Money is a tool. It can help you or hurt you depending on how it’s used.  Payday loans are no exception.

With them, you can avoid expensive overdraft and late fees and the embarrassment of bouncing important checks.

But, are there times when payday loans are a bad idea?

Of course!

Here’s when you should think twice about getting one:

To Buy Gifts

If you’re short on cash, it’s ok to get a loan if you know you can pay it off in two weeks.  If you can’t, set your pride aside and ask yourself, “How can I buy gifts for less than $200 this year?”  (Substituting $200 for how much you have to spend.)  Keep asking yourself until you get an answer.  Ask other people, too!

You’re smart and I know if someone offered you a TV for $500, you wouldn’t give them $1,000.  That doesn’t make sense!  But that’s exactly what you’ll do if you get a loan to buy gifts (which are not necessities) that you’ll pay interest on for weeks or months to come.

When You Lose Your Job

If you lost your job, take a deep breath and relax!  It happens to the best of us!  Remember this – “Every adversity carries the seed of an equal or greater benefit if you believe it”

Life will get better as sure as the sun comes up tomorrow.  But if you want things to get better, the worst thing you can do is dig yourself a deeper hole.

Taking out a loan you know you can’t pay-off or renew in two weeks is a disaster waiting to happen.  You’ll avoid trouble today, but create gigantic problems for yourself in the very-near future.

Look, first, for ways to make to make money fast like selling old stuff on eBay or taking online surveys. You’ll find lots of easy, money-making ideas on this site.

To Pay Other Payday Loans

If you had a wound, would you pour lemon juice and salt on it?

Of course not!

Taking out more loans to cover other loans creates a monster of a problem that will eventually consume you.  You’ll spend valuable time and energy holding everything together… when… you should spend that time and energy figuring out how to overcome your challenges.

To Help Someone Else

Helping people is great!  Creating financial problems to help people is stupid!

Ask yourself, “If my friend/loved-one can’t get a loan on their own, how likely are they to pay me back?”

If you have money sitting in your bank account, you can do whatever you want with it.  Even if you don’t get it back, at least you’re not stuck owing someone else money!

But if you have to borrow money to lend it, you’re not in a position to help others.  Remember, you can only help others to the extent you help yourself.  Improve your financial life, and you’ll be able to help more people.

I’ve seen relationships destroyed not by money, but by the ignorant misuse of money!  If you get a loan to help a friend and they don’t pay you back, guess who’s responsible for it?  Unless you both have a contract, you – and you alone – are responsible!  You take all the risk; they get all the reward.

If you can’t pay-back the loan, it’s your credit that gets trashed, not theirs.  It’s you who gets collection calls, not them. Are you starting to get the picture?

If your friend/relative kicks and screams when you say “no”, guess what?…  It means they’re selfish and they’ll gamble your peace of mind, your financial security and your future so they can get money.  They don’t want a loan… They want you to take responsibility for their financial troubles.

When you help someone who refuses to help themselves, you’ll create bigger problems for them (and yourself) in no time.

This is your life to live, not theirs.  You deserve to be treated with respect, and you deserve to spend or invest your money how you choose – not how someone tells you!  You cannot worry enough to make someone else financially secure.  You cannot get sick enough to make someone else well.  So focus on how to make your financial life better, first!

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