Lyons Leadership

I was reading the business section in the paper from last week today.  With the hectic season upon us, sometimes we get a little too busy to keep up with the news.  So I decided that today, I would sit down and have a quick read to see what I missed.

In the personal finance section, they were discussing some of the common financial products that most people would use throughout the year, and some of the changes that had taken place.

There was a lot of discussion regarding payday loans.  It seems that with the high level of debt that most people are carrying, the dependence on a cash advance before payday, was more necessary.  The biggest change in this area was the ability to get payday loans no fax required.  I guess there were still a few companies requiring you to fax them (does anyone still have a fax??), and they were pretty much done with that now.

With the rising values of homes in our town, many people have been taking advantage of home improvement loans to renovate, or better their homes.  In fact, a prime example is my neighbor down the street – he changed his home from siding to stucco and added a garage this year.  When I asked him how he afforded it, he told me that he was able to borrow against the increased value of his home to pay for the improvements.

Another financial program that many people have been taking advantage of in our country is in pursuit of lowering their monthly expenses and debt load.  Can you guess what it is?  That’s right: many people have been enrolling in a debt consolidation program in an effort to get their debts under control.  The nice thing about this is that they are making an effort to pay their debts instead of going bankrupt.

Do these topics reach your financial situation?  I am sure that some of them do.