i.e. Property Scheme

Lester, my college adviser, is moving to Phoenix, Arizona because he got a great teaching offer in Collins College. Although his salary rate pretty much doubled from his current job, he’s still not sure if he’ll just avail of the school faculty housing or buy a house in Arizona.

He asked one of his future co-faculty from Phoenix about the great places where he could buy a house. She suggested Carefree, Cave Creek, Paradise Valley, Pinnacle Peak, Rio Verde and Scottsdale. I advised him to think about it twice. Just because one’s salary doubled doesn’t mean you ought to splurge at whim. The places his future colleague suggested were more of luxury real estate. I didn’t want him to end up broke with paying off a luxury house should something happen with his future job.

He ended up consulting a dedicated Phoenix real estate agent and realtor who gave him several options and suggested some other places with stylish but not posh houses that will suit his budget. Should this happen to you, I hope you do the same – seek professional advice first.

People always say that home is where the heart is. I have to agree with them. But then again, during times like financial crisis, I cannot help but wish that I am a UK resident.

“Why in UK of all places?” you might ask. It’s simple, really. UK residents are privileged enough to have Payday Loans like the RobertsBridgeFinancial.com wherein you can easily get a Cash Advance ranging from £80 up to a substantial value of £750 to help you bridge the gap in between salary days. What makes it really cool is that it saves you the hassle from falling in line or waiting just to collect and pay your loan – you can do both electronically! To cap it off, according to their website, “Roberts Bridge Financial is a financial matching service”. That is, it matches prospective borrowers with prospective lenders and your information may be forwarded to one of several independent loan companies. How convenient can a Salary Advance get?

Oh, and did I mention that it would only take you about 10 minutes to complete an application form online? Impressive, huh? If only I was a UK resident, I do not have to worry about making ends meet whenever an emergency arises in between paydays. Oh well, I’ll just keep my fingers crossed and hope that there will be offers like that here.

Since I started working part time (nine days a month) on my current company and freelancing with the rest of my days, I have learned the value of money by experiencing the rollercoaster days – the up days and the low days. Up as in having wads of spending money, and low as in I could barely make ends meet and I have to make use of my credit card.

I hate using credit cards though because of the finance charge and interest rates. Consequently, I thank God profusely for payday loans. In case you don’t know, a payday loan (also known as cash advance), according to Personal Cash Advance is “a small, short-term loan that is intended to bridge the borrower’s cash flow gap between pay days”.

Do keep in mind though that this is not for repeated use. That is, payday loans are only for short-term use and you should only avail of it whenever an urgent and important need arises. Remember the rule of moderation.

The best way, of course, is still to spend only with what you have. But if you are still having difficulty in budgeting, do seek help from the National Foundation for Credit Counseling at 1-800-388-2227.