Yesterday I got a payday loan. Tomorrow I’m headed to New Zealand

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.

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Is this person singing the inner city blues over payday loans? Don't bet that it's that simple. (Photo: flickr.com)

Have you ever heard that statement before – that “correlation does not imply causation?” What it means is that even if one can identify a correlation (strength and direction of a relationship between two random variables), it does not automatically imply that one causes the other. Making such a connection is falling prey to a logical fallacy known in Latin as cum hoc ergo propter hoc, which translates to “with this, therefore because of this.”

People falling prey to a logical fallacy in conversation is one thing, but if a logical fallacy is central to the argument in a published academic paper that is attempting to shape public opinion and even advise lawmakers as to procedure, the work becomes irresponsible and even harmful. Such is the case with a recent intercollegiate study by Charis Kubrin and Gregory Squires of George Washington University and Steven Graves of Cal State Northridge entitled “Does Fringe Banking Exacerbate Neighborhood Crime Rates? Social Disorganization and the Ecology of Payday Lending.” Through the use of a logical fallacy, the authors attempt to link the rise of payday loan companies in middle- to low-income neighborhoods in Seattle, Washington with increased community violence. As if there could be no other contributing factors (which is something the authors even concede to more than once during their study, completely invalidating their previous hypothesis).

First, the Pro and Con Payday Loan Arguments

As we’ve heard many times before, those who are against payday loans claim that the businesses exploit the underprivileged and the uneducated. Supposedly, they cause poverty and an endless spiral of debt. On the other hand, supporters indicate that payday loans address a particular need for those who experience short term financial difficulty and are credit constrained and have little or no liquid assets to help deal with the problem. For every study that claims that payday loans cause bankruptcy, there are studies that indicate to the contrary regarding payday loans. Furthermore, numerous studies regarding the profitability of payday loans indicate that the rate charged is justified by the risk involved and that payday lending outlets do not reap excessive profits.

Causing Cities to Tear Themselves Apart?

The study authors take the angle of payday lending being an agitating agent that brings out the worst in the communities where brick-and-mortar stores are present. They see greater instances of crime in areas of Seattle where payday loan store penetration is most concentrated as a previously unstudied “price” that the communities pay for allowing the presence of payday lenders. The authors state that because payday loan stores operate with late and weekend hours – when hoodlums supposedly are out in force? –there is a greater potential for violence. Whether it is the stores themselves or their customers being subject to robbery, the authors would have us believe that providing consumers with payday loans when said consumers’ access to traditional forms of credit is restricted and short term financial need is great is somehow the fault for the violence. By that same logic, wouldn’t ATM machines, banks, liquor stores, gun stores or any other place where money is kept be a potential instigator of violence? It’s ridiculous. Capitalism should either be allowed to work as it can or American society should be dramatically restructured along the dreaded socialist lines that so many Americans claim to fear. Having payday lending outlets in your neighborhood is no more the cause than any other business where money is exchanged.

Why Seattle? Why Payday Loans?

The authors hold up Seattle as being representative of a typical large U.S. city, which sounds reasonable, but they admit that it may not create an accurate picture of the supposed payday loans/violence link for American as a whole. The Seattle communities with the greatest instances of violence in the authors’ study tended to be those where poverty was greatest. So are they saying that because payday loan outlets may be present in or near such communities that the payday loan outlets were the cause of the poverty – or the violence that stems from human frustration and need? That’s a very simplistic view that does not exist upon a well-reasoned, logical framework.

But Texas Payday Loan Customers Only Make $18K Per Year!

I’m not aware of the methodology of the Fox study that the authors cite for Texas payday loan customers, but the results seem highly unlikely (or need much greater clarification). Personal Money Store has found that the average online payday loan applicant makes $31,690 per year. For those approved for payday loans, that rises to $36,000. For those denied, it only falls to $30,672. It is indeed suspicious that there could be such a disparity between those results and those in Texas, but such questions could be indicative of the kind of care in research that the authors used in studying Seattle communities.

Repeat Customers: Beaten Down Victims?

Referring to other studies, the authors make the claim that as much as 60 percent of payday loan customers frequently and quickly borrow again. Personal Money Store customers don’t follow that model at all. Since only 4.64 percent of visitors to the site return and 7.36 percent of applicants are return visitors, it certainly doesn’t support the idea held by the authors that payday lending organizations create financial stress by hooking customers into an endless cycle of debt. It is implied that the stress such a situation could theoretically cause is in turn the flash point that spurs people in the Seattle communities to violence and violent crime. Illicit drug use and abuse, domestic violence, robbery and related crimes have what nearly any sociologist or psychologist would tell you are a complex chain of causes. The presence of payday loan stores in a community – once more – is too simplistic an answer.

Explain it Away, Social Disorganization Theory

The authors use the Social Disorganization Theory to attempt to explain their preconceived connection between the presence of payday lending and community violence. “According to the theory,” they write, “certain neighborhood characteristics can lead to social disorganization, defined as the inability of a community to realize the common values of its residents and maintain effective social controls.” Such social disorganization is the root of crime, according to the authors.

What role do payday loan stores play in the characteristics of a community? Do they structure the daily routines of residents, as the theory would require? The bulk of payday loan customer survey respondents say they use the product to help with an emergency expense, and that this hardly represents a daily occurrence. But more importantly, you cannot assume that one institution is responsible for a social problem. Bars, low-income housing and liquor stores tend to appear in distressed neighborhoods as well, but their financial import to the economic health of said communities is very real. The arguments that liquor stores and bars promote alcoholism or that gun stores promote violent crime will always be on someone’s mind, but that doesn’t make the arguments valid. The connection between payday loan stores and violence/violent crime is even more tenuous.

Build More Community Centers and Libraries

The authors (as well as many others) find that such institutions contribute positively to a community’s identity. Perhaps a lack of sufficient community resources along these lines would be a greater indicator of social disorganization? It’s no stretch to say that the community that is fragmented and the community that doesn’t spend time together would be more prone to communication breakdowns that can lead toward violent confrontation. Stifling market competition by singling out payday loan stores – not to mention robbing disadvantaged consumers of a choice that can genuinely help in the short term – is hardly a way to organize a community in a healthy manner.

While you’re at it, why not install greater security measures in areas where consumers are walking away with large sums of cash? This could be considered a failing of payday loan companies in at-risk communities. With proper security measures, perhaps robbery numbers would go down. If people know there’s a greater chance that they will be caught, they’re much less likely to commit a crime.

Payday Loans and the Drug Trade

Having cash on hand tends to be a prerequisite if an individual wishes to purchase any form of harmful street contraband. However, such behavior should never be encouraged. Payday loan stores certainly do not do so simply by nature of them providing cash to their customers. Banks do the same thing – even ones in less than reputable neighborhoods – but they are not being accused by the authors of this problematic study. Where’s the balance there?

Where the Need is Greatest

“The safest neighborhoods in Seattle have no payday lenders in them,” write the authors. There are many reasons this could be the case. Perhaps the larger, more established traditional banking industry in Seattle has effectively swayed local politicians into pushing their payday loan competition out of high-rent neighborhoods. It certainly wouldn’t be unheard of in big-city politics. What consumers in lower-income neighborhoods tend to face are situations where their restricted access to credit makes qualifying for traditional bank loans next to impossible. Hence, having payday loans they can qualify for in their own neighborhoods constitutes a great service.

Some critics would argue that big banks and credit unions are beginning to offer their own alternative to the payday loan, making those outlets obsolete. However, that’s just in theory. In execution, banks who participate in such programs admit that they do so at a loss. Their real goal – stated by none other than the FDIC – is to transition consumers into other products like overdraft protection and traditional loans. Is it any coincidence that these products can be much more expensive for consumers?

Property Values Go Down Because of Payday Loans?

Of course the authors claim that payday loans are the culprit in those at-risk communities. But remember, correlation does not imply causation. To assume that payday loans are the reason why is to be unintentionally simplistic at best, intellectually dishonest at worst. There are many factors that can contribute to a drop in property values. Many of them are beyond one’s immediate control.

The Effects of Over-Regulation

The study authors challenge lawmakers to enact policies to help control the “blight” of payday loan store presence in American communities. Capping the annual interest rate at 36 percent is one idea, which the federal government has already instituted on loans to active military. However, considering the costs of operating payday loan stores, being allowed to charge less than $2 per $100 loaned for the standard two-week payday loan duration is not enough to keep such businesses open. The result of removing the distressed consumer’s ability to choose payday loan credit is to drive them toward more expensive or even dangerous alternative. I’d like to see the authors connect those alternatives, from loan sharks to other illegal activities, to the violence they claim surrounds the payday lending industry.

Widen the Net for More Meaningful Results, Please

“An obvious extension of this research would be case studies of additional cities,” write the authors. “We suspect our findings are not unique to Seattle. But there may be variations associated with the size, demography, regional location, industrial structure, and other city characteristics that affect the linkage between payday lending and crime.” No, I’d say those factors could be some of the real causes of the violence you’re studying – rather than additional links between payday lending and crime. The authors suggest that further study in the matter is needed to fully understand the supposed connection. I’d agree that further study is needed, but that study should be based on sound reasoning and logic, rather than a logical fallacy. Politicians are easily swayed by things that resemble facts but are in reality statistical noise. On the count that their work could contribute to such institutional delinquency and laziness, Kubrin, Squires and Graves’ theory regarding payday loan stores and violence is irresponsible.

Payday Loans have the green light when it comes to going where the financial need is greatest. Access to conventional credit plays a large role. (Photo: flickr.com)

Payday loans are an inescapable landmark in America’s modern economic landscape. The popularity of the short term loan product has grown significantly since the early 1990s, and it’s no wonder. Giving consumers the ability to absorb financial shocks in the short term – enabling them to avoid hefty penalties – is useful for maintaining economic welfare. It is important for consumers to be educated as to their alternatives in a financial emergency, however. For their part, the payday lending industry (organized under such groups as the Community Financial Services Association and the Online Lenders Alliance) has helped to educate consumers as to how payday loans work and when they should or shouldn’t advisably be used. However, the responsibility rightly rests with the individual.

Unfortunately, the image still persists within the popular media that payday loans are an instrument through which unscrupulous businessmen and women exploit “at-risk” members of society. One of the primary means these critics use to attempt to prove their point is by focusing on the geographic clustering of brick-and-mortar payday loan locations (as well as pawn shops and check cashing outlets). This fails to take into account online payday loan companies and aggregators like Personal Money Store, whose average customer by income tends to fall comfortably into the middle class. However, when brick-and-mortar locations only are considered, a clear pattern of going where demand is greatest becomes apparent. A recent study by Robin Prager, the Assistant Director in the Division of Research and Statistics for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, supports the assertion that payday loan businesses tend to cluster in areas where access to credit may be restricted and liquid assets that help consumers handle financial surprises may be closer to scarce than abundant.

“Determinants of the Locations of Payday Lenders, Pawnshops and Check-Cashing Outlets“

Prager groups payday loans, pawn shops, check cashing and a number of related short term loan companies under the name “alternative financial service providers” (AFSPs). Recognizing the controversy the rapid growth of these institutions has generated, Prager analyzes the geographic placement of AFSPs. Using county-level data for the entire country, she expands upon the regional work most studies had undertaken before. Demographics, population, consumer credit profiles and the degree of strictness in state and local laws all play a role in where the largest clusters of AFSPs appear.

Rules and Regulations Facing AFSPs

Payday lending, pawn broking and check cashing aren’t overnight sensations. They date back to at least the 1930s, although payday lending may date back to Colonial America and pawn broking in its various forms is particularly ancient. As with any explosive growth industry, there has been a need for regulation. AFSPs are subject to regulations on the federal, state and local level. Such things as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, and the Bank Secrecy Act all have jurisdiction. Moreover, all loan companies must follow the federal rules of the Truth in Lending Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and the Talent-Nelson Amendment to the 2007 Defense Authorization Bill, to name a few. On the state and local level, numerous and variable other regulations exist. It’s safe to say that a regulatory maze exists when it comes to AFSPs. While they do serve to protect consumers against potential exploitation, the question as to whether over-regulation has stifled competition with the consumer financial services industry is a more than legitimate area for study.

Urban vs. Rural Distribution

Prager found that in 2006, 98.9 percent of rural and 99.6 percent of urban counties in the U.S. featured at least one bank or thrift branch. Furthermore, two-thirds of rural and 90 percent of urban counties had at least one AFSP provider (payday lender, pawnshop, check casher, etc). Considering population by county, the average of 33,000 people were serviced by 2.5 payday loan stores, 1.2 pawn shops, 1.7 check-cashing outlets and 10.7 bank and thrift branches. On the urban side, the numbers change to 220,000 people, 16.6 payday loan stores, 7.4 pawnshops, 21.2 check cashers and 67.5 bank and thrift branches. AFSPs like payday loan companies are certainly not more prevalent than banks in Prager’s sample.

Where Do the Payday Lenders Congregate?

Prager found that the highest concentration of payday loans outlets on a per capita basis came in southern states where regulation is more forgiving: Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. Pawn shops concentration was also high in such areas (primarily Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee), although check cashing ranked highest in California, Delaware, Mississippi and North Carolina.

Banks and thrifts found their highest concentration in the north central states, including Kansas, Nebraska and North Dakota. This did not tend to correlate into having a negative effect on the number of pawn shops and check cashing outlets in a county, but Prager did find a positive correlation when it came to payday loan stores.

Credit Scores Point to Subprime

Here is where we get to the heart of the matter with AFSPs like payday loan stores. They tend to appear where the need is greatest. If consumers have difficulty security mainstream credit in an emergency, then payday loans become a very attractive option. Prager introduces an equation that factors credit availability and a variety of other factors in order to express the number of AFSP outlets as a function. It is a function of the following demographic data: racial/ethnic mixture, age, consumer education, poverty standing and the county’s population density. As stated, creditworthiness and area regulations are also factors.

Here are some of Prager’s comments on results:

Looking first at the equations explaining the number of payday loan stores per million capita, we see that the results are fairly similar for urban and rural counties. In both cases the number of payday loan stores per million capita is negatively related to the share of the population that is Hispanic, positively related to the share of the population that is non-Hispanic black, and unrelated to the share that is Asian. Payday lenders are more prevalent in both urban and rural counties where a larger share of the population is below the age of 40 and less prevalent in both urban and rural counties where a larger share of the population lives below the poverty level. The number of payday loan stores per million capita is significantly related to the share of the population with a high school diploma (negative sign) and population density (positive sign) in rural, but not urban, counties.

Patterns in Payday Loan/AFSP Placement

Prager recognizes a few general patterns: 1) Payday lenders/AFSPs appear in credit challenged areas; 2) But they tend to avoid areas where the poverty level is highest; 3) AFSPs and other payday loan businesses aren’t seen to be particularly concentrated in Hispanic regions; 4) Payday lenders do tend to appear more in the African-American community; 5) population density and payday lending presence are connected in rural areas, but not as much in urban; and 6) Not surprisingly, areas with tighter regulation show a much lower instance of payday loan companies.

Payday Lenders Do Not Prey on the Poor

This is what Prager found based upon county-to-county data and it runs contrary not only to what the mainstream media would have you believe, but to the findings of a number of past studies. Credit scores remain a prime factor in distribution of AFSP. Going where the need is greatest is an idea that holds up in this instance. Mainstream credit may be less expensive on average, but if a consumer does not have the credit to access such a thing, then payday loans are the best options. As federal, state and local governments devise new ways of continuing to limit the industry, what exactly do they think credit-challenged individuals are going to do? If sinking beneath the waves of poverty so that they’re “out of sight, out of mind” is a feasible solution for elected officials, then perhaps people who can display more reason and human compassion deserve a turn.

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Think this represents the average payday loan company CEO? Think again. Profitability is hardly out of sight, even if it has allowed the industry to grow. (Photo: flickr.com)

Infinite profits earned off the backs of the infinite suffering masses. If you take your news from the multi-colored, sugar-laden toothpaste tube that is the mainstream media, then you believe that the payday loan industry is reaping massive profits while those who crawl about on their bellies are drowning in six inches of debt. It’s such an affecting image that it resides in some nether-region beyond belief. In other words, don’t buy the hype.

Payday loan companies aren’t a charitable organization, to be sure. They profit from the service they offer to consumers, but as studies like “The Profitability of Payday Loans” by Paige Skiba of Vanderbilt University Law School and Jeremy Tobacman of Oxford University indicate, the profits derived from interest are very much in line with those taken by more “traditional” lending institutions.

Short-Term Liquidity Has its Price

That’s exactly what payday loans and similar forms of short term loans provide. Their convenient immediacy (sans an extensive battery of credit and background checks) presents a certain amount of risk for lenders, so price protection is understandable. Skiba and Tobacman use financial data from the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) and SEC filings, as well as loan data from several major payday loan companies.

While the most expensive payday lenders charge what amounts to over 1,000 percent APR (somewhat moot; payday lenders typically charge 12 to 20 percent for two- to four-week loans), the authors find that “lenders’ firm-level returns differ little from typical financial returns.” The implication here is that on a per-loan and per-store basis, the payday loan industry experiences high costs that bite into their “profits.”

Methodology of the Study

The authors examine the CRSP and SEC numbers for seven First we summarize publicly available, firm-level profitability data from CRSP and SEC filings. They find average returns of 10 to 25 percent each year in profit. That’s on a per-firm level.

On the individual level, it is observed that loans are generally small, yielding a meager $49 in interest on average. Yet five percent loss ratios eat up more than one quarter of that interest. Net returns (interest minus defaults) amount “in expectation over all of the marginal borrower’s loans to only about $100,” find the authors. Payday lenders, then, would appear to exist in a highly competitive environment where per-loan and per-store costs are indeed large when compared with interest earnings.

Firm-Level Profits

According to the data, payday lenders have performed well on average, earning 10.1 percent profit. Yet because returns have been volatile, the Sharpe ratio (of excess return) is close to zero. Stock data has revealed little indication of excess dividends and SEC 10-K and 10-Q show only “moderate” return on equity, find the authors. Looking at the data of the payday loan firms involved in the study and comparing their returns against those of companies in the S&P 500, the authors once again find that there is “a profile of firm-level profits that fails to approach annualized payday loan interest rates.”

It should be noted that government regulation of the payday loan industry, particularly the September 2006 Talent-Nelson Amendment cap on lending to active-duty military, have impacted firm-level large risk premiums, to the point where the FDIC even released a report (http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/safety/payday/) suggesting that the “unusual risk” accepted by payday lenders justifies the interest and suggests ways payday loan companies can effectively handle this risk.

Individual-Level Profits

How does interest as high as 7,295 percent (the highest instance in the authors’ study) per year lead to only a 10 percent equity return? The authors look at individual-level data for payday loan origination, repayment and instances of customer defaults. The authors determine a mean payday loan size of $283 and median of $269. Eighteen percent interest leads to average revenue of $49 per payday loan, but once losses are taken into account, the story changes. The authors observed that approximately nine percent of post-dated collateral checks bounce. Collections were found to be pursued internally for 60 days, during which time the lenders collected on about half.

Credit standards tell an important tale as well. The better the short term loan applicant’s credit score, the greater revenues payday lenders derive. The authors find that “the intercept of the best-fitting line at the credit score threshold is $100.49. Thus, if the industry is competitive, the total economic costs of servicing the marginal borrower equal $100.49.”

Small Money, Big Default

Returns are astronomical in theory only. Stock returns are also observed to be modest for payday lenders. Store-level costs have to play a major role in this. A 2003 study by Jerry Robinson and John Wheeler estimated 40,000 employees in the payday lending industry. Their wages totaled $1.4 billion annually. They also found that total interest revenue for payday loans totaled $4.0 to $4.3 billion in 2002, indicating that employee salaries eat up a significant portion of that (about one-third).

A 2003 study by Michael Stegman and Robert Faris found that while the 2000 per-payday loan outlet profit in North Carolina was $57,999, the capital requirements for these outlets amount to at least $35,606. This doesn’t factor in wage costs, rent, marketing or administrative expenses, but it does include bounced-check fees, screening costs and loan losses.

You begin to see how expensive it is to operate a payday loan business. Flannery and Samolyk (2005) found that store costs and their revenues are related to store age, too. Start-up costs and establishing a clientele are difficult hurdles that have led newer entrants into the payday lending market to consider the online payday loan market.

A Cash Flow Example

Skiba and Tobacman present this hypothetical. Let’s say a payday loan store has $10,000 in capital at the beginning of the year. If risk is loan default risk is eliminated from the equation and 18 percent interest is earned every two weeks, the take would be $739,500 by year’s end. If annual wages amount to $30,000 (paid out every two weeks), that bill would be a large part of the $1,800 in interest income at the beginning of the year. At that time, the store would only early six percent on its capital. The year-end result would be an annual net of 2,150 percent, which is profitable but hardly extortionary.

So Someone Thinks Payday Lenders Should Only Charge by Cost?

Critics want a flat fee for payday loans – regardless of loan size – but the truth is that so many cost variables exist such as the cost of firms to originate payday loans that per-store differences in fees charged are necessary. Considering the explosive growth within the industry (200 stores observed in 1990 according to the authors vs. 30,000 in 2004), which came in no small part due to lobbying, there is both a consumer need for the product and an environment in which they can successfully exist on the subprime market.

Pricing behavior is largely regulated by oversight organizations like the Community Financial Services Association and the Online Lenders’ Association, but businesses that exist outside these member organizations may unfortunately set rates that are far beyond what is necessary. This is where government regulation can help rein in payday loan companies with the most excessive prices (even if this group may be in the minority of the industry), but excessive regulation is not desirable. Stifling market competition and limiting consumer choice are hardly a desirable alternative.

Once again, Personal Money Store proves that online payday loan customers have solid, steady incomes. Where's the exploitation? (Photo: picasaweb.google.com)

If you don’t already know that American news media is first and foremost an entertainment medium, allow me to be the one to break it to you. Sensationalism sells better than the truth. Biased story selection and reporting slant are inescapable, particularly when you consider the influence of corporate sponsorships. Since Wall Street and the American banking industry are monolithic entities, their money makes a big difference in what the public hears about the economy and the shenanigans that really led to the country’s economic collapse.

They Don’t Want You to Know that Payday Loans are Useful

So they create smear campaigns that accuse the payday lending industry of preying upon vulnerable segments of society, such as the poor and the elderly. However, many studies of the industry have proven this claim to be false. Looking at applicant demographics for Personal Money Store from June 1, 2009 to October 20, 2009, we see a different picture. Our online payday loan customers are not disadvantaged, too young or too old. They’re at a stage in life where they have financial experience and know how to spot a good deal when options are few.

The Numbers Tell the Story

Consider all customers who applied for an online payday loan on Personal Money Store (accepted or denied), here are some facts to ponder:

• Average age: 35. These are people who have some experience dealing with the financial shocks life can throw your way. As industry studies tend to show that many payday loan customers have young families, it may be safe to say that Personal Money Store’s average applicant is in a position where they need to be careful with the way they handle their finances.
• Average income: $31,690. That’s hardly poverty level, and that’s just for the individual applying. If you’re talking about 35-year-olds who are just beginning to come into their own career-wise, then you have someone who hasn’t reached their maximum earning potential yet. Perhaps their access to certain forms of credit has been limited due to a relative scarcity of liquid assets. This makes payday loans a more easily attainable option in an emergency.
• Average length of employment: 6 years. That’s an indication that the person is dependable, rather than transitory and risky. They’ve been trusted to do their job, which payday lenders definitely take into account.
• Average time at current address: 3 years. Again, this could be seen as a stability indicator. Constant relocation tends to walk hand-in-hand with fluctuating types of employment held and income levels. If a payday loan applicant is entrenched, perhaps they are less of a risk.
• Home ownership: 34 percent. While hardly a majority, this statistic is still significant. More than a third of Personal Money Store’s payday loan customers own their own home. That goes along with steady income and personal responsibility, as they have to make a monthly mortgage payment.
• Average time spent on application form: 4 minutes, 44 seconds. This tells us at least two things. First and foremost, it’s proof that it doesn’t take all that long to apply for an online payday loan. The application asks for standard information to establish a person’s employment, checking account existence, age and identity. It’s easy to complete. What this number might also tell us is that our customers aren’t rushing into the process too quickly; they’re being careful and carefully considering what the application requests.
• Percent of customers who apply for installment plans: 27.76 percent. This addresses another area where media and banking industry critics have it wrong. They claim that payday loans are a certain path toward an endless cycle of debt. Used improperly, they can cause harm. But so can Cheese Whiz. If a responsible customer (most people are responsible in this world, I find) needs to extend their repayment schedule due to unforeseen financial occurrence, installment plans are usually available.
• Percent of returning visitors out of all traffic: 4.64 percent. We hope you enjoy our site; let’s grow this number!
• Percent of applicants who are return visitors: 7.36 percent. We hope you enjoy our site; let’s grow this number! However, keep in mind that this stat also indicates that people who apply for payday loans at Personal Money Store aren’t being “roped in,” as if against their will, to that media-blustered endless cycle of debt.

The Numbers for Approved Applicants

Not everyone who applies for online payday loans at Personal Money Store receive a green light. It’s important that there are standards in place. These protect both lenders and the consumer.

• Average age: 37. Mature enough to know what financial decisions work best for them. Responsible enough to make good decisions for their families. That’s your average Personal Money Store payday loan customer in a nutshell.
• Average income: $36,000 for the applicant only. Above average in many instances, and certainly not too poor to be able to repay their payday loan debt.
• Average length of employment: 6 years. Stable.
• Average length at current address: 3 years. They’ve put down roots. Doing the right thing is important for them.
• Home ownership: 42 percent. That’s almost a 10 percent increase over the average for all applicants. It indicates responsibility and greater financial security. It goes to show that everyone can use a payday loan in a pinch.

Even Declined Applicants Show Experience, Solid Income

• Average age: 34.
• Average applicant income: $30,672.
• Average length of employment: 5 years.
• Average time at current address: 3 years.
• Home ownership: 31 percent.

Some Techie Stats For Our Online Payday Loan Applicants

You’ve heard the whole thing about the “browser wars,” right? While using Internet Explorer could be viewed as a negative in this day and age, the truth is that it has a large market share thanks to the preponderance of Windows software. Here’s a breakdown of what browsers Personal Money Store applicants use.

• Internet Explorer (all versions): 62.37 percent. It’s all about market share.
• Internet Explorer 7: 47.3 percent. Not everyone has upgraded to IE 8 yet.
• Internet Explorer 8: 32.09 percent. Here we go. But why not Firefox or Chrome?
• Internet Explorer 6: 20.57 percent. Nobody’s perfect.
• Firefox: 24.57 percent. This number seems likely to grow over time, although it may never catch IE, which has a big head start.
• Safari: 8.45 percent. Mac users take out payday loans, too.
• Chrome: 2.8 percent. This browser is relatively young, but it’s quite fast. Why not make your online payday loan application process that much faster?

Connection Speed

Personal Money Store customers have proven that they are living in the 21^st century, as at least three-quarters of applicants have access to broadband connections:

• Cable: 41.97 percent
• DSL: 23.83 percent
• T1: 9.99 percent
• Unknown: 20.82 percent. Yes, even international men and women of mystery need online payday loans.
• Dialup: 2.15 percent. I know it’s cheaper, but really? Payday loans can help with that.

So What Have We Learned Today?

Online payday loan customers at Personal Money Store do not fit the negative stereotypes the media would have you swallow hook, line and sinker. They are responsible and consider their options carefully, often because they have an entire family’s financial welfare to consider. They certainly aren’t being exploited. That’s the media’s job.

Get instant payday loans without leaving the house

I was chatting online with my friend one day, and he wrote, “OMG, I almost overdrew my bank account!” So I asked him what he did to avoid it, and he wrote “Yay for short term loanz!” (That’s how he spells it; he considers himself quite the comedian.) I asked him how he got his short term loan, and he told me he had gone to a local payday loan store.

“Didn’t you know you can get instant payday loans online?’ I wrote. He replied that he knew he could get a payday loan online, but he thought he’d have to wait to get his money, and he needed cash right then. “You needed it in less than two hours?” I asked. “Well … no,” he wrote.

Same money, less hassle

I told him that if he had applied for an instant payday loan at Personal Money Store, he would have had money deposited directly into his bank account in as little as two hours, he was surprised. When he thought about the time he’d spent going to the payday loan store and then going to his bank to deposit it, only to go home and pay bills online, he agreed that he’d have saved himself a lot of time and effort by getting a payday loan online.

Furthermore, he told me how much the lender’s fees were at the payday loan store, and they’re the same or even more than lender’s fees available online! I was glad we had that talk, and so was he. Next time he can save himself some hassle, some time and maybe even more money than he saved in the first place. He’d gotten a payday loan so he wouldn’t overdraw his bank account, so he ended up paying $17 rather than the $35-per-transaction bank overdraft fee.

If you need an instant payday loan, APPLY ONLINE for a hassle-free loan.

Brian Cox played Dr. Finch in "Running with Scissors" the movie.

Augusten Burrows’ book “Running with Scissors: A Memoir” was published in 2002. Since then, a lot of money has been going in a lot of different directions. To print the memoir, which was later relabeled a book, money went out. Zillions of copies sold, and money came in.

“Running with Scissors” spent four weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list. Not long after the book was published, the powers that be started talking about making it into a movie.

Running to the big screen

Of course, to make a movie, money had to go out. It cost $12 million to make “Running with Scissors” into a movie. Unfortunately, not that much money came in. The film only made $7 million at the box office.

The movie producers lost out on the movie, but unfortunately for Augusten Burrows, “Running with Scissors” was about to cost him, personally, a whole lot of money. We’re not talking about a few hundred dollars like an online payday loan, either.

Later, the lawsuit

It wasn’t until after the movie came out that the family who served as the centerpiece for “Running with Scissors” decided to sue Augusten Burrows. The patriarch, Dr. Finch in the book and movie but Dr. Rodolph H. Turcotte  in real life, was dead but his family was alive and well and seeking cash.

Augusten Burrows wasn’t the only one named in the lawsuit. The publisher of the book was sued as well. The family asked for $2 million in damages for defamation of character and invasion of privacy. The family said “Running with Scissors: A Memoir” exaggerated and fabricated their lives.

Liable for litigation

Luckily Augusten Burrows and the publisher only had to pay lawyers’ fees and not the $2 million the Turcottes were seeking. They did have to agree, though, to change the word “memoir” in the author’s note to the word “book.” Wikipedia says:

Burroughs felt vindicated by the settlement. “I’m not at all sorry that I wrote [the book]. And you know, the suit settled– it settled in my favor. I didn’t change a word of the memoir, not one word of it. It’s still a memoir, it’s marketed as a memoir, they’ve agreed one hundred percent that it is a memoir.

Getting personal

Although the movie was basically a flop, the book remains high on many people’s lists despite its dark, sometimes disturbing plot. One review on Amazon wrote:

There is a passage early in Augusten Burroughs’s harrowing and highly entertaining memoir, Running with Scissors, that speaks volumes about the author. While going to the garbage dump with his father, young Augusten spots a chipped, glass-top coffee table that he longs to bring home. “I knew I could hide the chip by fanning a display of magazines on the surface, like in a doctor’s office,” he writes, “And it certainly wouldn’t be dirty after I polished it with Windex for three hours.” There were certainly numerous chips in the childhood Burroughs describes: an alcoholic father, an unstable mother who gives him up for adoption to her therapist, and an adolescence spent as part of the therapist’s eccentric extended family, gobbling prescription meds and fooling around with both an old electroshock machine and a pedophile who lives in a shed out back.

No, I didn't buy this couch. But I got a kick out of it!

I planned for this story to be about how much I love Craigslist. Then I realized that Facebook had a hand in this event as well. Because of these web sites, I now have the perfect couch, and it was downright cheap.

About a month ago I moved into a new place. I didn’t own a couch because my previous roommates had couches. So, without the roommates I was left without a couch. It was OK because I had chairs. Chairs are great for sitting in, but there are times when you just need a couch. I couldn’t afford a new couch, even with an online payday loan, so I was in the marked for a “gently used” couch

The Facebook incident

Sometimes I feel like I only talk to people on Facebook. I went several years without talking to my cousin, Jill. However, now that we’re friends on Facebook we talk all the time. In fact, Jill and I have gotten so close thanks to Facebook that she asked if she could come for a visit.

Of course I said yes, but it remained a vague concept — until yesterday. Yesterday I was on Facebook, playing Scrabble, of course, and my cousin sent me an instant message. Not only did I find out that she had gotten a job –hooray! — she said she wanted to come visit before she started her job in a  month. So we had a time frame.

Time to go to Craigslist

I was very excited for my cousin to come visit, but I had a concern. If she came to visit me in my one-bedroom apartment, where would she sleep? I had earlier thought that maybe I could go without a couch, but now I realized that I definitely needed a couch.

Even though there was really no hurry, I went right to Craigslist after I finished my Scrabble move. I had been thinking about getting a couch for a while, so I had definite standards in mind. I wanted to spend $100 or less. I wanted a couch that was made of Ultrasuede and long enough for me to lay down on without putting my head or feet on the armrests. I thought I wanted tan or beige or some such color, but that was before I saw …

The black couch

I started browsing the Craiglist ads, skipping over the ads asking more than $100 and giggling and a tie-dyed couch. Then, after only a minute or so, I clicked on an ad for a couch and chair set. It had a photo of a very comfy-looking black couch with a matching cushy chair. Why hadn’t I thought of black? It’s my favorite color!

Best of all, the guy was only asking $75 for the set! I called him up, but he said someone was already on the way to look at it. He said he’d call back if that person didn’t buy it. I was disappointed, but knew I had plenty of time to find something. To my surprise, he did call back. It made me nervous that the other people didn’t want it, but I called my truck guy anyway and we headed over.

Load it up!

The second I laid eyes on the couch, I loved it. It looked even better than the picture. I made sure I fit on it horizontally and checked for weird smells, and I was sold! Contrary to Craigslist tradition, I didn’t even haggle with the guy. I happily handed over the $75, and we loaded the couch and chair into the truck.

Imagine that, I got more than I was looking for, it cost less than I was willing to spend and on the very day I started looking. Only on Craiglist!

Lenny Dykstra was one of my favorite baseball players. He combined speed, hustle, plate discipline and a near-fanatical desire to destroy his opponents on the baseball field. They called him “Nails” for a reason.

Like numerous other athletes, however, Dykstra took the unfortunate slide into financial ruin after his days on the field came to a close. For many, this happens because they never learned how to handle their money and their spending habits begin to outpace their income. Lenny Dykstra was successful in business for a time, but similar bad habits and (according to a recent HBO feature) aggressive disregard for reality and financial obligations. Now he’s living in a fantasy world where everyone else is at fault.

Don’t be like Lenny Dykstra, people. Pay your debts. If you need a little help to keep from going into debt due to a small situation that could cause big trouble if left unchecked, consider a cash advance or online payday loan.

(Not) workin’ at the car wash

Mark Kram reports for the Philadelphia Daily News that a new episode of HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” will feature an update on a story they ran back in March of 2008 on former Philadelphia Phillies star Lenny Dykstra. As correspondent Bernard Goldberg will remind us, the outfielder-turned-businessman has been the target of 20 lawsuits that have come as a direct result of his apparent dirty dealings and deadbeat ways.

Dykstra has lived the high life on the promise that “I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” Skipping out on checks, not paying for services employed and leading people astray in the stock market have become his pathetic modus operandi. Now the past has caught up with Lenny Dykstra, and he’s broke. To show just what kind of guy the chaw-gnashing, ex-car wash baron is, Goldberg will have a group of people appear during the segment who have been stiffed by Dykstra. According to Kram, one of these is a  flight attendant who claims “Nails” pounded her credit card for $10,700 to reserve a private plane. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Things have been on the rocks for Dykstra (perhaps literally, if you listen to him speak), and he has a divorce from his wife of 23 years and upcoming foreclosure on his $18.5 million estate to show for it.

A crazy scene

“Lenny? Anybody home? Hello? Mr. Dykstra?”

Nearly half an hour later, Dykstra comes downstairs. As Goldberg puts it, they launch into “something vaguely resembling a conversation.” Denials stain the walls like tobacco juice, including one that he doesn’t owe a penny of the $280,000 a magazine venture says he does. It goes something like this, writes Kram:

DYKSTRA: Who? Tell me who I owe?

GOLDBERG: Let’s go through a few people. The printers . . .

DYKSTRA: F— the printers. The printers are criminals.

GOLDBERG: The flight attendant?

DYKSTRA: F— the flight attendant . . . They all think they can come here and steal my money.

Not even plausible deniability

Just so you know that Dykstra still thinks he’s flying high (literally?), he flashes a wad of cash, similar to the silly graphics you occasionally find on cash advance and online payday loan Web sites. Not here, mind you.

It turns out to be $75, which Goldberg points out doesn’t make him rich. But Dykstra replies “I never carry less than $1,000. But flying high? Looks like I’m still flying pretty f—— high. And by the way, I’m flying higher.”

Not according to one of the panel of victims Goldberg interviews. A former personal assistant for Lenny Dykstra claims that she was constantly “consoling” cursing people to whom Dykstra owed money. This same assistant wonders why people ever put their faith in her former employer to make stock picks with his “Nails on the Numbers” venture. They “fronted [Dykstra] with the hope that [they] could trust him,” she says

By the way, the assistant won a $7,400 small claims judgment against Dykstra. He hasn’t paid that yet, either.

And he thinks he’s the victim

True, no criminal charges have been filed against Lenny Dykstra as yet. But can that be far behind?

He probably thinks Senator George Mitchell has a vendetta against him, too. You see, the performance enhancing drug report Mitchell compiled for Major League Baseball in 2007 happens to have Lenny’s name in it. Thus, he is marked as a steroid user. But Dykstra will deny he used until his dying day.

Nails swung and missed a lot

Getting back on the horse after a failure is a good thing. But if you swing and miss continually, you should at least take a look at your bat to make sure there are no holes in it. Lenny Dykstra owned three car washes in southern California that he sold for a reported $55 million. Tax evasion charges played a role in that decision. Then came Lenny Dykstra the publisher and Lenny Dykstra the investment expert. In both cases, huckstery and dereliction followed him (remember, he’s the VICTIM, not the perpetrator). All the while, he was investing in private jets, $400,000 German cars and his now threadbare estate.

And if Dykstra’s responses to Goldberg are any indication, he has yet to learn his lesson. At one point, he flashes a picture of a dog he plans to buy for $10,000.

“That’s a world champion, that’s the only dog I’ll buy.”

Know how you get to be a world champion? Through hard word, honesty and sound decision-making. A cash advance or online payday loan won’t make you rich and won’t make you poor, but used properly, they can keep a situation from pounding nails into your financial coffin.

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Remember how things were before the recession? There was a lot to do; my many clients sent emails requesting work. I got out of bed early in the morning to write and I wrote late into the night to keep up with the demand. Everyone paid their accounts, in full and on time and life was pretty hectic. Then, almost without warning, came the recession. It was called a ‘downturn’, a ‘slowdown’, an ‘adjustment’ and only when it got very serious did it turn into a global disaster where it remains to this day.

Life changed

Life changed, alright. For the first time I was forced to take an Online Payday Loan to keep a few creditors from breaking down the door. I had always been a good payer, probably the best payer in town. There was plenty of money in the bank so why keep people waiting for theirs? The work requests twitched a couple of times and then lay still. I searched around but there was nothing. So I introduced a few little changes as well, in keeping with the changes in the overall economy. I took a crossword break/nap on the couch after lunch. No point in sitting in front of a non-moving computer, is there? I went shopping with my wife to the supermarket mainly to supervise the spending hold-back that I had introduced. I had an occasional morning coffee shop meeting with other unemployed colleagues. And then there’s the beach…

I like it

It’s easy to get used to a life of idleness. Bertrand Russell, the twentieth century’s most important liberal thinker, wrote in his essay, In Praise of Idleness, “I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached.” I agree. I have come to enjoy idleness.

Back to earth

A phone call from my old engineering office jolted me out of my pleasant life. The company is hanging onto life by its fingernails, mainly by not completing work for a major client. “Please be in the office at 2 pm sharp!” I was on the highway threading my way through the traffic at 1:00 pm for the 20 mile drive. In the office I was introduced to Gordon, “who has joined the organization and is taking over marketing. Please support him.” The office pays me a minor retainer just to be around so I nodded blankly wondering where Gordon was going to find a place to market.

Work!

Wherever he’s going to market, he’s demanding a whole slew of background work from me. I swallowed, cancelled a coffee meeting with Sid, my unemployed architect friend, and started work. Ten minutes later an email sailed in from an old and trusted client asking if I could do some work for her in a hurry? No problem, I replied and added 3 days to Gordon’s timetable. His response was icy. A phone call – “I understand you are a writer. How would you like to edit a 200 page memoir that my father wrote some years back? He’s decided he would like to publish it after all.”

No more work

I am not opening emails nor am I answering the phone. I am suffering from mixed feelings. It’s great to be working again but I’m dying to get back to a life of recession.

Owen Van Natta

This week, social networking giant MySpace eliminated 30 percent of its workforce. Who knew the once-biggest, most well-known and first “major” social networking site would fall victim to the economy?

Perhaps it doesn’t have anything to do with the economy. Maybe the company really did just want to return to a “startup culture” and “restore an environment of innovation,” like MySpace executive Owen Van Natta told the New York Times. Or maybe it was something else.

Facebook is in your face

Facebook crept up on MySpace a bit, I think. It started off only allowing college students to join. Then it allowed high schoolers. Ever since it opened the floodgates to a “come one, come all” guest list, there’s no doubt it has overtaken a huge share of the social networking market. Though Facebook can be used for marketing things like online payday loans, it is mostly a quick, easy way to connect with and keep up with friends, acquaintances and business contacts.

For a while, it seemed everyone had a Facebook account and a MySpace account. As applications and features and news feeds made Facebook a downright addiction for most users, MySpace lost its luster for many. It just doesn’t have the slick design, speedy application downloads and overall classiness that Facebook seems to exude.

He knows the trade

Interestingly, the man who now runs MySpace, Owen Van Natta, used to be an executive for Facebook. At least he has some experience in the field. It seems a little shady that just two months after Van Natta was hired by News Corporation to run MySpace he announced a 30 percent reduction in workforce.

But, business is business. If he already worked for the seemingly more successful social networking giant, he must know a little about the job.

“I understand that these changes are painful for many. They are also necessary for the long-term health and culture of MySpace. Our intent is to return to an environment of innovation that is centered on our user and our product.”

By the numbers

MySpace now has fewer than 1,000 employees. According to the New York Times, Facebook matches MySpace traffic in the United States even though MySpace still has more members:

According to comScore, Facebook recently matched MySpace in traffic in the United States — the one country where MySpace, with 70 million members, still had an advantage.

That statistic doesn’t surprise me at all. Think of all of those MySpace accounts that say “last login 2005.” You know, the ones who are only friends with Tom? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, head to MySpace and just start searching random common names.

More from MySpace

Jonathan Miller, chief executive of Digital Media for News Corporation, which owns MySpace, had some things to say about the big layoffs:

“MySpace grew too big considering the realities of today’s marketplace. I believe this restructuring will help MySpace operate much more effectively both structurally and financially moving forward. I am confident in MySpace’s next phase under the leadership of Owen and his team.”

I never thought I’d need a payday loan, but I never thought my six-year-old would be playing with a neighbor kid whose parents are cutters, either. They cut themselves and each other for emotional distraction. Or something. I’m not really interested in the reason. I just know they do it and I don’t want my kid anywhere near it.

I needed a payday loan

When the mother of my son’s playmate showed me a fresh, three-inch-long, flayed-open cut across her left shoulder – this newest one wasn’t self-inflicted, she confided, it was a gift from her husband who had been feeling emotional the night before – I had my ducks lined up before she had her sleeve rolled back down. I was moving out. The only duck I was missing was an online payday loan.

I had five days left on my lease

I have good credit, but I refuse to use credit cards. I’m a single parent, but my ex-spouse doesn’t pay child support. My job is my only source of income. Moving is always a financial set-back, and I’ve done it five times — once a year –  since I got divorced. About a year ago, I moved into a duplex because the owners of the house I had been renting before that sold it. I had a one-year lease on the duplex, and the term was up at the end of May. I had five days left on the lease.

I had never trusted the neighborhood, so I hadn’t offered to renew the lease on the duplex. I could continue to rent by paying on a month-to-month basis, or I could leave at the end of the month. I had decided to rent month-to-month until I could afford to move. But after my eye-opener of a chat with the neighbor, I no longer cared about the money.

It takes money to save money

A couple of weeks earlier, I had looked at a rental unit in a four-plex in a much better neighborhood. It’s just around the corner from where I work and a short walk away from my son’s school. I was surprised to find out that the rent was only $500 a month — $250 a month less than what I was paying at the duplex. But I didn’t think I could afford to move.

Moving is expensive; it doesn’t matter whether you’re moving across town or across the country. I could scrape together $1300 of the $1500 I would need for the first and last month’s rent and security deposit. But I was short $200 plus whatever it would cost to rent a moving truck and get set up in a new place. So even though the rent at the four-plex was so much lower, I had decided to wait.

I needed cash today

I hurried my neighbor and her emotional distractions out the door, put my kid in the car, and drove back to the four-plex. I called the number and waited for the owner to come show it to me again. Within an hour, the owner had done his background and credit checks, and I had signed a lease starting on the first day of June. I had also written a $1500 check post-dated by two days.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that 20 minutes later I was online and had an instant payday loan for $500. The funds were in my account the next day. I rented a truck and four days later, I was out.

Now I walk to work and my kid is safe

My duplex landlord wasn’t happy about my departure, and as I had expected, he refused to return my deposits. My $500 cash advance was paid back on my next payday by an automatic deduction from my checking account. So money has been really tight, but I haven’t had to put gas in the car since I moved, I’ve been walking home for lunch, and I’ll be $250 ahead when I pay my rent at the end of this month.

Today I filed an action in small claims court to get my deposits back, but all I really care about is that I got my son away from the cutters. It’s a good thing I didn’t rely on my landlord to refund my deposits. That cash advance was the perfect solution.

Sometimes, I wonder why people Google certain things. Often the top search terms that appear on Google Trends are related to breaking political, economic or entertainment news. But sometimes, the results are simply surreal. Like parts of this article.

Yes, I’ll admit that I’m not watching the Today show, Dr. Phil, Oprah or Regis and Kelly. People are watching those programs while seated at their computers. They’re searching for subjects brought up on those shows; I get that. But what is it that has drawn the attention of the online public to Salvador Dali’s class surrealist painting “The Persistence of Memory?”

Sure, you can take a look at it online and understand that time is ephemeral, but that doesn’t solve your budget-busting issues. An online payday loan (or military payday loans if you are so inclined) will not melt. They will persistently boost your bottom line when the bottom threatens to drop out of your corrugated sailing shingle of waxwork, your linguine razor at the ready for encounters with overdraft mavens of monkish solemnity. Fish fall from the iPhone; log, rinse and rephrase your seven-year financial itch plan. Be a responsible flounder.

Dali persists

Paul Simon saw angels in the architecture, Christopher Hume of The Toronto Star sees the surreal in the shelter hulks surrounding our solitary, shambling flesh villages. Dali and the surrealists had a great influence on the art form of buildings. Is it purposeful? Is it accidental? Barcelona is known in no small part for the architecture of Antonio Gaudi, whose melting churches and muezzin Moor structures sing the charms of a great city. Yet Paris, which is considered the “Mother City” of surrealism, stands as rational as the Arc de Triomphe and majestic as the Eiffel Tower. Few irrationalities melt the landscape like butter love. It splashes at random on Mexico City, Mumbai and beyond, so you see it’s difficult to find a coherent surreal plan among the architecture angels. But that could be part of the plan.

Toronto, writes Hume, appears on the surface to be far from a hotbed for surrealism. But the odd juxtapositions make for a varied landscape. “High-Anglican Gothic” and post-war modern slammed together with the rugged Canadian landscape to create an outwardly searching mix. That’s one side of it, but “starchitecture” projects with a dash of the surreal (as Hume puts it) also define the city. Spiral staircases leave buildings on their way to the stars. Daniel Libeskind’s “crystals” of glass and aluminum and glass from walls speak to the brain from the unconscious quarry. And then there’s Will Alsop’s flying tabletops that pay duties to the memories of M.C. Esher.

Irrational civic enterprise

Sometimes, a certain persistence of memory applies to the tiny public spaces of Hume’s city. Order is on the edge of melting, but it won’t go away. It may change beyond recognition, but it’s there. The reporter mentions “the north side of Charles St., east of Yonge, beside the entrance to 30 Charles,” where there is an opening to no place in particular (unless that is your destination to begin with). Follow the trail in no particular way and you’ll stand upon a concrete platform with a bike encircled by towers.

What is happening in this space? It’s leftover, it’s nothing, it’s something particular. It is certainly deliberate. The bike will remain so long as the towers stand and our own persistence of the memory erects barriers of reason. We give the bike purpose, yet wonder persistently at just how still a still life can be when invisible pelicans transport potential energy in their bills and laws.

Leaving Toronto

Hume’s persistence of memory for his local landscape leads him just outside to Mississauga next. “An empty sunburnt landscape seen through the wrong end of a telescope,” he calls it. “Marilyn Monroe” twin condos sashay across the street from the “metaphysical” city hall. The ladies bring their feminine swerve with no reserve, breasts, hips and thighs to the sky. Mississauga City Hall, wings about to take flight, spires and postmodern bracing against the persistence of memory for all things boring, is about angles rather than curves. They’re sexy buildings, daring buildings, far from utilitarian.

Mississauga was built fast, writes Hume. It has little persistence of memory on its own, as it has had no time to sit back and ponder itself. “There’s less occasion for the conscious mind to intervene and the results are closer to the irrational impulses the surrealists celebrated,” he writes.

Of madelines and amygdalas

Enough about Toronto. The vehicle being driven here is a V8 Dali, complete with vitamins, minerals and nasal-labial exodus that stir our imaginations. We feel the Persistence of Memory in different ways. But the common thread is emotion. Marcel Proust in “Swann’s Way” testifies to taste and smell

But when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, taste and smell alone, more fragile but more enduring, more immaterial, more persistent, more faithful, remain poised a long time, like souls, remembering, waiting, hoping, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unflinchingly, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection.

What triggers us? What floats our boat? Google searchers know that the amygdala is involved. Significant research points to the connection between the emotion centers of the brain (like the amygdala) and memory… Proust knew (and scientists know) that memory and emotion cannot be separated. From the scientists:

The amygdala and hippocampal complex, two medial temporal lobe structures, are linked to two independent memory systems, each with unique characteristic functions. In emotional situations, these two systems interact in subtle but important ways. Specifically, the amygdala can modulate both the encoding and the storage of hippocampal-dependent memories. The hippocampal complex, by forming episodic representations of the emotional significance and interpretation of events, can influence the amygdala response when emotional stimuli are encountered. Although these are independent memory systems, they act in concert when emotion meets memory.

Feelings are a persistence of memory

The unconscious mind takes the lead in how memories serve us. In pleasure, pain and utility (or a combination of these elements), persistence of memory is anything but rational. Rationality is a tool we can choose to wield, but the mind resists absorbing it within. The way is shut like a injunction between sperm and seed. In order to accept the surrealism that shapes us, we must accept the power of the unconscious mind. It’s a rational transaction in an other irrational chain of life for us organisms scratching a life here. Oh, an online payday loan and military payday loans are also rational choices. But what life can throw at us is frequently irrational, so we must be persistent in applying the best tools available to surmount choirs and choirs of trouble. It’s what Salvador Dali did in his life, even when the persistence of memory would melt and decay. He chronicled the cycle of degradation and survival.

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Job layoffs, plunging retirement accounts, home foreclosures — the ripples of the recession are affecting us all. Like many Americans, you may have a limited income and no savings. You may have been turned down for credit or own maxed-out credit cards. You may have damaged credit for any number of reasons, including a previous bankruptcy filing. If these are your financial demographics, you are a direct target for payday lenders and you may be trapped in a habit of borrowing between paychecks that you can’t seem to break.

Don’t be tempted.

Everyone’s situation is different, but if you’re living from paycheck to paycheck, this much is certain: it’s not easy to make ends meet and payday advances are tempting. Anyone who’s ever applied for an online payday loan is set upon by email messages like these every day: You’re just moments away from cash in your pocket today; Last chance for money before this weekend‏; Is Payday too far away? Make it happen tomorrow; Claim your cash eligibility by midnight tonight; Get cash with bad or no credit.  And the onslaught never ends.

Go cold turkey.

If you’re trapped in a payday loan cycle, you will never begin to regain financial control until you say “no” to the next instant payday loan. This will mean that you will have to scrape by between paychecks. It will mean that you will have to stop paying for unnecessary things like health clubs, lawn maintenance, cable, internet service, and cell phones.

If you consider any of those things to be necessary for your survival, getting out of the payday loan trap will require you to redefine what is necessary and to pare your definition down until it includes only those things required to keep your job, a roof over your head, and food on your table. Getting out will require that you sit down and prioritize your basic living expenses like housing and essential utilities, and make whatever sacrifices you must in order to pay for those things. To break the payday loan habit, you have to stop suddenly and completely.

Change the way you live and then get help.  In that order.

Change the way you live.

Getting out of the payday loan trap will require you to make drastic changes in your spending habits. You will have to give up new clothes, lattes, and movies. You may have to shop only at thrift and discount stores. You may have to ride a bike everywhere you possibly can instead of driving a car.You may even  have to give up difficult-to-break but expensive habits like smoking. If you aren’t doing so already, you may have to live with a damaged credit report.

Change the way your family lives.

Getting out of the payday loan trap may mean that your kids can’t take karate or dance or ski lessons. They will have to do only those things that cost nothing or next to nothing. They may have to ride bikes or play in a park or go on local day hikes instead of playing on a soccer team. They may have to camp out in the back yard instead of going off to summer camp. They may have to work on art projects or read books from the library instead of watching TV or playing on a computer. They may have to walk your dog or the neighbor’s dog instead of going to the mall. It may take some doing on your part, but your kids will survive these modern-day deprivations.

Then get help.

If you are not willing to make drastic changes in your lifestyle, there is no sense in hiring anyone to help you with your payday loans or other debts. But if you can first do what it takes to break the payday loan habit by living within your means, then take the next step and get advice from a bankruptcy attorney or a debt solutions company.

Today, if you get a Facebook message that says “check whitemart.be,” don’t do it.

In case you haven’t been faced with this situation before, and thus haven’t read up on how this whitemart.be scam and others work, here’s a little rundown.

Just your run-of-the-mill password theft

So in these Facebook phishing scams, a dummy web site that looks like the Facebook login page appears. In this case, that dummy site is whitemart.be. The phishers want to dupe you into plugging in your username and password so they can steal them.

The phishers then use the login information you gave them at to send out more “check whitemart.be” messages to your friends using your Facebook account.

Avoid identity theft

Really, I don’t know what is the point of these whitemart.be phishing scams. Entertainment for the scammers? What I do know is that letting some hacker stranger get a hold of your password is not a good idea. You could end up with an online payday loan that you didn’t get in your name.

If you use the same password for an online bank account or anything that contains your credit card number or other personal information, you could end up getting your identity or your money stolen.

What do do

So, if you get a message that says “check whitemart.be,” does that mean you have to delete your Facebook page, change all your passwords and start over? No, just delete it.

Simply opening the message won’t cause any harm. Just do not click on the link, whatever you do. Delete the message, ignore it, and trust me when I say that checking out whitemart.be “just out of curiosity” is not going to pay off in any way.

Same old story

These Facebook phishers are just keeping at it. They’ve already used dozens of addresses to create dummy web sites and steal people’s login information.

Some of the previous sites were 121.im, 151.im, fbstarter.com, ponbom.im … you get the idea. They will no doubt have a new one next week and continue their little scam until people quit falling for it or they get caught.

Don’t panic, just don’t click

I have gotten a phishing scam message on my Facebook page before, so I know from personal experience that these messages are very easy to recognize. The message came from someone who I wouldn’t ordinarily get a message from.

It was a former coworker who I hadn’t talked to or seen for a while. The message said nothing other than “check 121.im.” I was a little tempted to click on it, just to see what it was. Then I remembered that these password-stealing scams had been going on for weeks.

I knew better then to click on the link, and now you do too. You and your Facebook page are safe as long as you do not follow the instructions if you get a message that says “check whitemart.be.”

My neighbors are afraid of me because I mow my quarter-acre yard with a push reel mower – the kind without an engine. I never use my automatic sprinkler system. I do not fertilize my grass.  I rake by hand several times a year. I’m not really a foreigner, but my neighbors really are xenophobes. My yard care methods frighten them. I carry a trowel with me and weed by hand every time I mow, and this scares them more than all my other unorthodox practices put together.

My neighbors spend cash today

I live in a high-desert city and because I don’t water, my grass turns brown right when the chemically-addicted and irrigation-saturated lawns of my neighbors are at their spongiest green. Mine turns green in very late winter or early spring, when theirs are still brown and waiting for  mid-spring, chemical wake-up calls. By the time the dandelions are wreaking havoc in my neighbors’ yards and waiting to be doused with broad-leaf killer, I’ve dug mine out by hand and have not one yellow pom-pom or gossamer white seed head to show for my efforts.

I don’t need an online payday loan for my summer vacation

I mow like crazy in the mild mid-spring weather, but by mid-summer when temperatures begin to soar and rain is a distant memory, my grass crop is winding down for dormancy. And my neighbors hate this. That’s when I take my summer vacation by relaxing in a comfortable lawn chair with a good book and a cool beverage while I contemplate my neighbors’ vicious cycles of watering and mowing and watering and mowing and watering and mowing ad nauseam.

I don’t need credit cards for a mower or a health club

When I moved into my place three springs ago and broke out the brand new reel mower I’d just paid $69 for, my neighbor to the east asked me if I thought I’d still be using it in August. Minutes later, my neighbor to the west (who is at least 100 pounds overweight and gaining) warned me that I’d get ‘buff’ if I kept using ‘that thing.’ I didn’t see any reason to tell him that ‘buff’ would require more than walking behind a reel mower a couple hours per week.

I don’t have to worry about credit repair — that’s what neighbors are for

Not to be outdone, my neighbor across the street came over and confided to me that he ‘used to have one of those mowers, too,’ but that after he got through his tough financial times with a debt-relief program, he was able to buy a power mower. He kept it in the shed behind the house, and I was welcome to use it at any time whatever.

My neighbors water their lawns even when it rains. I let the rain water mine.

I sat at a meeting yesterday, one of about 50 people invited by the mayor to discuss the development of the proposed new park. How boring can a meeting be? First they discussed the site and then they discussed the access to the site and the traffic and the parking and traffic and the traffic. I doodled on the pad in front of me, I uncorked the bottle of water they had provided and I took a sip, corrected my doodle, squirmed around in my seat and finally sneaked a glance at the guy next to me.

He was semi-comatose, his head resting on his hand, his eyes half closed but fully glazed and his town-hall sized watch showing me that we had been sitting here in the never-ending traffic for 3 hours. Then I saw that his watch was a Rolex and I leaned in a little closer to take a better look. How often do I even get near a Rolex anyway? I remember thinking that maybe I could take an Online Payday Loan and buy myself a watch, something a little more modest than the Rolex, but one that would still get me into a town council meeting on its looks.

The great eruption

“Is that thing real?” I asked him. I heard later that people out in the street heard the eruption that came from the Rolex man. Talk about going ballistic! The guy went berserk.

I understand that is was a rather tactless remark, and I will apologize when I see him again. I will explain that in times of a recession things are different and people behave differently. I will tell him that I saw the watch, that I had never seen one like it; that the closest I have ever been to one is in the pictures of the replica watches that sail unceasingly into my computer and so I had questioned his. I am delighted that it is real and I will always remember sitting next to it.

It’s all due to the recession

By coincidence I received one of these spam/junk mails today. It offers a wide range of Watches, Bags and Wallets and Jewelry and Accessories. The website is slick and pleasant and the goods look great.

If things are tight and I’m personally having a slow time and constantly fending off my aggressive bank manager, why shouldn’t I buy one of these watches? I like walking around looking good.

What shall I buy?

All the watches in the spam letter are priced at $229, no matter if they are gold, titanium, aluminum or stainless steel. I like the Breguet watch, it is finely designed and looks very elegant. I have to say that I have never seen one of these watches excerpt in an ad, so I looked it up. Wikipedia tells me that the company was founded by Abraham Louis Breguet in Paris in 1775 and is now part of The Swatch Group. I’ll have one of those, please, at $229.

I see in the ad that if I buy 2, I’ll get a 15% discount. I’ll take one for my wife then and qualify for the free shipping as well.

Print a poem on colorful, decorative paper and frame it to show Mom how special she is.

I am sure your mother would agree with me that you should not get an online payday loan to buy her a Mother’s Day present. In fact, if she is like my mother, she wouldn’t even approve of putting a gift on a credit card.

Mother’s Day poems are a wonderful, creative way of showing your love an appreciation without spending a penny. But writing a poem can be a lot of pressure, especially if you’re not a creative type.

Find Mother’s Day poems online

The good news is, there are some great collections of Mother’s Day poems online. Pick one that reminds you of your mom, find some colorful graphics or even family photos that you can integrate into it, print it out on a color printer, and voila. If you’re artistic you could decorate the paper yourself. Or, go to a scrapbooking store and find some fancy predesigned paper.

Even though you didn’t write the poem yourself, she’ll appreciate it if you pick one that really expresses how you feel. Be prepared with tissues. Here are some good sites to check out for Mother’s Day poems:

• Poemsforfree.com
• Apples4theTeacher.com
• TheHolidaySpot.com
• Funmunch.com

Snippets from Mother’s Day poems

These sites also have poems for grandmothers and other mother-figure types. Here are some examples from poems I found online.

With dreams enough of what I was to be
And hopes that would be sculpted by the years,
Then bit by bit stepped back to set me free,

Relinquishing your powers gradually
To let me shape myself among my peers.
Before I was myself you made me, me

-From “Before I Was Myself You Made Me,” author unknown

Sometimes Mom in passing
Would pat you on the back
And sometimes in passing
She’d show you the right track.

Sometimes Mom in passing
Would say, “You sure look nice!”
And sometimes in passing
She could, make you, think twice.

-From “In Passing,” by Del “Abe” Jones

“Happy Mother’s Day” means more
Than have a happy day.
Within those words lie lots of things
We never get to say.
It means I love you first of all,
Then thanks for all you do.
It means you mean a lot to me,
And that I honor you.

-From “Happy Mother’s Day” by Kay Hunt

A Mother’s love, is sure to find
A way to comfort, ease your mind

She knows just how, to build you up
When you’re so down, and can’t look up

You love the way, she makes you feel
Like you’re so special, her ideal

-From “Mother,” by Roger Robicheau

If you’re selling your home, you need to do everything you can to attract buyers. The importance of curb appeal – the way your home appears to potential buyers when they drive by or arrive for a showing – can’t be overstated. Curb appeals sells. But spending money to improve the curb appeal of your home can seem daunting if you have cash flow problems, and plenty of sellers today are strapped for cash.  Fortunately, maximizing the curb appeal of your home doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. If money is a problem, there’s plenty you can do without spending a dime and even more you can do with the help of an easy online payday loan.

Take off your metaphorical home-owner glasses

In an ideal world we might not judge a book by its cover or a house by its exterior. But the plain fact is that in a competitive market, many buyers will decide whether or not to take a look inside your house based on the way it appears from the street.
It can be difficult to look at your own house the way a potential buyer would. The comfort of “home” comes from being really used to a place — to the way it looks as well as the way it functions. When a house is our home, we don’t see its faults. To assess the curb appeal of your own home, you must take off your home-owner glasses and look at your property through the eyes of a stranger.

And take a literal step back

Walk down your driveway or street to the point where a buyer will get the first view of your house, and take a discerning look. Be as objective as you can and ask yourself these questions:

• What do I see first?
• What are the best exterior features of this property, and how can I maximize them?
• What are the worst exterior features of this property, and how can I minimize them?

Take a self-guided tour

get rid of curb clutter

Start where a potential buyer would park a car and walk towards your house.  Look around as if you were seeing it for the first time. How inviting is the approach to the house? What could you do to make it more appealing? Sometimes just cleaning up landscape debris and clearing away outdoor clutter will make a world of difference. Photos don’t lie; take a few. Get rid of distracting objects. A good rule to follow when you’re cleaning up is: if you have to ask whether an object is distracting, it is. Get it out of sight. Don’t be sentimental. What may be a charming knick-knack to you is distracting clutter to a potential buyer.

Check the rear view

Potential buyers taking a drive-by look will make an effort to see into the back yard. If your back yard is visible from another street or a neighbor’s driveway, include it in your curb appeal assessment. Remember, the goal is to get buyers to look inside the house, and the minute they do that, your back yard is on display. So give the back  a critical assessment and thorough clean-up, too.

Start with the approach

Tackle clean-up and maintenance chores first. There’s always plenty you can do without spending much, if any, money.
• Clean up sidewalks, roof and driveway
• Clean windows and gutters
• Pressure-wash siding and decks
• Put away garden tools, toys, and anything that might be seen as clutter
• Mow the lawn and get rid of weeds
• Edge sidewalks and remove weeds between concrete sections or bricks
• Rake up and dispose of leaves and yard debris
• Trim lower tree limbs, especially those near the roof

Then move on to the entry

Once you get buyers up the approach to your home, the next thing they see is the front entry. Ask yourself whether some simple repairs or upgrades would improve it. The first tactile impression most buyers receive comes the front door handle. At a minimum, make sure it works properly. The door should open and close smoothly, and the handles and lock should be properly adjusted. It is crucial that the front door handles and locks not require special touches – little “tricks” that you’ve gotten used to but that potential buyers won’t appreciate having to learn.  If your front entry does not measure up, consider these improvements:
• Install a more attractive front door
• Install a new doorbell
• Clean or replace exterior light fixtures
• Replace hardware on existing door
• Paint or stain existing door
• Polish and adjust existing hardware

Be objective and prioritize your projects

Remember, the goal is to get potential buyers to look at your home. To do that, you must get them up the approach and through the front door. So take an objective survey and prioritize what needs to be done. Do the free things first and if you need to invest a little money, consider getting a cash advance installment loan.

Mine That Bird and jockey Calvin Borel

Superfecta bettors who placed just $1 on the combination of Mine That Bird, Pioneer of the Nile, Musket Man and Papa Clem to come in first, second, third and fourth, respectively, will be rolling in the dough.

Each $1 superfecta bet wins $278,503. While this amount is, of course, before taxes, superfecta winners will take home six figures for a $1 bet. The winners won’t be needing debt relief now.

Do the math

The win amount is so huge because Mine That Bird was running against 50-1 odds. A total of 23 people correctly guessed who the top four horses would be.

CNBC reports at SportsBiz that this year, you could have bet on every combination of the 19 horses in the race to win and still made pretty good money. A $1 bet on every superfecta combination would have cost $93,024. But, Darren Rovell warns, “if you did this for every Derby, you’d lose most of the time.”

You wouldn’t want to need an online payday loan to pay off your gambling debts.

Another historic superfecta

This year marks the biggest superfecta payout since 2005, when only seven lucky winners struck it rich with their $1 bets. That year the payout was $864,253.

Kentucky Derby history

The Kentucky Derby is the oldest horse race in the United States and North America’s second-oldest. The Kentucky Derby has been around since 1875.

Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr., who was grandson of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition, was very influential in organizing the Kentucky Derby. For the first several years, the Kentucky Derby was a 1.5-mile race. In 1896 it was modified to its current 1.25 miles.

Still to come

The Kentucky Derby is the first competition of the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. The next race, Preakness Stakes, will be held May 15. It is always on the third Saturday in May at Pimlico Race course in Baltimore, Maryland.

After Preakness Stakes comes Belmont Stakes, the final leg. It is always three weeks after Preakness Stakes, so this year it will be June 5. Belmont Stakes is held at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.