Each time I try and balance my check book, I am reminded of how miserable my finances are. There never seems to be any money. And even when I manage to get hold of some money, it rushes out much faster than it comes in! So like anyone else, I often had to turn to friends, relatives and even the good old credit card to help me tide over my immediate cash flow problems. While it always helped me get over my problems temporarily, it sure succeeded in piling me under a whole lot of debt!

I happened to be discussing this with a colleague the other day when he told me about something that made my prospects appear brighter. He told me that it was just for situations like this that the concept of advance pay day loans were offered by organizations. I had never heard about this ever before! If I had known, I would have found the advance payday loan a real lifesaver to help me deal with my cash flows. But now that I knew about it, I sure wasn’t going to waste my time. So I swiftly put in my application and waited for my next pay check to reflect the advance payday loan from the company.

What I got instead was a call from our accountant. He made me sit down and asked me a number of questions on why I wanted the advance payday loan. I tried to come up with some excuses (you must understand that I wasn’t prepared to be grilled!) but they all sounded futile even to my ears. I had no real reason to ask for the advance payday loan except for the fact that it was possible to ask for it and get it. When I confessed to the accountant that I needed the advance pay day loan to pay off my credit card debts, he sighed, looked askance at me and gave me a talking to I’ll never forget.

First and foremost, he told me that an advance pay day loan was meant for emergencies. He explained that not all of us have nearly as much savings as we would like to have and we all needed an advance pay day loan now and then to help us with sudden and unexpected outflows. These could include a ceremony or death in the family, school expenses, sudden hospitalization expenses and the like. Advance pay day loans were not there to be availed whenever required for a whim as they could negatively impact the regularity of the salary. He then told me about the case of one other employee (he never named him!) who had made a practice of seeking advance pay day loans on his salary to such an extent that he actually would not be paid a salary for another three months because that much had already been advanced to him. So now, rather than having to make do with what he got, he would be putting in three months or more of hard work for money to pay off his advance pay day loan! That shook me up and I resolved then and there that I would never seek an advance pay day loan unless I really required it!