Expenses

PayDay Loans: Should you use or avoid them?

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Payday loans, when used sparingly and in true emergencies, can be financial lifesavers. A payday loan is funds borrowed from a lender with a promise of repayment, usually from the borrower’s next paycheck. Hence, the name payday loan.

With a payday loan, there are no credit checks, no up-front costs, no sharing your financial information with others and you get the funds within 24 hours. Those are distinct advantages in a crisis. If your car won’t run or it’s the middle of winter and your furnace breaks down for the last time, payday loans can fill an urgent need especially for those whose credit would preclude short-term bank loans.

Finding a payday loan isn’t hard; it seems they’re on nearly every major street corner these days and they’re worldwide. They have longer hours than banks and credit unions and they also cash checks for a small fee.

However, what if payday comes and you’re unable to pay back the loan in full? Payday loans will roll over to the next paycheck and the next and the next—each time adding interest which averages $15 per hundred. Therefore, if you’ve borrowed three hundred dollars for the cheapest water heater you could find but can’t pay the loan back for two months, that water heater has cost you the original price plus 4 cycles of interest. You’ve paid $180 in interest, over half of the amount of the loan!

There are definitely advantages to payday loans if you can meet the original terms of service and get the loan on a truly “payday” basis. However, if you have any doubt that you can pay back the payday lender, you should consider other sources for loans. Better yet, try to plan and provide for financial disasters before they occur.

You can use the little calculator below to calculate your interest rate over a longer period.

It is updated automatically.

February, 2008: Financial Results – a quiet month

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After January’s stellar month, February has really settled back and results are only approximately half of January’s. That is of course to be expected.

I had hoped that my free download would entice visitors to download the top twelve subscriptions. Well, it hasn’t quite worked yet. But I’m going to keep plugging it, because I think it’s a useful way to promote this blog. I’m planning to up the number to 20 subscriptions, but so far I only have six more good suggestions. So now, I’m running a poll for the remaining 2 positions in the list. Do vote!

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So let’s deal with the money, first this month. Parts 2 and 3 will deal with the traffic, and challenges. But I’ll post these over the next few days.

Income this month has been less, but the variety of sources is quite impressive. I’m pretty sure now that I could easily extend both the range and the depth of each source, if I had more time to do it.

* Bank Interest: $26.25
* Dividend Income: $78.22
* Consulting Income: $250.00
* TLA – $74.49
* LinkWorth – $63.50 (for three sites)
* TopSpots – $1.00
* Blogging – $96.25
* Total = $589.98*
*there are a few other residual sources but they generally don’t generate much, like Voxant, NetAudioAds, etc. that generate only a few cents a month. In addition, some sources that generate a lot one month, but nothing the next are not included.

Unfortunately, I’ve not been very aggressive in getting extra interest generated. I have nearly $150,000 sitting in the bank, and another US$2500 sitting in a broker’s account, and still another $700 sitting in another account earning 0%. I’ve not invested these at all. So that’s pretty dumb. I don’t know why I haven’t got around to doing that, but I DO know that it’s costing me at least 2.5%pa now (or $16pm). And that’s not including any capital appreciation. This is a situation I will rectify.

Also the list of sources of income isn’t complete. For example, some of my customers buy hosting from on my server: no accounts have become due this month; nor have I had any new customers. According to my plan, developing a part-time income from work is important. I have had several contacts for part-time work in Taipei, but it isn’t something I’m able to do just now. I’d love to switch my teaching load from full-time to part-time, but it’s not possible. So…

Total Income Generated

Naturally, this means my total generated by blogging now jumps to $9020.37. Also, my revenue from writing reviews and buzzes has dropped from over $200 per month to just $96.25. In fact, last month I only wrote two reviews in February. It seems the Google Grinch is still out and about.

Expenses

The blog currently only has a few expenses such as hosting through Dreamhost’s VPS system and it works well. Of course, Domains and I own about ten or so all need to be paid for annually and Paypal Fees. I currently don’t advertise, though I may do so soon again.

* hosting – $49.50 (est.)
* Fees – $6.15 (Paypal, Commissions, etc.)
* Content, Development, and Traffic – $89.00
* Total = $144.65*

*These figures are estimates as final figures haven’t been received for some, and other commissions are invisible having been deducted at source.

Other factors that are beginning to affect me more directly now is the weakness of the dollar vs. the NT$. In fact in the past week, the NT$ has dropped by nearly NT$1. It’s now trading at a little under NT$31 to the US$. I’ve been using the value of NT$32.5 for a long time and I found it a good approximation. But no longer.

February’s Credit Card Statement: NT$26,413 in 31 days!

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Or in other words, how to break the bank!

My wife was standing over my shoulder last time I wrote my very uneventful credit card statement for January 2008. She said in pointed tones: “Who cares about your credit card spending?”… Well, of course, I do!

I usually include the credit card spending report for three reasons:

1. to encourage me to pay off the entire amount regularly;
2. to share with my readers different parts of my life, because each of my purchases has a story of some sort; and
3. to encourage readers to share their spending habits, so that we can all learn from our mistakes.

So here goes, February’s spending… And it isn’t pretty.

First, I racked up NT$26,413 worth of spending, some of related to our vacation in TaiChung and Tainan. Some of it related to business expenses. And some of it related to personal expenses.

Business Stuff
During Chinese New Year we reorganized our school space yet again. This enabled us to improve our computer resources, expand our library area a little and make things more customer friendly. But it entailed some expenses, of which NT$7082 involved a trip to the local Ikea, where we purchased a much-needed IKEA office chair, valued at nearly $5000 (est.). We’d been eyeing that chair for a while, but had passed on it several times due to its relative expense. Other little things included picture frames for the walls, and other knick-knacks.

Online Stuff
I purchased a link on Linkworth to increase link sales last week. It wasn’t particularly expensive at US$8.50 for a featured link for seven days. But it coincided with a long weekend in the US. And generated no responses at all. I won’t bother with that avenue again.

Personal Stuff
Somehow because we had nearly two weeks vacation at Chinese New Year, we really spent a lot more on clothes, vacations, and food! I spent NT$4119 buying two sweaters, two shirts, socks, underwear, and some other clothes for winter in Taichung. And Christine also spent NT$3924 on clothes and trainers for herself.

Then in IKEA we additionally spent another NT$2330 on house stuff: none of which I can remember right now. And on the first day of our holiday, we ate out at TienMou Mitzukoshi Department store in the Thai Restaurant on the top floor. The food was excellent, and the weather was AWFUL, so we were so happy to eat something hot, delicious, and spicy! That was NT$1667.

And I nearly forgot we spent a night at a hotel in Taichung, called The Splendor. The room was quite big, and view was excellent as you saw in the competition. Even the breakfast was great, but the price was nearly double the price we paid for a much more pleasant hotel. It cost NT$3589 for one night in a double room.

Regular Expenses
Our regular expenses included three items: our CIGNA life insurance policy, but no mobile phone bill (they now only bill every 2nd month), and our interest payment of NT$64. Yes, I did it again: I didn’t pay the entire amount. I underpaid NT$1364 this time, and it cost an extra NT$64. Wow!

So that’s February’s expenses on my credit card.