar snob

If you’ve read my news article covering the controversy about the guy who went missing from the Today Show yesterday, you’ve probably already jumped to the conclusion that I quoted that article just so I could say that entertainmentandshowbiz.com needs an editor. I did not; I am not that superficial.

Not only am I even more superficial than that

I quoted that article to show you that there is an important reason why the internet illiterocracy writes the way it does. Internet writers covering major news events like the unexplained disappearance of Susan Dey have important time constraints.  Important, because if these writers didn’t get their work done in a hurry, I wouldn’t be able to rehash their stories in my more leisurely, not to mention more grammatically proficient, manner.

I haven’t watched TV since before the Partridge Family went off the air

If internet writers didn’t get their work done quickly — and, necessarily, so very ungrammatically — I’d actually have to work to get the story.  By that,  of course, I mean I’d have to watch TV.  And I wouldn’t want to have to do that.

Best overall vehicle

Despite Toyota’s recent recall disasters, the influential magazine has named the Toyota Lexus 460L best overall vehicle. With gas mileage of 24 on the highway and 16 in the city, the full-size luxury sedan scored 99 on Consumer Report’s 100-point scale. The $70,925 price tag means that you’ll probably need a loan to buy one of these cars, even if you have plenty of cash now for a down payment.

Best family sedan

Top honors in the family sedan category went to the Nissan Altima which may be good news if your payday cash doesn’t always flow like wine . The Altima carries a manageable price tag, somewhere in the range of $19,900 $29,600, and gets reasonable gas mileage, too (32 hwy, 23 city).

Best small sedan

The Hyundai Elantra SE took the award for best small sedan. Priced at a mere $17,845 that plenty of people could finance with just a small loan, the Elantra gets decent gas mileage (34 hwy, 26 city) and comes equipped with electronic stability control, a proven life-saving feature not available on many other small cars.

Best sporty car

The Volkswagen GTI, a turbocharged version of the VW Golf hatchback was named best sporty car. Without completely sacrificing gas mileage (31 Hwy, 21 City) and without a price so high that you need your own personal money lender ($23,465-$24,070), the four-cylinder engine offers 200-horsepower and performance –oriented suspension.

Best small SUV

The Subaru Forester came out on top in this category, with fairly impressive fuel economy (27 hwy, 20 city) and a moderate price range of $20,295 – $28,495. Consumer Reports temporarily suspended its recommendation for the Toyota Rav4 as its top choice in this category following the manufacturer’s recall and stop-sale order, but it’s back now and affordable with the help of a good loan company.

Best family SUV

With its roomy interior, easy ride and responsive handling, the Chevrolet Traverse took the prize for best family SUV. With a fairly steep price range of $29,224 to $39,985, the Traverse offers less-than-optimum gas mileage (24 hwy, 17 city) and may not be the best automobile choice for if you already need money now.

Best green car

Not surprisingly, for the seventh year in a row the Toyota Prius took the prize in the green car category. The price of the new redesigned version remains reasonable $21,400 – $28,070 and at 48 hwy, 51 city its gas mileage is hard to beat. Described by the magazine as safe, reliable, and easy to handle, sales of the Prius were not interrupted by the recent recall, allowing it to remain on the Consumer Reports top-10 list.  It shouldn’t take credit counseling to figure out that this car makes good financial sense.

Best sports sedan

The Nissan Infiniti G took the title in the sports sedan category the fourth year in a row. Priced between $33,250 and $40,400, the Infiniti G offers agility and luxury with plenty of power and gas mileage of 27 hwy/19 city.  Not a bad choice, especially if you qualify for low interest loans.

Best family hauler

Yes, “family hauler” really is the name given to this category, and the winner is a microvan, the Mazda5. With gas mileage of 28 on the highway and 22 in the city, this small and maneuverable family hauler (I just really like saying that again) is economically priced between $17,995 and $23,005.  If you’re already a candidate for cheap payday loans and need to buy a car, this is a model to consider.

Best pickup

Stripped down at $20,850 or souped up at $41,775 20, the Chevrolet Silverado offers the fuel inefficiency typical of even less worthy pickups (20 hwy, 15 city), plus optional interior comforts and a measure of dependability. If you’re in the market for a pickup but find yourself short of cash today, a basic version of the Silverado may be just the ticket to debt survival.

Photo: Flickr via blvesboy

According to a new USA Today report, President Obama still smokes. Having just had his first physical exam since taking office, the media and internet are buzzing with the news that the president’s physician has advised him to “continue smoking cessation efforts.” That he’s still smoking despite his efforts to quit is to be expected. Quitting smoking isn’t easy, and it can be expensive.  Plenty of people borrow money or use credit cards to do it.  Few are able to quit cold turkey.

Smoking is ugly

I’m not just a non-smoker, I am the most intolerant kind of anti-smoker. The photos of the president smoking are indeed ugly. I’d like never to see another one; but on the other hand,  I say, “So what?” The president’s physician has advised him to quit smoking. Who cares? For myself, I’d be happy enough to have him smoke so long as I never had to see another photograph of him caught in the act.

Smoking is suicidal

An article posted today on NewYorkDailyNews.com rehashes all the same old facts about smoking. Twenty-one percent of the American population smokes. This year, 450,000 Americans will die from cigarette smoking. More people die every year from cigarette smoking than from all other kinds of drug use combined. Smoking increases the risk of nearly every kind of cancer. Nicotine is more addictive than street drugs. Only 20% of smokers try to quit. Of those who try, only 2% to 3% are successful. Most smokers quit briefly and then go back to smoking. Yada, yada, yada.

For someone campaigning about health care, smoking is hypocritical

Sure, on every level, smoking is a disgusting and expensive habit. That our president smokes cigarettes is of course, hypocritical as well as embarrassing. What needles me, however, is that in the USA Today article, President Obama is reported to have said that he doesn’t smoke in front of his kids and family. What?  Should I be thanking him for that?  I have no idea about whether it would be possible for the president to smoke in private, away from all possibility of intrusion by the media. I don’t know enough about the office of the president to know why we need to know the details about President Obama’s routine medical examinations. But if he manages not to smoke in front of his family, isn’t there some way that he could keep it out of my face, too?

According to my research on Google Images, Bill, Tom, Adam, Rich, and Dan are hot. (Photo by flickr.com)

Adam Rich is a hot topic today, although like so many hot topics, he may not seem very hot at first glance.  When I say that Adam Rich is hot, all I mean is that at this very moment, according to Google Trends, he’s hotter than car loans, hotter than short term loans, and hotter, even, than debt consolidation.

I just read an informative article on the Review St Louis website, which is why I now know that long, long ago Adam Rich was a child actor on a TV show called “Eight is Enought.” Review St Louis may need an editor — take a look for yourself — but at least the article includes a photo of the TV family, which is more than I can say for my own article.

The same things that make every child actor hot

The photo shown here is what came up when I Googled images for “Adam Rich.”  From left to right we have Bill, Tom, Adam, Rich, and Dan.  These guys are all pretty hot — although that seems to beg the question of why a former child actor named Adam Rich is so much hotter than, say, quick loans.   

In the happy family portrait on Review St Louis, Adam Rich appears to be about six years old. He’s a small boy with a big smile and a huge mop of thick, straight hair cut in the shape of a Russian fox-fur hat with the ear flaps extended. Judging from the order of the names listed in the Review St Louis article, Adam Rich played the youngest of eight children on the show.

An ill-advised hairdo is irrelevant to a child star’s hotness

The fact that the show aired from 1977 to 1981 may explain the bowl cut, but once again it doesn’t explain why Adam Rich is so hot today. Getting directly to the point now, my independent online research revealed four possible explanations for Adam Rich’s hotness.  In ascending, descending, or random order of importance — depending on your point of view — they are:

1. He failed to appear on the Today Show this morning
2. He has a history of substance abuse
3. He has a criminal history
4. He is the author of a daily email blast targeted at young men

According to the Review St Louis, the “entire cast” of Eight is Enought appeared on the Today Show this morning, but Adam Rich did not.  It seems incongruous to me, but I suppose it’s possible that a TV family could be entire without one of its members if that member has been busy abusing substances and committing crimes, if he targets young men with email blasts, or if he fails to appear on an American morning news and talk show.

Age is irrelevant to a child star’s hotness

According to an online Wall Street Journal article published three days ago, Adam Rich is now 29 years old, which means that he was about zero years old when Eight is Enought went off the air in 1981. This may explain why the entire cast appeared on the Today Show without its youngest member. Wikipedia, on the other hand, says Adam Rich was born in 1968, which would make him 41 years old now. If this is true, Adam Rich was about 13 and much too old for a bowl cut when the show ended in 1981.  Of course, it’s possible that the family photo was taken in 1977 when Adam Rich was only eight or nine years old.  Still, even in the late seventies, a zero-year-old would have been too old for a haircut like that.

Regardless of his current age, Adam Rich’s history of substance abuse and criminal activity is long enough that it can safely be said he is now an adult. As an adult he is qualified, if not uniquely so, to counsel young men about marriage and relationships. Not surprisingly, therefore, the 29-year-old Adam Rich writes a daily email blast called Thrillist where, according to the Wall Street Journal, he writes things like this: “This whole set of cliché indicators—call a girl to ask her out for drinks, then later a dinner date—are becoming less the dating norm. What if he Facebook messages her to meet at a wine bar where they share small plates? Where does that put them on the roadmap to the altar?” I grant that this 29-year-old Adam Rich may a sage adult; my point is simply that he needs an editor.

It’s possible that there are two Adam Riches, both of whom are hot

Of course, it’s possible that the 29-year-old writer Adam Rich may not be the same person as the 41-year-old former actor Adam Rich who sported the over-sized bowl cut sometime between 1977 and 1981.  Who can say, then, whether the cast appearing on the Today Show was entire without Adam Rich?  A TV family might very well be entire without a 41-year-old substance-abusing criminal, but it might not be entire without a 29-year-old writer whose only transgressions have been the publication of awkwardly worded email blasts featuring such minor grammatical blunders as noun-verb disagreements. Having glanced at two boring articles and one short Wikipedia entry, I am met with the ineluctable conclusion that there may or may not be two Adam Riches out there, both of whom are very hot today.

Modern Japanese buildings are built to withstand earthquakes

A tsunami warning was issued today following a powerful undersea earthquake off the coast of Okinawa, the southern-most island of Japan.  The tremor was centered about 50 miles east of Naha approximately18 miles below the seabed.

Various sources have reported that the earthquake measured anywhere from 6.9 to 7.3 on the Richter scale.  The Japanese Meteorological Agency reported the quake at 6.9, while the US Geological Survey reported it at 7.3.  CNN has updated its report to say that the quake measured 7.0 rather than 7.3.

In the aftershock, Japanese officials predicted tsunami waves of up to seven feet around the Okinawa coast and ordered beach evacuations.  According to some sources, the tsunami warning has now been lifted and waves are expected to remain under two feet.

Only minor damage reported so far

So far there have been no reports of injuries and only minor damage reports.  At this point, I am compelled to mention that despite how highly convenient and widely available they are, a no fax cash advance would do little to help matters in Okinawa.  Even if the damage is relatively minor, a payday cash advance with a $1500 maximum simply would not go the distance.

An earthquake-prone country

That said, Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world.  About 20 percent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater occur near or in Japan. Recent quakes include a 7.3 quake in 1995 that hit the city of Kobe killing 6,400 people and a 6.8 quake in 2004 that shook the region of Niigata in northern Japan, injuring 3,000 people and killing 65.  Compared to the situation in Haiti, of course, modern Japanese buildings are designed to withstand earthquakes, but even so a 7.0 earthquake is a major tremor and aftershocks may still pose threats of injury and damage.

"What did you get?" (Gil Brandt photo courtesy of wikimedia.org)

If this doesn’t beat all! I’m going to write about the NFL Combine. I can spell it — C O M B I N E — but I’m not sure whether, in this particular case, combine is pronounced like the transitive verb used to describe the bringing of individual characters into such close relationship as to obscure them, or the noun meaning a harvesting machine that heads, threshes, and cleans grain while moving over a field. Luckily I’m writing, not speaking, so pronunciation isn’t a big deal.

Sports are about teamwork, right?

I had to mention the pronunciation issue, however, because I need material and I don’t know anything at all about sports. I know about online loans and of course I  know about no fax payday loans.  Fortunately, my colleague here at the office knows all about the wider world that encompasses sports for spectators. I’ll just chat him up right now and let him do the work for me.

Deborah: I’m writing about the NFL Combine.
Sent at 11:31 AM on Friday

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: Have fun. Less-than-athletic team officials sit around with stopwatches, timing guys in the 40-yard dash. A 4.4 40 is considered good, etc. etc.

Deborah: Oh, that’s really all I need to know. In fact, may I simply quote you?

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: Certainly.

Deborah: Don’t put it past me, colleague.
Sent at 11:33 AM on Friday

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: 4.41 is slow.
4.40 is good.

Deborah: Good. Good is good.

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: It’s very precise stuff.

Deborah: To be precise.

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: Actually, it isn’t.
It isn’t.

Deborah: It isn’t precise?

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: A group of guys says “Go,” and each guy has his own stopwatch. There is no official time.

Deborah: Oh. Not precise then.
Well, thank you.

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: “What did you get?”

Deborah: What did I get? I got nothing. Did you get something?

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: No, in the Combine the officials ask each other for a player’s time.

Deborah: Oh, the officials ask each other.

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: It’s very precise, and it’s very important! Important!
Are you getting this?

Deborah: What? Oh yes. Thank you so much.
I’m about to copy and paste.
What name would you like me to use for you?

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: There’s jumping, lifting, and catching, too, I guess.

Deborah: Yes, but a name for you, please.

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: Ricky Ricardo

Deborah: Okay, Ricky.

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: Combine Expert R. Ricardo
Sent at 11:35 AM on Friday

Deborah: Make up your mind. In a word, be precise! You should have told me that in the first place. Now I have to go back and edit again to protect your privacy.
Sent at 11:37 AM on Friday

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: It’s very important to note that the NFL Combine isn’t attended by all of the top players. Mostly it’s guys who have athletic talent but not necessarily football skills. Someone who can run fast in a straight line may not be able to change direction and make catches or tackles at NFL caliber.

Deborah: That’s much more information than I need. No one cares about that.

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: Prospective draftees who show up are looking to increase their stock by showing off.
Oh, okay then.
Sent at 11:41 AM on Friday

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: I will watch football, but the way the media covers football angers me. It’s nearly time for baseball to start. I don’t give a frosty crank about your combines and drafts. Get out of the way so I can hear some baseball coverage.

Deborah: A frosty crank.

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: Yes.

Deborah: And I may quote you directly?

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: Please!

Deborah: Mr. Ricardo, do you have any advice for sports fans who may need military loans?

Expert R. Ricardo: Don’t join the military if you’re about to get married or if you have young children. Oh wait, all kinds of people do that anyway.

Deborah: Please, be serious.
Where can sports fans get military loans when they need them?

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: Well, military loans are a good enough reason to join the military as far as I’m concerned. Sure, you may go to the Middle East, but when you get back, you can get a military loan to make a down payment on a gas-guzzling car.

Deborah: I’m getting confused.

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: The football season is OVER until fall.

Deborah: Enough. You have to stop now.

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: ok

Deborah: Thank you. I can take it from here.

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: You’re welcome.

Deborah: Question, Mr. Ricardo: You said “Prospective draftees who show up are looking to increase their stock by showing off.”
What does that mean? Be precise.

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: If they turn in good run times, lift lots of weight, and jump really high, they might be able to get team officials to forget that they may not be the best football players available.

Deborah: Oh! I failed to understand that. Was stock the best word choice then?
Sent at 11:57 AM on Friday

Combine Expert R. Ricardo: Yes, draft stock. I was listening to ESPN radio recently. The host was talking about encouraging team coaches NOT to attend the Combine because they “fall in love” with what a guy looks like, thinking that will translate into football excellence.

Deborah: You digress. I’m bored. Thank you, thank you, we are complete.

Reviewing what I’ve learned

In summary, according to WVSports.com, the NFL Combine is all in the hips.  According to Mr. Ricardo, the NFL Combine sounds more like a harvesting machine.  I could ask him for clarification on this technical matter, but honestly, does anyone care?

That's Kristen, on the right. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.org)

I’ve never heard of her, but life is filled with irony and serendipity. And so, as unlikely as it may seem, I’m going to tell you the true story about Kristen Stewart. Serendipitously or not, you just Googled Kristin Stewart’s name and stumbled upon this story. Naturally, I get paid to draw your attention to this site where you can apply for a cash loan when you need a little fast cash to tide you over until next your next pay day. Personal loans are what I’m all about. But you haven’t asked me, yet, about a personal loan; you’ve asked about this Kristen Stewart. So let’s turn to that story first.

Oh, she’s a girl

First of all, Kristen is a girl. She’s an actress, maybe. A Hollywood type, I think. Wait, she may be a singer; I’m not sure. More to the point: She seems to prefer dark, smoky eye makeup when her hair is overly saturated with dark pigment. It’s not a particularly flattering look. Sometimes her hair is blonde, and at those times, she tends toward lighter eye makeup. She looks better that way.  She may once have been kind of cute, when she was even younger than she is now. Recently, she’s started looking, well, let’s just go with “less cute.” She appears to be about 27, if a little worn around the edges, but I’ll take a minute here to confirm her age with a more knowledgeable source. Hold on.

Who’s almost 30

Wikipedia is reliable, I think. Kristen . . .  what was her last name again? Oh, yes, Stewart. She was born, Wikipedia says, on April 9, 1990. That makes her almost 30. So, yes, she’s looking good, agreed? Look at all those nines! According to ChaCha.com, “the number 9 is associated with tolerance, generosity, forgiveness, creative energy, success, and a deep love of life. ChaCha!” ChaCha.com is a numerology website – whatever that may mean. It’s a place where you can find advertisements for weight loss and other breaking news. ChaCha.com is “ur mobile BFF.” I think I may know what that means, but in any event, I did not make it up. Look for yourself: ChaCha.com.

And there’s a boy

Another thing about Kristen Stewart is that she has something to do with this Robert Pattinson. They may be dating. Hold on again. Sorry. I’ll look up Robert Pattinson in Wikipedia. Oh yes. There he is. He’s not that good looking. He’s not good looking at all, actually, although he may only need a bath. Oh, sure, yes, he’s a polymath with little time for matters of hygiene. Actor, musician, and something else — what was it? Hold on again. Oh, a model. So it turns out he must be good looking.  That’s an unexpected denouement, but that’s to be expected in a true story.

Who was a model and now has a driver’s license

Anyway, oh, there’s a photo of him in Wikipedia where he’s kind of cleaned up a little, at a movie premiere. Still, he’s just not that good looking. It says here in Wikipedia that he began “modelling” (and I don’t mean “modeling”) when he was twelve years old. Four years later, at the tender age of 16, he became too masculine for modelling and so he went off to get his driver’s license and do something else. Now he’s 23. That’s an incredible story in some respects, but it’s true. Except for the part about the driver’s license — and we can just assume that’s true — I lifted the facts right out of Wikipedia.

And together they date, hold hands, kiss, and break up

After manliness got in the way of his modelling, Robert Pattinson met up with Kristen Stewart. They’re a hot topic. Oh, he’s English. I wonder if that has anything to do with it. I just did something clever. I just typed “Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart” in my Google search bar. I didn’t bother running the search because I didn’t have to.  The choices in the drop-down gave me a Cliffs Notes version of the much longer, unabridged story.  Here it is: dating, holding hands, engaged, married, kissing, wedding, dating in real life, break up, photo shoot, together.

The end

That’s a good story, but I’m quite done now. Except, of course, to remind you to click here for auto loans and here for an online cash advance.

It’s time to file tax returns and as part of the stimulus bill the IRS is offering some new credits that could save you big money. Naturally, you the taxpayer are supposed to do your part for the “greater good” — not just of the United States but of all mankind — by spending the tax dollars you “save” out there in “our struggling economy” on “consumer goods” you don’t really need.

Or not

If, however, you’re sick and tired of that propaganda, perhaps you can simply use the money for day-to-day living expenses. Perhaps, if you qualify for a couple of these credits, you’ll be spared having to take out more secured loans or unsecured loans for quick cash just to tide you over between paychecks.

Five new tax credits

In either event, here’s the line-up: five money-savers to keep in mind when you file for 2009.

Homebuyer credits. Deadlines for home-buyer credits have been extended to include homes purchased by April 30, 2010. Qualified first-time home buyers can claim credits of up to $8,000 and repeat buyers who have lived in their present homes for at least five years can claim credits of up to $6,500. Income limits for the homebuyer credits have been raised. If your modified adjusted gross income is $125,000 or less, you may be eligible for the full amount of the credit. If your income is between $125,000 and $145,000 you may qualify for some reduced portion of the credit. Even if you’ve already filed your 2009 return, if you close on a house by April 30, you can amend it to claim the credit.

American Opportunity Credit. To lighten the burden of skyrocketing tuition costs, the IRS is offering a credit for college tuition, text books, computers and other educational expenses. The credit, which temporarily replaces the Hope Credit, can be claimed for the tax year 2009 or 2010 whether or not you owe taxes. Taxpayers with incomes of $80,000 or less may qualify for a credit of up to $2,500 a year. The credit can now be claimed for four years of post-secondary schooling, not just two.

Residential Energy Property Credit. This credit is designed to motivate homeowners to make energy-saving upgrades. The credit was originally supposed to expire in 2007, but has been extended through 2010. Under the new law, taxpayers can claim up to 30% of certain home-improvement costs. The maximum credit for improvements made in 2009 and 2010 has been increased to $1,500. Improvements qualifying for the credit include insulation, energy-saving windows, and high-efficiency heating and air-conditioning systems.

Making Work Pay Credit. This credit provides up to $400 for single persons with incomes of $75,000 or less, and up to $800 for joint filers with combined incomes of $150,000 or less. Most people will have already received the credit in their wages because of adjustments to their income-tax withholdings, but they still need to claim the credit in order not to end up owing the money back.

Vehicle Credits. On your 2009 return, you can deduct state and local taxes paid on new vehicles purchased between Feb. 17 and December 31, 2009. Qualifying vehicles include passenger automobiles, motorcycles, motor homes, and trucks weighing less than 8,500 pounds. The deduction is available for taxes and fees paid on a purchase price of up to $49,500. If you bought a car that time frame under the Cash for Clunkers program, you stand to save again with a vehicle credit.

In an effort to encourage car buyers to conserve energy, the IRS is also offering a new credit of up to $7,500 for certain electric plug-in vehicles purchased after Dec. 31, 2009. And don’t forget the other tax credit for buying hybrid and other low-emissions vehicles that has been offered since 2005.

Last week, new unemployment claims increased for the second week in a row, reaching their highest point since November 2009.  At the same time, shipments and new orders of durable goods were weak as the economy continued to struggle toward recovery. For people without jobs — especially those who weren’t able to make ends meet and had been relying on unsecured loans and pay day loans to get by even while  employed — this is nothing but more of the same old bad news.  Not that the typical laid-off worker struggling to put food on the table would really care, but this most recent unexpected spike in unemployment claims has had a discouraging effect on US stock markets.

The biggest increase in more than three months

According to a new Los Angeles Times online article, new orders for manufactured durable goods, not including transportation equipment, slipped again in January, this time by 0.6%, after having increased by 2% in December 2009. At the same time, the Labor Department reported that the overall number of workers filing claims for unemployment benefits increased by 22,000 last week, to 496,000, up from 474,000 the previous week and the highest level in more than three months.

California gains, Kentucky loses

The bad news wasn’t uniformly distributed across the nation, however. California, for example, had a significant decrease in its number of unemployment claims. California unemployment claims were down by with 5,540 at the end of last week, a reduction attributed to fewer layoffs in the service industry. Claims filed by Kentucky workers, on the other hand, jumped by 2,510, due in large part to a new round of layoffs in auto and manufacturing industries.

Those statistics are people

When it comes to unemployment, numbers and statistics are everywhere, but they carry no particular meaning for the people who are those numbers and statistics. Workers aren’t just being laid off for the proverbial lack of work. Workers are being laid off in more insulting ways.  A good example is the abusive employers that lay off workers only to hire other, more desperate unemployed workers to do the same work, if not more of it, for less pay.

Perpetuating the problem

In their tunnel vision and dogged determination to save a dollar today, these employers cannot see that by replacing existing workers and with new workers who have been so desperate for so long that they’ll work for much less pay, they are perpetuating  spiraling unemployment costs, and those costs are borne largely by none other than the employers themselves.

A killer whale by any other name would still be a killer whale — a 12,000-pound apex predator found in all oceans of the world.  It’s interesting that we would name an animal a “killer whale” yet when the beast does exactly what the name suggests it will, the story is a tragedy of international proportions.

The lofty purpose of education

I leave open the possibility that there may be, as SeaWorld officials and other proponents of wild-animal captivity claim, an educational purpose in the confinement of a killer whale.  Education, is not, however, such a compelling proposition that I would take it any further than an acknowledgment.  If we can’t learn that a killer whale kills, exactly what are we to glean from its captivity?  Perhaps one day our collective education will lead us to leave the thing alone.

A name like “Tilikum”

As demeaning to the dignity of a whale as I find a pet name like “Tilikum,” for purposes of this writing I shall stoop to using it.  According to various reports, Tilikum, an involuntary resident at SeaWorld Orlando, has now killed three or four human beings, most recently a 40-year-old veteran animal trainer named Dawn Brancheau.  Wild killer whales are not considered a threat to humans, although inmates confined to marine theme parks are opportunistic enough to specialize in attacking handlers.

Continuing education

SeaWorld officials have said retribution will not be exacted from Tilikum and he will continue to live in captivity.  For our continued education, no doubt.  Whether or not we ever learn anything more from the killer whale, we will, no doubt learn this same lesson again: A killer whale by any other name would still be a killer whale.

Conservation

I grant, in some pathetic sense, that Tilikum’s reprieve from punishment serves the grander purpose to be achieved by our education about killer whales – that of conservation.  Tilikum is one lucky killer whale.  He will be conserved.  Tourists and SeaWorld visitors will continue to be amused.  Animal trainers and less daring zoo employees will have a little more job security.  And all shall be conserved at SeaWorld.



A light turns on for alternative energy

Bloom Energy has launched a new energy server with patented solid-oxide fuel-cell technology that can generate 100 kW, enough to power one small office building or 100 average U.S. homes. The Bloom Energy Server makes it possible to generate electricity locally, rather than purchasing it from a utility company.

The company says a server costs from $700,000 to $800,000, not including fuel, and that it will generate electricity for eight to nine cents per kilowatt hour. Proponents hope that the servers will someday provide clean, reliable, and affordable energy around the world. To date, A-list customers include Google, eBay, FedEx, Coca-Cola, Cox Enterprises and Wal-Mart.

Not for everyone . . . yet

In a NewsFactor.com article, Bloom Energy CEO Dr KR Sridhar said the company is “dedicated to making clean, reliable energy affordable for everyone in the world.” Right now, however,  it would take much more than a payday loan – more, even, than the combined amount of the maximum number of payday loans allowed by law — to get your hands on a Bloom Energy Server. The much-hyped launch of the energy server probably was not attended by many everyday people in need of a cash advance, but high-profile types like California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and venture capitalist John Doerr were there.

One hundred percent cleaner than traditional methods

According to the NewsFactor.com article, the Bloom Energy Server contains thousands of ceramic fuel cells that generate electricity using an electrochemical process rather than the traditional combustion method. When the Bloom Energy Server cells are powered by biogas or some other renewable fuel source, the electrical generation process is 100 percent cleaner than traditional coal-fired electrical generation. When powered with fossil fuels, the Bloom Energy Server is about 67 percent cleaner than traditional methods.

There are as many reasons to get an online cash advance as there are people who need cash. One of the great things about getting any kind of payday loan — even a bad credit installment loan — is that you’re completely free to decide how to use it.

One person might want to take advantage of a short-lived discount at REI – how does saving over $200 on the Novara Randonee Touring Bike with 27 speeds, lightweight Mavic A319S rims, and double-butted chromoly frame sound to you? The next person might need a plane ticket. The next person might want to send mom a birthday gift on time this time, and the next person might need to pad a bank balance to cover a payment to the electric company. When it comes to money, different people have different wants and different needs.

Who decides how you use an online cash advance?

Any time the subject of lifestyle choices or standards of living comes up, there’s plenty of room for argument, but this much is clear: Reasonable people will agree that reasonable people should make those choices or set those standards for themselves. If you’d consider getting an online cash advance to save a bunch of money on an epic cycling adventure — but you’d just as soon send your mother’s birthday gift a few days late, again – you are uniquely qualified to decide for yourself that hitting the REI sale before it ends justifies getting an online cash advance.

If, on the other hand, you’re the one who just sent that check to the electric company and payday is still a week away, you’re cutting it dangerously close and you should definitely get an online cash advance! If you apply today, your chances of keeping the electricity on and your bank account balance in the black are both very good.

How easy is it to get an online cash advance?

When you need money in a hurry, it’s fast and hassle-free to get an online cash advance. Consider these benefits:

No credit check

No faxing

No phone calls

No driving

No waiting in line

Complete privacy

Cash in as little as two hours

Online cash advances of up to $1500 are available. Online convenience means no waiting or wondering — you’ll know right away whether you’re approved for a loan. Funds are deposited directly to your bank account and are immediately available for use.

How easy is it to pay back an online cash advance?

A regular online cash advance is paid back in one automatic deduction from your bank account on your next payday. Installment loans are paid back over a longer period of time in several smaller payments. Either way, when you’re short of funds until payday, an online cash advance can be a better budgeting tool than a credit card.

With an online cash advance you know exactly how much money you have, so you can’t accidentally overspend and there’s no surprise at the end of the month when the statement comes. Better yet, you know exactly when the debt will be paid off. Unlike a credit card account, you don’t wind up taking months or even years to pay it off.

Why not apply for an online cash advance right now?

Take just a minute to ask yourself whether you’ll be able to get by next payday after paying back an online cash advance. The one thing you don’t want is to put yourself in a situation where getting an online cash advance today will mean that you’ll need to borrow money again next payday. Short of doing that, your reasons for wanting or needing an online cash advance are yours alone. (The rigid opinionist in me, however, can’t resist suggesting that you should send that birthday gift on time, every single time.)

Apply for an online cash advance here!

An online cash advance can get you back on track quickly

Money causes so many problems, especially when you don’t have enough of it. When you’re counting every dollar until next payday, any unexpected expense can wreak havoc on your budget. Something as simple as an unusually high utility bill or a minor car repair can be a huge problem when you’re short of cash.

No matter what kind of lifestyle you have or how much of money you earn, an online cash advance is a quick and easy solution when you need cash.

• No credit check
• No need to fax documents
• No need to drive anywhere
• Convenient, secure, online application process
• Instant response to your loan request
• Loans of up to $1500 available
• Funds deposited to your bank account in as little as two hours
• Installment loans for bad credit available
• No waiting, no wondering, no hassle

Avoid bigger problems with an online cash advance

When you start to fall behind on bill payments, late fees and penalties can really add up. One late fee on your mortgage or rent can be more than what you’d pay for an online cash advance. Bank and credit-card company fees are at all-time highs. If you’re scraping by until payday but your luck runs out, each bounced check can cost you as much as $42.

Why put yourself through that kind of stress when you can actually save money by getting an online cash advance and paying your bills on time? If you can still get by after paying back an online cash advance from your next paycheck, don’t wait for things to get worse. Apply for one today.

Protect your credit with an online cash advance

Credit scores are becoming more and more important. Your credit score isn’t just relevant to your ability to borrow money any more. Employers use them now to make decisions about hiring and promoting. Landlords use them to select tenants for apartments and houses. Insurance companies use them to determine how high your premiums will be.

If you have good credit now, protect it from derogatory marks by getting an online cash advance when you’re unable to pay your bills on time. If your credit score is already compromised, a loan for people with bad credit can keep it from getting worse. When you use an online cash advance to stay current on your bills, it can even help improve your credit.

Avoid over-spending with an online cash advance

When you live from paycheck to paycheck, it can be tempting to use credit cards when you’re short of cash. Credit cards are easy to use, there’s no arguing with that. But credit cards are expensive and they make it all too easy to overspend. When you charge more than you should on a credit card, it can take a surprisingly long time to pay it off.

Instead, use an online cash advance when you’re short of cash and you can’t overspend. With an online cash advance, you know exactly how much you can spend and exactly when the debt will be paid off. Compared to paying off a credit card, it’s easy to get an online cash advance, make a few adjustments to your budget, and pay the loan back on payday.

There are those who would say that getting a loan until payday is a desperate act; but in today’s economy, a desperate act is exactly what living from paycheck to paycheck is. Perhaps you know someone born with a silver spoon in his mouth who now works for a song. With an official unemployment rate in excess of 10 percent, people who once made decent livings are now working for chicken feed at low-paying jobs.

If you have a job today, you may be lucky; but chances are you’re not riding the gravy train. When payday is still a week away and you need money now, a quick cash advance can be what it takes to bring home the bacon. If your credit score has taken a hit in recent years, getting an installment loan for bad credit can make it seem like you’ve hit the jackpot.

When you’re down and out, a loan until payday rescues the bottom line

When you’re struggling to make ends meet, the smallest unexpected expense can cause enormous problems. A car that won’t start and that you can’t afford to fix may mean that you can’t get to work, when missing work is the last thing you can afford. When you need cash today, and you know that you can still get by on your next paycheck after paying back a cash advance, a loan until payday can feel like pay dirt.

• No credit check (bad credit, no credit, and bankruptcy are all okay)
• Nothing to fax (you don’t have to drive anywhere, either)
• Instant matching with the best loan (you don’t have to waste time searching)
• Short loan application (the whole process takes about five minutes)
• Funds deposited directly to your account (cash can be available in as little as two hours)
• Loans of up to $1500 available (and that includes installment loans for bad credit)

When you can’t make ends meet, a loan until payday keeps you in the black

Borrowing money costs money, but the price of a loan until payday can be much less than late fees on unpaid bills. When you’re short of money, late fees add up quickly, and every bill you can’t pay on time is one more good reason to get a loan until payday. When you get a loan until payday, you’ll know right up front what it’s going to cost and when it’s going to be paid off.

When you’re caught short,a loan until payday is cold hard cash

It can be tempting to use credit cards when you’re short of cash, but credit cards in your pocket make it feel like you have money to burn – when really, you don’t. When you’re having trouble making ends meet, credit cards can be dangerous: They’re expensive and easy to overuse. If you run up more debt that you can pay off when the statement comes, it can take a long time to get yourself back in the black.

When you’re strapped for cash, a loan until payday is worth every red cent

There’s nothing better than having the cash you need to take care of money problems today – except, of course, finally being able to get a good night’s sleep tonight. If a little extra cash today would mean putting your money worries behind you and getting back on your feet, why not apply right now?

Apply HERE for a Loan Until Payday!

Payday is two weeks away and you’re short of cash today, but her birthday is tomorrow. She’s your best friend and she’s turning 29. (Who cares how many times over?) You’re not one to rest on formalities and neither is she, so you could wait to get cash until payday and she’d understand. But who can say just how many more times she’ll turn 29?

Small cash loans make it possible to do good things right now. Why lessen the moment by making her wait?

Small Cash Loans are fast and easy to get

Instant response, no waiting or wondering

Nothing to fax, no need to drive anywhere

No credit check, bad credit, and no credit okay

Bankruptcy, repossession, and foreclosure okay

Installment loans for bad credit available

Loan amounts of up to $1500

Cash deposited directly to your bank account in as little as two hours

Easy payment by automatic deduction on payday

Small Cash Loans let you do the usual things, too

Maybe you need cash for something more mundane, like the rent or an electric bill. Small cash loans are a great way to avoid late fees, and when you’re up against deadlines, late fees add up quickly. When you know that you can get by on your next paycheck after paying back a cash advance, getting a small cash loan can be a better way to make ends meet than relying on a credit card.

Credit cards are just too easy to use – too easy to overuse—and too hard to pay off. And no, small cash loans don’t come for free, but credit-card fees are off the charts these days. With small cash loans, you know exactly how much you can spend and exactly when the debt will be paid off. There’s no chance of overspending on things you don’t need, and there are no surprises.

Slightly larger Small Cash Loans let you do it all

On the off chance that your rent isn’t paid and it’s her birthday tomorrow, remember that once a small cash loan is deposited to your account, the money is yours and it’s completely up to you how you spend it. So why not make the landlord and your best friend happy right on time?

Apply here for Small Cash Loans!

Everything hinges on money, or in my case,  the lack of money. Life is always easier the first few days after payday, before the dry stretch until the next payday sets in. Sometimes, with payday still almost two weeks away, I get so consumed worrying about what I’m going to pay or do first once I finally get my next paycheck, that it’s worth it to me to get a personal loan and be done with the issues.

When I’m preoccupied with how I’ll catch up once payday arrives, it’s hard just to function. It’s hard to get work done, hard to be a mom, and hard to enjoy being home. It’s hard to sleep and even harder to get out of bed.

Some things are worth more than the cost of an Instant Cash Loan

When my life gets like this, and I know that I can manage comfortably on my next paycheck after paying back a small personal loan, I apply for one. Once I know that extra cash is on its way to my bank account, I’m able to focus at work, enjoy life, and sleep at night. For me, keeping my cool until payday is worth more than the cost of an instant cash loan.

It’s easy to get an Instant Cash Loan online

Nothing to fax

No credit check

Bad credit, no credit, bankruptcy, and foreclosure okay

Installment loans for bad credit

Loans of up to $1500

One short application instantly finds the best loan

Funds deposited directly to your bank account

Paid back automatically on an agreed schedule

Quick, hassle-free loan-approval process

For me, an Instant Cash Loan is a better budgeting tool than a credit card

It’s not that I make a habit of getting instant cash loans, but a cash advance from time to time makes all the difference for me. Getting an instant cash loan to cover an unusual or unexpected expense is no different from using a credit card, but for me, it’s a better budgeting tool. With a cash advance, I’m not tempted to buy things I don’t really need and there’s no surprise at the end of the month when the statement comes, like there can be with a credit card.

Sometimes I really do balance the budget with an Instant Cash Loan

I live on a tight budget and obviously I can’t control when extra expenses come up. It’s not like I can tell my insurance carrier not to bill me now, but to wait until the third week of this month when I know I’ll have money left over after paying the mortgage and utility bills. So rather than worry about it, I borrow money now and pay the insurance on time. Then I pay the loan back with the extra cash I knew I’d have left over on payday.

Getting an instant cash loan is worth avoiding late fees or an interruption in my insurance coverage. Balancing the buget? Sure, it worth getting an instant cash loan to do that. But forget the budget, what’s really worth it is the peace of mind.

Apply here for an Instant Cash Loan!

Sometimes it doesn't take much to break the budget

Money can be such a problem when there isn’t enough of it. If you live on a budget — and really, how many people don’t? – sometimes it doesn’t take much to break it.

Incurring uninsured medical expenses or catching up on bills after a few months of unemployment can break your budget, big time. An irresistible department store sale, or a regrettably expensive weekend can do it as well, but so can just one higher-than-usual electric bill or even a minor car repair. Cash short-falls happen to different people for different reasons, but whoever you are and whatever your reason, when you’re short of cash until payday, an easy payday loan is hard to beat.

• No credit check
• Nothing to fax, nowhere to drive
• Installment loans for bad credit
• Loans for military personnel
• Private, secure online application
• Quick online processing
• Loans of up to $1500
• No delays, no hassles
• Funds available in as little as two hours

Avoid late fees with an Easy Payday Loan

When you fall behind on the bills, late fees add up quickly. The late fees on your rent or mortgage alone can be greater than the cost of an easy payday loan, and credit card late fees or bank overdraft charges can be even worse. If utility services are disconnected, late fees, deposits, and reconnect charges can add up to more than the cost of several easy payday loans.

Protect your credit with an Easy Payday Loan

Your credit score is important for more than just borrowing money. Employers can use it to make decisions to hire or promote. Landlords can use to decide whether to accept you as a tenant. Insurance companies can use it to establish the premiums you pay. If you have good credit, protect it from late-payment dings by getting an easy payday loan when you’re short of cash. It your credit score is less than perfect, easy payday loans for people with bad credit can keep the situation from getting worse.

An Easy Payday Loan makes it hard to overspend

When you’re having trouble making ends meet, credit cards can be dangerous. It’s easy to overspend with credit cards, and it can take a long time to dig yourself out of debt. With an easy payday loan on the other hand, there are no surprises. You can’t spend more than what you have and you know exactly when the loan will be paid off. You can look down the road to your next payday, adjust your budget as needed, and then rest easy, knowing you’ll soon be back on track.

Apply for an Easy Payday Loan HERE!

Anyone with an internet connection has seen the ads for online payday loans. If you have an email account, there are payday loan and cash advance emails in your junk mail every day. Many people who are struggling to make ends meet and need to borrow money are cautious about online payday loans, and for good reason.  You’d have to live in a cave not to know that the payday loan industry is beset with controversy. Proponents say payday loans are an indispensable form of short-term consumer credit, while critics claim that they can be a door to financial disaster. As with so many other things, the truth lies somewhere in between.

Online Payday Loans are easy for almost anyone to obtain

Online payday loans are a readily available form of short-term credit that almost anyone with a job can obtain.  These things are true:

• Online payday lenders do not require credit checks
• You can get a payday loan even if you have bad credit or no credit at all
• Installment loans for bad credit are available
• There’s no need to fax documents or leave your home or office
• The entire online application and approval process takes just minutes
• Military personnel can qualify for payday loans
• Loans of up to $1500 are available
• Funds can be deposited to your bank account in as little as two hours

On the other hand, these things are also true:

• Most payday lenders obtain Teletrack reports to make credit-risk assessments, although Teletrack is not a traditional credit bureau and a Teletrack check won’t show up on your credit report
• Before you can get an installment payday loan, a lender may require that you borrow and pay back a certain number of single-payment payday loans
• Once your loan is approved, the time it takes for funds to be deposited to your account can vary depending on who your lender is and what time of day you apply
• Loan amounts are based on each lender’s individual lending criteria, which typically include your income, the length of your current employment, and the number of loans you’ve previously obtained and paid back

Online Payday Loans can solve money problems

Online payday loans can provide quick solutions for cash short-falls between paychecks. Payday loans, including installment loans for bad credit, are short-term loans intended for immediate cash needs. Where people get in trouble, and where the controversy starts to boil, is when paying a loan back on payday leaves a borrower short of cash again. Borrowers who get extensions of payday loans rather than pay them when they’re due, or who get a second loan to pay off the first one, can and do bury themselves in unmanageable debt very quickly.

Online Payday Loans are often worth the price

Payday loans are an expensive form of credit — to put it any other way would be a misrepresentation. But they are also very high-risk loans, and the price charged for the credit reflects that fact. A high rate of return on its investment is what makes a payday lender able to provide credit to so many people who can’t borrow money anywhere else. The bottom line is that when you need money and can pay it back when due, an online payday loan is worth the price. Also, keep in mind that the fees charged for an online payday loan pale in comparison to the fees typically charged by landlords when rent is paid a couple of days late.

Online Payday Loans are as beneficial as you choose to make them

It’s up to you to borrow wisely. Online payday loans can be an invaluable source of immediate cash when other forms of credit are unavailable, and you shouldn’t hesitate to apply for one when it makes sense to do so.

Look down the road to your next paycheck. If you can make reasonable adjustments to your budget that will allow you to get by after paying back an online payday loan, then by all means apply for one and get your money worries behind you. Used properly as short-term credit to tide you over until your next paycheck, getting an online payday loan can be a sound financial decision.

Apply for Online Payday Loans HERE!

Wherever you are, apply online anytime

When you need to borrow money, there’s no better or easier way to get instant cash than by applying for payday loans online. It doesn’t matter where you are or what you’re doing, if you have an internet connection, you have everything you need to apply.

• Quick, hassle-free, online application
• No credit check
• Bad credit, no credit, and bankruptcy okay
• Installment loans for bad credit available
• No need to fax anything or drive anywhere
• Instant matching with payday lender offering the best terms
• Money deposited directly to your bank account
• Funds available in as little as two hours

Payday Loans Online can protect your credit score

When you’re short of cash until payday, money problems can snowball. Late payments on bills add up quickly and before you know it creditors make late-payment reports to credit bureaus. A ding on your credit report is bad news no matter what kind of credit score you have, because credit reports today are relevant to much more than simply applying for loans and credit cards.

Credit reports are used by employers, landlords, and even insurance companies, as well as traditional lenders. Your credit history can determine whether you qualify for a home mortgage or a car loan, and how high your interest rates are. But it can also determine whether you are selected for a job or granted a promotion. It can determine whether you’re able to lease an apartment and how high your premiums are for certain kinds of insurance. Your credit report is important. Protect yours by getting payday loans online before money problems get out of control.

Payday Loans Online are today’s new-and-improved credit card

Credit cards are tempting when you’re struggling to make ends meet. Credit cards are easy to use, but the problem is they’re even easier to over-use. In no time at all, you can run up a credit-card debt that will take months or even years to pay off. To make matters worse, credit-card interest rates have sky-rocketed.

Instead of using credit cards when you need extra cash, if you get a payday loan online, you won’t accidentally overspend and there won’t be any unwelcome surprises. Before you spend the first dime, you’ll know exactly how much you owe, how much the loan will cost, and when the debt will be paid off.

Payday Loans Online are the best short-term credit available

Before you apply for a payday loan online, take just a minute to think about your next pay period. Think about how you’ll restructure your budget to take into account paying back your loan. Once you’ve done that, apply! Payday loans online really are the best short-term credit available today. Properly used, they are invaluable.

Apply for Payday Loans Online HERE!

If you need money now, there’s no better time to apply for a cash advance. Money issues are almost always time-sensitive. Time pressure is often the reason why money becomes an issue in the first place. Sometimes you can ignore money issues, but they never really go away until you do something about them.

Get a Cash Advance today and avoid more problems

When you ignore money issues, you risk late fees and derogatory credit reports — not to mention anxious days and sleepless nights. A quick online cash advance can resolve all those issues. And yes, Personal Money Store really does work with lenders who specialize in installment loans for bad credit.

Get a Cash Advance today and have a better day tomorrow

The sooner you get money issues behind you, the sooner you can stop worrying and get back to living your life. When you get a cash advance, you can’t accidentally overspend the way you can when you use a credit card. You know right up front exactly how much the loan will cost and when it will be paid off. By applying for a cash advance, you can get cash today, take care of money problems today, get a good night’s sleep tonight, and make a fresh start tomorrow.

Get a Cash Advance today and pay it back automatically

One of the best things about getting an online cash advance is that you don’t have to do anything at all to pay it back. You don’t have to remember to write a check or go online to pay. Most cash advances are paid back in a single automatic deduction from your bank account on your next payday, but there are also installment loans, and even installment loans for bad credit, that allow you to make smaller payments over a longer period of time.

Get a Cash Advance today!

No credit check – bad credit okay

No need to fax documents

One short, online application matches you with the best payday lender

Quick, private, secure approval process

No waiting, no wondering, no hassles

Funds deposited directly to your account in as little as two hours

Apply for your Cash Advance HERE!

Why would I do hard when it's so easy to do easy?

Have you ever been so broke that you couldn’t afford a free deal? If you live from paycheck to paycheck like I do — and you scrape the bottom of the barrel each pay period — you know what I mean when I say that sometimes it takes money to get something for free.

A neighbor of mine owns a nice vacation home on the beach. This morning he offered to let me use the place for the weekend. With payday still almost two weeks away, I didn’t have instant cash to buy gas for the two-hour drive, but I fixed that little problem in five minutes flat by apply for a small installment loan for bad credit.

It bears repeating: Easy Cash Loans really are easy

Loans of up to $1500 available

Quick, secure, online application and approval process

No need to fax documents or make phone calls

No credit check — bad credit and no credit both okay

Instant lender response to your loan request — no waiting and wondering

Direct electronic deposit to your bank account – sometimes in as little as two hours

Why would I lie? Easy Cash Loans really are easy

Before I got my easy cash loan, I hadn’t borrowed money in years. I used to have credit cards, but I was always astonished when I got the monthly statements. Credit cards were just too easy to over-use and too hard to pay off. I don’t even know what kind of credit rating I have anymore, but credit scores don’t matter when you apply for easy cash loans. No matter how low your score, you can get money when you need it because it’s easy to find loans for people with bad credit.

This weekend I’ll be living the easy life, thanks to an Easy Cash Loan

I have a job I love and a paycheck to prove it – I work for peanuts. But I can manage to get by after paying back a $200 easy cash loan next payday. The payment gets deducted automatically from my account, so I don’t even have to remember to write a check or go online to pay. Why would I do hard when it’s just so easy to do easy?

Apply HERE for Easy Cash Loans

When money is in short supply, small problems quickly become big problems. One day it look likes you can scrape by without paying the bills until next payday. The next day some little thing happens and you shuffle your last few dollars around again; but pretty soon your whole survival-until-payday plan falls apart. The next day there are more bills in your mail box; the next day there’s an overdraft on your checking account; and on it goes.

Sometimes installment loans for bad credit are the best way to get money worries off your mind. Even if you wouldn’t borrow money except as a last resort, a payday advance can be exactly what you need to make peace with money problems.

Avoid hassles with a small personal loan

Nothing to fax – no need to leave your home or office

No credit check – bad credit and no credit both okay

Instant matching with payday lender offering the best loan – no waiting

Immediate response to your loan application – no waiting

Funds deposited automatically to your bank account in as little as two hours

Convenient, automatic repayment on your next payday

Avoid overspending with a small personal loan

Credit cards can be an option if you need money now, but it’s easy to overspend and the fees add up quickly. When you live from paycheck to paycheck and rely on credit cards, it can take months or even years to pay them off. With a small personal loan, on the other hand, you know exactly how much cash you have available to spend, you know exactly how much the loan will cost, and you know exactly when the debt will be paid off.

Make peace a small personal loan

If you can look down the road and see that you’ll be able to get by on your next paycheck after paying back a small personal loan, it may make good sense to get one. If you need cash today, a small personal loan can be a fast and effective way to make peace with money problems.

Apply for a personal loan HERE

Underwater on your mortgage? You're one in four.

As the nation’s housing crisis enters its fourth year, the option of walking away from mortgages on over-encumbered homes is gaining social acceptance.  Recently, University of Arizona law professor Brent White published a paper about the tactic of abandoning a home, (“Underwater and Not Walking Away: Shame, Fear and the Social Management of the Housing Crisis,” University of Arizona, Discussion Paper No. 09-35 November 2009).  While it’s not the first time the subject has ever been broached, debt survival is a sensitive topic today, and White’s suggestions have hit a nerve.

It’s crowded underwater

According to First American CoreLogic, some 10.7 million Americans are presently underwater on their mortgages, meaning that their mortgage balances exceed their home values.  White states:

As of June 2009, more than 32% of all mortgaged properties in the U.S. were “underwater,” meaning that the homeowner owed more on their mortgage than their home was worth. This percentage is expected to increase to 48% by the first quarter of 2011, by which time housing prices in the largest 100 metropolitan areas are predicted to have dropped 42% from their peak.

One in four homeowners would be better off renting

Walking away from over-mortgaged homes is a move that can save people money if they’re willing to take personal financial risks.  One of those disconcerting risks, of course, is that a foreclosure remains on an individual’s credit report for seven years, making it difficult to obtain new credit.  Although it’s possible that people with otherwise good credit might begin to overcome lending hurdles sooner than that, people in general are hesitant to wreck their credit. This hesitancy is borne out by the fact that millions of people – about one in four — would be much better off financially if they walked away from their mortgages, and yet, they do not.

Homeowners tend to take the highroad

If all owners of over-mortgaged homes walked away, economic havoc would no doubt ensue.  Home prices would take a deeper plunge, and banks would become even more hesitant to make loans to both individuals and businesses.  Still, it’s odd that in the midst of a severe housing crisis, borrowers have taken the high road and struggled to honor their mortgage commitments, while the lenders that doled out high-risk mortgages in the housing boom have eagerly taken in billions of taxpayer dollars.  These are the same lenders that now shamelessly resist the modification of troubled mortgages.  As White points out, this is a double standard involving contradictory lending moralities.

White, who is a scholar of both behavioral economics and law, just may know what he’s talking about. Clearly, the norms governing borrower behavior are at odds with those governing the tactics of lenders.  Lenders, as recently demonstrated in stark relief, seek to protect the bottom line without concern for morality or social responsibility. “Wall Street gets to maximize profits and minimize losses irrespective of concerns about morality,” he says.

Homeowners, on the other hand, are expected to honor their promises, however unmanageable a change of circumstance may be. This moral asymmetry, White concludes, results in a distributional inequality with homeowners bearing a disproportionate burden from the housing collapse.

Emotional constraints deter strategic defaults

White suggests that the choices of most homeowners not to strategically default are the result of two emotional constraints.  The first is a desire to avoid the shame and guilt of foreclosure and the second is an exaggerated anxiety about the perceived consequences of a foreclosure.  These emotional forces, he continues, are “actively cultivated by the government and other social control agents in order to encourage homeowners to follow social and moral norms related to the honoring of financial obligations – and to ignore market and legal norms under which strategic default might be both viable and the wisest financial decision.”

Suboptimal economic decisions are irrational

White believes that shame and an exaggerated anxiety about the effects of a foreclosure may be keeping homeowners from walking away in droves.  Even in non-recourse states such as California and Arizona where foreclosure is the lender’s only remedy and personal deficiency judgments cannot be obtained against borrowers, “the vast majority of underwater homeowners continue to make their mortgage payments – even when they are hundreds of thousands of dollars underwater and have no reasonable prospect of recouping their losses.”

While such behavior may appear irrational on its face, behavioral economists liken the behavior of underwater homeowners to the irrationality that leads people to make other suboptimal economic decisions.  “Underwater homeowners aren’t knowingly making bad choices, they just can’t cognitively grasp that they would be better off if they walked away from their mortgages,” White explains.

The moral playing field requires leveling

Walking away from over-encumbered homes may well undermine the basic tenants of mortgage lending, but no more than does taxpayer assistance for lenders who remain unwilling to make interest-rate or other concessions.  Rewriting interest rates on existing mortgages would keep many of distressed borrowers in their homes, but lenders have little incentive to make any concessions. Over the last couple of years, we have seen that banks cannot be shamed into action.  Congress briefly considered a bill that would have allowed bankruptcy judges rewrite mortgages, but even that relatively modest proposal languished and died last spring.

Walking away may be the most financially responsible choice

Struggle as they may against the emotional constraints pinpointed by White, plenty of homeowners arrive at turning points where they have no choice but to walk away.  With 10.7 million Americans underwater on their mortgages, it may be time to reconsider the prevailing lending morality.  Walking away just may be the most financially responsible choice a distressed homeowner can make, when doing so makes it possible to meet other, unsecured credit obligations and provide a stable income for his or her dependents.

Other people — people with fat bank accounts or hundred-dollar bills stuffed in their mattresses — may have good reasons to balance the budget. But I don’t. I live from paycheck to paycheck and I need money now. Even if I wanted to give it a try, I wouldn’t have a budget to balance. I’m always short of cash until payday, and arranging numbers in neat little columns and rows isn’t going to change that. I need cash today and I don’t have time for a fictional balancing act: I’ve got a real one going on.

It’s seven in the morning and I’m applying for a payday loan

It’s seven in the morning and I have a semi-emergency doctor appointment at two, a kid reminding me for the umpteenth time about his soccer fees and uniform, a cut-off notice from the phone company staring up at me from the kitchen counter where it’s been languishing for a week, and a big, hungry dog listening for food to hit the bowl. It’s seven in the morning and I have just enough time to apply for an emergency payday loan before I make an apologetic offering to the dog and explain that I’m running off to the paycheck factory again so we can all have more dog food. Balance the budget? It doesn’t even remotely apply.

I’ve been playing with the numbers all night, and I need a payday loan to balance this

It might be more accurate to say that I’m obsessed with balancing the budget. I balance the budget all night long. I worry about numbers and dollars and debits and credits from sundown to sunup, but they’re not worth committing to paper. And as long as I’m on this confessional roll: Today wasn’t the first time I’ve ever gotten a payday loan, either. Nor was it the first time I’ve thanked my lucky stars for that extra cash. I’ve kept my act in balance with a payday loan on more than one occasion, and no doubt I’ll do it again.

In just a few hours, I’ll have a $300 payday loan in my bank balance

I really do try not to borrow money. I live pretty simply and my mortgage is my only debt. But I have two soon-to-be-college-bound kids, a job where I work like a dog, and a dog whose job it is to eat like a horse. Sometimes my paycheck just won’t go the distance. When I need emergency money and I know that I can still get by after paying it back from my next paycheck, I get a payday loan.

If you can think of a good alternative to a payday loan, by all means, give it a try

Payday lenders take a lot of heat these days, but in my opinion, payday loans have their place. When you really need cash until payday, a quick payday loan is worth every red cent. You can’t exactly walk into your local bank and ask for a small, unsecured, personal loan for a week, now can you? I mean, of course, without some stiff in a suit calling security.

You can get a payday loan of up to $1500 by applying right here

No credit check

Nothing to fax

Quick, hassle-free application

Funds deposited to your account in as little as two hours

Apply for a payday loan HERE!

If you want to sit back and analyze it, there are lots of perfectly good reasons to get payday advances. Emergency medical bills, cars that don’t start, appliances that won’t run, bills that were over-looked, bills that are past due, bank accounts that are overdrawn, irresistible one-day-only retail discounts, and — not least of all — refrigerators that are empty. Throw into the mix a kid’s daycare expenses last week, a kid’s broken tooth this morning, a kid’s lost coat this afternoon, a kid’s birthday tomorrow, or the prospect of a weekend without a dollar to your name.

But it’s so much simpler and every bit as honest to say that the one good reason to get payday advances is that it’s just really tough these days to make ends meet. Anyone who lives from paycheck to paycheck knows what a difference just a little instant cash can make.

Payday Advances are so easy to get

When you apply for payday advances at Personal Money Store, everything is done online. There’s nothing to fax, no phone calls to make, and no need to drive anywhere. It takes just a couple of minutes to complete the application and as soon as you do, Personal Money Store searches through a large network of payday lenders and instantly connects you with the one offering the best loan for your situation. You’ll know right away whether your loan request is approved, and before you accept you’ll know exactly how much the loan will cost and when payment is due. In many cases, funds can be deposited to your bank account in as little as two hours after your loan is approved.

Payday Advances are so easy to pay back

Unlike credit cards that can be easy to over-use and hard to pay off, payday advances are paid back automatically on your next payday. You don’t even have to remember to write a check or go online to pay. Sometimes you can qualify for installment loans – or better yet, installment loans for bad credit – which allow you to make several smaller payments over a longer period of time. Either way, you can’t overspend and everything is disclosed upfront so there are no surprises.

Payday Advances offer so many advantages

No credit check

Bad credit or no credit okay

Nothing to fax

Loan amounts of up to $1500

Quick, secure, hassle-free application

Convenient repayment

Instant peace of mind

APPLY HERE for Payday Advances

Good dogs love happy endings

I have a human named Al. He’s the best human ever. He’s perfect, except for just two things. One is that sometimes he runs out of money before payday. The other is that he has a little bit of bad credit.

Lucky for Al, I’m his dog, and thanks to me he finally found out about loans for people with bad credit. Now Al knows how to get instant cash whenever we need it. That’s why this story has a happy ending.

Adoption fees don’t always require loans for people with bad credit

I got Al from the dog pound. The minute he walked in, I knew he was my human. All I did was bark and he came right to me. I’ve been around humans all my life, so I know quite a lot about them. I could see that Al was sad because he was in the pound, but he was friendly and eager and well-socialized. He didn’t cower, and he wasn’t overly aggressive, either. He said I was a good dog and that I had the best smile of any dog in the world. So I went home with him.

But first, we had to pay the pound. We didn’t borrow money at this point, but paying money at the pound is how the conflict begins to build in this story about loans for people with bad credit.

Stray-dog fees can eventually require loans for people with bad credit

When Al went to work the next day, I started looking for holes in the fence. I found a good one and went out for a walk. I made a wrong turn, but luckily someone gave me a ride to the pound and Al came to pick me up. We paid some more money to the pound, and Al said I was a good dog. He said I was the most beautiful dog in the world, and that if I kept this up, he would have to find out about loans for people with bad credit.

The dog pound knows all about loans for people with bad credit

The woman at the pound, the one with all the keys, said there are a lot of sneaky dogs running around and a lot of people who need money now. The pound, she said, knows all about loans for people with bad credit.

Al learns all about about loans for people with bad credit

When Al went to work the next day, there was wood nailed over my hole in the fence, so I found a different one. This time we had to pay a lot of money at the pound. After that, Al said we had no money now and there wouldn’t be any more cash until payday. Unless, that is, he could find out about loans for people with bad credit.

I wish I could have suggested that Al look into installment loans for bad credit because installment loans can be even easier to pay back than regular payday loans. But either way, getting loans for people with bad credit is quick and hassle-free, because the very next day Al brought home a big load of wood and nailed it up all over the fence. After that we got some food, and we still had extra cash.

I learn new tricks from loans for people with bad credit

Finding out about loans for people with bad credit changed my thinking. I stopped looking for holes in the fence and started helping Al save money. Now I take him to the park, which is free, every chance I get. I take him for long walks in the neighborhood, and we never have to borrow money for that. The other day, Al put air in the bicycle tires, which didn’t cost a dime, and I showed him how to ride with me while I run.

Good things come from loans for people with bad credit

Winter is coming. I wish I could suggest to Al that with the money we save by not going to the pound — and with another one of those loans for people with bad credit — we could get some skis for him and maybe some Ruff Wear Grip Trex™ dog boots and other gear specifically designed to meet my own cold-weather needs.

APPLY HERE for loans for people with bad credit

Sure, Mom, no problem. You'll love my new place.

Everything was going along just fine until the phone rang. Payday is only three days away, the bills are paid, and there’s food in the fridge. Normally it wouldn’t matter that you spent your last fifty bucks out with your friends last night. But that was your mother on the phone, and she’s flying in tonight. You have six hours to get the place in shape. Better get started right now by checking for quick loans online.

Save time and avoid hassles with Quick Loans

No credit check

Nothing to fax

Short, easy application

Large network of payday lenders

Fast, hassle-free, secure loan process

Money deposited directly to your bank account

Funds ready for you to use in as little as two hours

Move onto better things with Quick Loans

The sooner you get money worries behind you with some instant cash, the sooner you can move on to better things. It doesn’t have to be that your mother is coming to town when your place is a wreck and you’re fresh out of cash until payday. It might be that you’ve paid more bills than usual or that you need to make an emergency trip out of town. It might be that you finally have the time to complete a project around the house and need money now to do it. No matter what kind of situation you’re in, there’s a lot to be said for quick loans, because everyone has better things to do than worry about money.

Avoid over-spending with Quick Loans

Really. It’s important never to let Mom know just how low your standards of decency can get before payday. It’s only natural that you should try to impress her. But when you use credit cards to do something like that, it’s easy to over-spend and expensive to pay it back. With quick loans until payday, on the other hand, you know exactly how much money you can spend, how much the credit is going to cost you, and exactly how soon you’ll be debt-free (and on your way to the next big project).

Apply here for Quick Loans

Today, the unemployed sector cuts through a very broad cross-section of the country. Since late 2007, some 8 million jobs have vanished, and the end is not yet in sight. The ranks of the unemployed have now swelled to nearly 16 million people.

In the past, recessions have resulted primarily in blue-collar and low-level retail job losses, with white-collar layoffs accounting for only about 30 percent of total losses. By way of contrast, in the current downturn, nearly 50% of the vanished jobs have been managerial, professional, and skilled white-collar positions. For many upper-echelon workers who are scrambling for cash now, the current recession has changed the world overnight.

Who has been hardest hit?

In past recessions, minorities have been the hardest hit group, and that hasn’t changed. According to current Labor Department statistics, the nationwide unemployment rate in November was 10%, but joblessness among African-Americans, for example, was 15.5%. Interestingly, the unemployment rate among men is 11.9%, compared to 8.1% for women, the widest unemployment gender gap in more than half a century. Older workers are being laid off at a faster rate than younger workers.

Are unemployed people finding new jobs?

The unemployed are staying that way for unusually long stretches of time. Nearly 25% of  jobless persons have been unemployed for more than six months, the highest long-term unemployment level since the Great Depression. And that 25% long-term unemployment figure doesn’t include “discouraged workers” — people who have given up looking for work – and people who have settled for part-time work. In hard-hit regions of the country, long stretches of joblessness coincide with elevated suicide rates, mounting depression, and family conflicts.

But aren’t layoffs in a recession cyclical?

In most recessions, job losses result from temporary contractions of businesses that are producing more than the economy can absorb. The losses are therefore cyclical. Typically, businesses lay off employees until demand picks back up, and then start hiring again. The current economic downturn, however, is more foundational; that is, some industrial segments appear to have undergone permanent shrinkage – home construction, vehicle manufacturing, and newsprint publishing, for example.

New-home construction busts amid the housing crisis across the country have shifted many construction-worker families from affluence to poverty, or at best, survival mode. It’s difficult to believe that home construction industry will ever see boom years again.  For that matter, there’s no reason to suspect that vehicle manufacturing will ever return to a glorious era of unthinking tunnel vision, or that two-inch-thick newspapers will ever again grace the breakfast table of every American home.

How do long-term unemployed people get by?

They sell off cars, get rid of extra phones, cancel health club memberships, and bid vacations farewell. They scrounge for any income they can find. Most workers who qualify for unemployment pay receive about 60% of their former wages, but unless Congress extends their benefits, they expire after 26 weeks. But even unemployment benefit extensions eventually expire, at which point people may become eligible for welfare benefits and food stamps. A family of four might receive $900 per month, which won’t begin to cover such basic things as food, housing, and health care. From there, without family or friends to take up the slack, it’s a short step to soup kitchens and private charities. For manylong-term unemployed persons, the prospects are little better than grim.

Will new jobs ever be created?

It’s a question without an answer. Some politicians are eager to ramp up spending to salvage shrinking industries, but that’s more a bandage than a cure. And there is talk of replacing shrinking industries like vehicle manufacturing with “green” industries that will create a new economic boom, but turning such talk into reality would require billions in private or government investments as well as more years than today’s unemployed population can even hope to live. Not all displaced workers can learn new skills quickly. And even for those who can, chances are good that they won’t be returning to any semblance of their former pay. This is especially true for older workers or those who have extensive experience in specialized fields.

Will current job losses become permanent?

It is a sad thing to admit that many people who have lost jobs in the past year or two may never return to their former occupations or ever again reach their former income levels, but there seems to be no immediate way to avoid such a conclusion. Barring something truly unforeseeable, such as the creation of a whole new economy, we are likely to see an unprecedented recessionary shift toward permanent job losses.

I’ve been hanging by a thread for a couple of years now at a job I can’t stand. With so many people out of work, I know I’m lucky just to be employed. Still, every day at 5:00 when I bolt out the door, I fantasize about never coming back.

I live pretty simply and I don’t use credit cards, but like a lot of people, I’m always out of money a few days before payday. I manage to make ends meet one way or another, and I’ve never had to borrow money. So, all those ads for Instant Cash meant nothing to me.

Instant Cash came instantly to mind

They meant nothing to me until, that is, the phone rang this morning and Instant Cash came instantly to mind. One minute I was just about to trudge off to work, and the next minute I was emailing in for a personal day off. One minute Instant Cash meant nothing to me, and the next minute I was online applying for some of my own.

I have an interview tomorrow for the job of my dreams, and I need to look the part. One minute I was walking out the door with my face unwashed, wearing the same pair of jeans I’ve been wearing all week. The next minute I needed a haircut, hair color, skirt, blouse, shoes . . . better get a sweater, too . . . all the things that Instant Cash can buy. Payday is four days away, and I need cash today.

Instant Cash was approved in a split second

It really was just as fast and easy as the ads say to get a personal loan online. I filled out a short application, waited . . . literally . . . just a minute or two, and instantly had a $500 loan till payday. There was no credit check and I didn’t have to fax anything or make any phone calls

Instant Cash was deposited to my account without any noticeable lapse in time

That was a little over two hours ago, and the money is already in my checking account. I realize, of course, that two hours is more than the infinitesimal space of time you think of when you see those ads for Instant Cash. But when you think about how hard it is to get money anywhere today, two hours is a very respectably small space of time.

Instant Cash was an instant success

I’m off to the hair dresser now. I have a good feeling about that interview. Four days from now I’ll be paying my Instant Cash loan back from what may well be my last paycheck at Job X.

Apply HERE for Instant Cash!

No matter how much money you make, it can be tough to make ends meet

If you’re in a financial dilemma and you need cash today, now may be the time to apply for an online cash advance. No matter who you are or how much money you earn, it can be tough to make ends meet. Incomes have not kept pace with the ever-increasing cost of living, and people across all sectors of society are feeling the crunch.

Payday lenders specialize in cash advances

It used to be commonplace to get a personal loan from a local bank. Small, unsecured loans were daily fare at mainstream banks. But today, a traditional banker would probably think you were crazy if you walked in and asked for a short-term, unsecured loan. When banks stopped making personal loans, specialized payday lenders began to take up the slack, and today it’s easier than ever before to get cash until payday by applying online.

It’s easy to get a cash advance today

It takes just a few minutes to apply for an online cash advance, and you’ll know right away whether your request is approved. There’s no credit check and nothing to fax. Cash advances of up to $1500 are available, and in many cases funds can be deposited to your account in as little as two hours.

A cash advance solves so many problems

Everyone’s situation is different, but all kinds of people are finding it tough to get by. It can take a long time to catch up with expenses after a stretch of unemployment or a wage reduction. Anyone who’s ever been faced with uninsured emergency medical expenses, a divorce, or the needs of an elderly parent, knows what it’s like to really need a cash advance. Or maybe it’s just the approaching holidays that have you worried about how you’ll afford to do all the things you need to do.

A cash advance gets you back up and running

Whatever your situation, when you need money now, a cash advance can get you back up and running very quickly. No matter what kind of money pressures you’re facing, the peace of mind that comes from taking care of financial issues right now makes getting a cash advance worthwhile.

Apply for a cash advance HERE!

If you have less than perfect credit, the last thing you want is another late payment on your credit report. Luckily, if you have bad credit but you need cash today, there really are such things as installment loans for bad credit. Luckier yet, installment loans for bad credit are easy to get and easy to pay back. You can do everything online. There’s no need to fax anything or even make a phone call. There’s no credit check, and funds are deposited directly to your bank account.

• No credit check
• Bad credit okay
• No credit okay
• Bankruptcy okay
• Military loans okay
• Nothing to fax
• Secure, hassle-free, online application
• Funds available in as little as two hours

Installment loans for bad credit can keep the situation from getting worse

The most important thing to do when your credit score has been compromised by late payments or excessive debt is to work consistently toward bringing your accounts current and paying your debts down. But repairing a damaged credit score takes time; and in the meantime, it’s essential that you not get further behind.

If you’ve had a bankruptcy, the worst may be over, but making ends meet can be tough for some time to come. Regardless of why you have bad credit, it can be wise decision to borrow money if doing so will keep you on track.

Installment loans for bad credit can be a better choice than credit cards

It’s also sometimes possible to get credit cards when you have bad credit. But unlike using a credit card when you’re out of cash until payday, you can’t overspend with an installment loan and there are no surprises. With a credit card, it’s easy to spend more than you can pay back month and after month until the debt becomes unmanageable. When you get an installment loan instead of using a credit card, you’ll know exactly how much you owe, when it will be paid, and how much the loan will cost.

Installment loans are the easiest kind of payday advance to pay back

Most online payday loans are paid in full through a single automatic deduction from your account on your next payday. But with a payday installment loan, instead of deducting the full amount on your next payday, you make several smaller payments over a longer period of time. With an installment loan, you won’t find yourself short of cash again and it’s easy to work the payments into your budget.

Apply HERE for Installment Loans for Bad Credit

Quick cash for a quick weekend getaway

It doesn’t matter what it is that’s got you in a financial twist. When you need money now – whether it’s for an overlooked or past-due bill, an unexpected home repair, a down payment on a bargain-priced used car, or an irresistible opportunity to get away for the weekend – finding some quick cash is always the bottom line.

Quick Cash can be yours in just minutes

When you need quick cash, Personal Money Store is the best and fastest place to get it:

• Bad credit or no credit okay
• No credit check
• Nothing to fax
• Secure and fast online loan application
• Immediate loan approval process
• Automatic deposit to your bank account in as little as two hours
• Automatic repayment on your next payday

Getting Quick Cash is a better than using a credit card

Credit is tight today. If your credit score is less than stellar, it may be difficult to get anything other than a secured credit card with a very low limit and an extremely high interest rate. Even if you have good credit, struggling credit-card companies are making every last-ditch effort to raise rates before tough new regulations go into effect. Like lots of people, perhaps you’ve recently opted to close a credit-card account rather than bow to a new 30% interest rate.

There are no surprises when you get Quick Cash

Quick cash from a payday loan offers benefits that credit cards don’t. With a payday loan, you can’t accidentally overspend. You know exactly how much you owe and when it will be paid. Most importantly, you know exactly how much it will cost before you accept. There are no surprises. Quick cash from an online payday advance is deposited directly to your bank account, so if you prefer to pay with plastic, you can use your debit card and avoid the complications credit cards pose in today’s economy.

For Quick Cash Apply HERE!

Protecting your health is a wise financial choice

Health-care costs in the United States exceed those of any other nation. Millions of Americans are uninsured, partly because of rising premium costs, and more and more, they resort to payday loans to finance both emergency and routine medical expenses.

With health-care reform issues taking the political center stage, is this not a good time to step back and assess the problem from a more basic point of view? Is it really possible to have a healthier society and more effective medical care without, first and foremost, reducing the need and thus the demand for medical treatment?

Broader access and lower costs do not mix

Presumably, the goals of various medical-reform packages are to broaden access to health care and, at the same time, reduce medical costs. The merits of any particular political agenda aside, however, absent a reduction in the demand for medical treatment, industry reform will only serve to create new costs, further restrict access, ration limited services, and adversely affect the economic interests of health-care providers, especially small businesses. Clearly, broadening access and reducing costs at the same time is an oxymoronic proposition.

Education is the key to more effective health care

Without illnesses and accidents, obviously, there would be no health care costs. According to a New England Journal of Medicine article by James F. Fries and C. Everett Koop, et al.,  (“Reducing Health Care Costs by Reducing the Need and Demand for Medical Services,” Volume 329:321-325, 1993), in the last century, medical costs have soared as a result of an enormous increase in chronic disease, despite a concomitant reduction in the occurrence of acute illness.

Obesity, heart disease, adult-onset diabetes, and other avoidable chronic illnesses, along with unnecessary emergency room and doctor office visits cause enormous wastes of medical resources. Generally speaking, healthy people don’t smoke or consume alcohol to excess. They aren’t overweight, and they exercise regularly, eat wisely, wear seat belts, and take advantage of readily-available preventive health-care measures.

Not all preventive health-care measures have been shown to save money.  But despite an overwhelming societal reluctance to admit it, an emphasis on disease and accident prevention and individual restraint in the use of medical services would, over all, reduce health-care costs.

Proper use of medical services reduces demand

A health policy directed at reducing medical demand would make a major contribution to lowering societal health-care costs because:

1. Preventable illness makes up an inexcusably large portion of our current demand for medical treatment;
2. Risky behavior is expensive in terms of lifetime medical costs;
3. Approaches involving self-management have been shown to reduce unnecessary medical treatment;
4. Health-promotion programs in the workplace have been shown to reduce overall health-care costs; and
5. Our present health-care system does not closely link the use of medical resources to the requirements of illness.

Unhealthy lifestyle choices are expensive

Fries and Koop, et al., state that preventable illness and injury account for eight of the nine leading causes of death in the United States. They cite sound authorities to support a very simple proposition, one that is inarguable from a common-sense point of view: Lifetime medical costs are clearly linked to lifestyle choices and poor health habits. Fries and Koop point out such obvious things as increased physical activity being associated with fewer visits to the doctor, health costs as well as morbidity rates being significantly higher among smokers, and medical costs among people with several lifestyle-induced risk factors (smoking, obesity, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and adult-onset diabetes) being double that of people with no such risk factors.

Education reduces the demand for medical care

Many studies have shown that educating patients about self-management, especially when coupled with modest medical intervention offering objective guidelines to help decide whether medical assistance is needed, reduces the demand for medical services. This has been found to be true even in cases of chronic disease.

Education reduces the demand for life-sustaining treatment

Not only are overly intensive services for terminal illness extraordinarily expensive, they are not desired by most people. Fries and Koop note that “Seventy percent of people request no life-sustaining treatments for themselves when they are dying, and 89 percent desire living wills and other advance directives. Yet only 9 percent have made such directives.” An emphasis on educating patients about the importance of health-care directives could result in an enormous reduction of health-care costs.  It would also promote more humane medical treatment and a more effective allocation of limited medical resources.

Deep pockets stand to save by spending on education

It costs money to educate people, especially when that education involves altering long-standing lifestyle choices, and, even more so, on a wide scale. But if the entities now bearing the costs of skyrocketing medical care – insurers, industry, and government – were convinced that educational programs designed to reduce the demand for medical services could actually save money, they’d be funding those programs right now, without a doubt.

I’m headed to New Zealand, because I have cash today, thanks to an online payday advance. Plenty of people will call that irresponsible, but plenty of people haven’t walked in my shoes. If you’ve been through the economic wringer in recent years, maybe you’ll get it. Or maybe you won’t. Either way, I’ve got money now and I’m going.

After two layoffs, I have money now

Two years ago, I was laid off from a good-paying job I’d had for several years. I collected unemployment for a few months and watched my retirement and investment accounts melt away like everyone else’s. I found a new, lower-paying job, but was laid off again after just a couple of months. This time, I didn’t qualify for unemployment benefits. After seven months, I was tapped out and couldn’t make my mortgage payment.

My head is barely above water, but I have money now

I managed to avoid a foreclosure with a lender-approved short sale, but everything I owned – other than my paid-off car and some beat-up furniture — was gone. I gave the furniture away and moved in with some friends. I finally found yet another even lower-paying job, and a couple months later, I was able to rent the apartment I have now. Luckily, I cut up my credit cards when I lost my first job, so I don’t have debts. My head is above water, but I’m still struggling to make ends meet.

The weather in New Zealand is perfect, and I have money now

I’m not in a stable financial place yet, but I’ve had my job long enough to get a personal loan. Now that I’ve got a little extra cash, I’m taking my life off hold. The coastline and mountains of New Zealand defy description. The whales are amazing. People say the Sauvignon blancs of the Marlborough region are better than the ones they make in Napa Valley. The air and water temperatures are perfect this time of year, and New Zealand is still a dollar-friendly place.

I have 23 hours plus a weekend, and I have money now, too

Last week I hit 23 hours of accumulated vacation time. Last night, I applied for an online payday loan. I had one in five minutes flat. The money was in my bank account this morning. I’ll pay it back out of my next paycheck and worry about how I’ll get by when it comes to that. Twenty-three paid hours plus a weekend isn’t at all enough time to visit New Zealand. Mostly I’ll be sitting on a plane. My grandmother is 94. I haven’t seen her in six years. She lives in Ashburton on the South Island. I fly out tomorrow morning.

Apply HERE for Money Now!

If you want to use plastic without overspending, get a payday advance and use your debit card.

Just when you could really use it, you run out of cash. You scrape together enough money to pay the mortgage, and the home insurance bill comes in the mail. You might be able to let that slide until next payday, but then, just for good measure, the car won’t start. Naturally, your kid takes this opportunity to remind you that his karate class fees are due tomorrow.

Payday advances can help you avoid credit card debt

When money is tight, it can be tempting to use credit cards. But when you’re living from paycheck to paycheck, credit cards make it very difficult to stick to a budget. If you charge just a couple hundred dollars a month and pay the minimum payments, you’ll soon find yourself swimming in debt. Before long, you’ll run up a debt that will take years to pay off.

Applying for payday advances is absolutely hassle-free

It’s quick and easy to apply for online payday advances. At Personal Money Store, it takes just a few minutes, and in many cases funds can be deposited to your account in as little as two hours. You can apply for payday advances of up to $1500, and the minute you do, Personal Money Store connects you with the payday lender that best meets your requirements. You don’t have to fax anything or even pick up the phone. Best of all, there’s no credit check.

Payday advances are easy to pay back

Most online payday advances are paid back on your next payday in one automatic deduction from your bank account. You don’t have to bother to write a check or remember to pay online. Sometimes you can qualify for an installment payday advance that lets you make several smaller payments over a longer period of time.

Payday advances can help you avoid overspending

Next time you’re short of cash, consider applying for an online payday advance instead of using a credit card. A payday advance doesn’t drag on the way credit card debt does. When you get a payday advance instead of using a credit card, you can’t accidentally overspend: You know exactly how much money you have available. And compared to credit cards, there are no surprises: With payday advances, you know exactly when the debt will be paid off and exactly what it will cost.

Payday advances can get you through to payday

Borrowing should never be undertaken lightly. (That’s the problem with credit cards – it’s just too easy to forget that every purchase is a loan transaction.) Any form of credit can be misused, and a payday advance is no exception. But it’s completely possible to get the benefits of a payday advance without digging yourself into unmanageable debt.

Before you apply for a payday advance, ask yourself this question: After paying this back, can I get by on my next paycheck without having to borrow again? If your answer is yes, a payday advance is the ticket to your next paycheck.

APPLY for Payday Advances HERE!

A quick online loan can help you save money

Too often, your paycheck is spent the minute you get it. You pay a few bills, make a trip to the grocery store, and fill the tank with gas.

You’re almost tapped out.  Fortunately or not, your kid mows the lawn just like you asked him to. In fact, he does a great job. You hand him ten bucks, as promised.

It’s payday, and already the countdown has begun. Will you be able to make it for two weeks on $50? It can be done. You’ve proved many times that it can. But what if something goes wrong?

Borrow money before it becomes an emergency

Twice in recent weeks you’ve had to jump the battery to start the car. What if a jump start doesn’t do the trick next time? The water heater’s been knocking and if you were to be honest about it, you’d have to admit that really, the hot water hasn’t been all that hot lately. What if the water heater conks out before payday?

Some former colleagues asked you to meet them for dinner tomorrow night. You’re hoping it turns out to be an informal interview for a better job. The place they want to meet is spendy. You think they’ll pick up the tab, but what if they don’t?

Borrow money if you know you can pay it back on payday

The bills are paid. There’s food in the house and gas in the car. Do you put life on hold until next payday? Or do you borrow money today and do the things you need to do?

There’s nothing wrong with getting a personal loan when you know you’ll be able to get by comfortably on your next paycheck after paying it back. In fact, there’s a lot to be said for getting cash today and being prepared for the unexpected.

Borrow money today and sleep well tonight

If you need cash today and you know that getting a loan till payday won’t put you farther behind, it makes good sense to borrow money. A fast cash loan can spare you unnecessary expense. For example, why not buy a new car battery now rather than wait until the car won’t start again and you have to pay for a new battery plus towing?

If you think things through and borrow wisely, a payday loan can help you come out ahead of the game. When you’re down to your last few dollars and worried about how you’ll make it, a little cash until payday might even let you save some money on those expensive sleep aids.

APPLY HERE to borrow money