In these days of a worsening economy and increasing job layoffs, sliding down the slippery slope to bad credit is no longer only associated with careless, undisciplined spenders.  Careful, conscientious people are caught in situations they never choose which have led them to bad credit. We don’t have to look far to see the casualties of bad credit and those who are labelled as such, often feel mentally paralysed.

The Theft of Your Options

Perhaps the most confining aspect of bad credit is its stifling ability to rob one of life’s most precious commodities: options.  Why are options so critical?  Because without them, you are driven by the whims of others:  others’ schedules, programmes, interest rates, jobs, cars and on and on it goes.

Veggie Burger or Juicy Steak

An option can, for example, give you the choice between a healthy veggie burger and a scrumptious, juicy, thick steak.  For the health conscious, the choice may be easy.  For the carnivore reading my words, walking away from the scrumptious steak is tantamount to a mortal sin.  But the option to choose gives you power; power to rule over what you want and need in daily life.

Pull Up!

The downward spiral of bad credit does remove many options and although life’s emergencies or less than optimal financial choices may have slapped the “bad credit” label on you, although costly, it doesn’t mean financial death.  Quite the opposite – the vast majority of us have families and responsibilities to take care of and have no wish to fail in doing so.  It’s time to rise above the muck and wake up to your options, one of which may be a bad credit short term loan.

Experts Praise Options

The discipline of assessing your financial position is crucial to recovery with bad credit.  Experts recommend honest, careful listing of all your debts, large and small.  The step of making a budget cannot be overlooked as you list your income and how you spend your monies each month, both of which give you a realistic picture of next steps you can take in your plan to move ahead.

Now fast forward five years – every decision you make today will either put you in a better or worse financial situation then.  The option of leveraging cash today with what is sometimes called a bad credit payday loan may give you some breathing room financially for a short term in order to move forward tomorrow.

Freedom of Choice

Back to the veggie burger and steak illustration, which would YOU choose?  Say you were assigned one while your neighbour in the table next to you got his or her choice – feeling a bit cheated?

The truth is that, with your finances, you absolutely must be in control of your choices.  These choices include discipline, hard work, seeking out counsel if needed.  You may need the option of immediate cash to give you financial options in the near future.  Your bad credit doesn’t need to keep you from a short term loan.  You can use these monies for any purpose you desire, they are generally given with instant approval and with payday right around the corner, you can pay them right away.

Always read carefully the terms of any loan and experts caution against using short term bad credit payday loans to continue bad spending habits.

Gift of Time

The ability to pause and examine your options and best next financial steps require time to think; time to assess what your challenges are and how you will face them head on.  Now your less than perfect credit doesn’t call the shots, you do.  Your choice of tools in gaining more time may be best served with a short term loan before your next payday.  Here’s to your options!

Freelance writer Sarah Fox sees options as key to freedom in all of life.  She notes that bad credit payday loans are gaining increasing attention as option-based planning gains popularity.

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Cycling is a great pastime for fun, health, and recreation. There has been an increase in the availability and uptake of boutique and high end bicycles in Australia. There are a number of specialist insurers that focus on bicycle insurance.

The first simple answer to this is that expensive bicycles are as easy to steal as cheaper ones – and that is easy. The next is that lightweight carbon fibre compound and other expensive alloy and composite materials are almost always impossible to repair. A frame broken in a driveway accident will usually require replacement. For an $8000 bike, that is not a happy proposition.

Aside from a clumsy to carry profile, and perhaps the proliferation of security cameras in city areas, there is not much to prevent a determined bicycle thief from making off with an expensive lightweight bike. Most expensive racing and off road bicycles are light, which makes them a favourite and easy target – easy to carry off and high value. Determined criminals know that parts are worth a lot of money, and so they are not shy to opt to break or cut a frame or remove a wheel to take the remainder of the unit. As with vehicle theft – the parts can end up being combined with those of other stolen units.

Bicycle insurance is still regarded as a relatively new kind of insurance product. It is important to read all of the fine print, do research, and seek the advice of a professional insurance advisor. As with vehicle insurance, the location where the bike will be parked and stored makes a difference. Different cyclists have very different insurance needs based upon the kind of cycle usage. If the bike is ridden to work daily and parked in an underground carpark, then the insurance profile will be different than that for a bike that is only used for professional racing. Transport on car racks involves certain breakage risks, and any bike that is left in a car park or driveway is at risk of both theft and damage by vehicles.

One way to insure a bicycle is with standard home and contents policies, or for professional cyclists there may be business type insurance policies that cover the bike as a part of insured equipment. However, there are some sound arguments for using a specialist bicycle insurer and bicycle specific insurance policy. As noted above, expensive bicycles have expensive parts or accessories, and there are often limits on what will be covered by home and contents policies. There can also be significant variability between the cost of insurance policies, and so shopping around is essential.

Joanne Lemke is a final year creative writing student at UOW, who is looking to break into the corporate copywriting space once she graduates and hopefully go on to eventually some day write a book around her other passions, namely business and financial changes.

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One of the many things we do as we work each day is consider what our retirement will be like. Do you have yours planned?

I know that I want to build myself a little house near the water in a sunny and warm area, maybe somewhere in Africa or along the Spanish coastline. All my years of hard work will pay off and my retirement will be my time; a time to relax, explore things I haven’t explored yet and visit areas that are still on my “to-do” list.

Enjoy an around the World Cruise

One of the ideas I had once my pension pays out is to take some of the money and book myself on an around the world cruise. Travel in style and luxury, enjoy the on-board food and entertainment and discover countries and sights that I haven’t seen before.

The advantage to waiting until retirement before you take an around the world cruise, is that you have nowhere to be in a hurry. Your days of juggling work and home, getting the children off to school and working full-time are over, it’s your time to shine and enjoy your well-earned break. Do a pension review and ensure that you will have enough money to live comfortably after retirement while enjoying some new experiences such as an around the world cruise.

Try Something New

My idea when I retire is to try something new; maybe take an arts class and learn how to spend my days sitting on the beach front, the sun on my back with a paint brush in my hand.

Another great way to spend time is to explore new countries and try all the foods I’ve been too scared to try before. Have a crocodile steak in Africa or try the spicy delights of Morocco.

Once you retire it’s your time to shine, why not try new things. Write up a list of all the things you want to do when you have the time and spend your time crossing items off the list.

Explore New Countries

I’ve always had an urge to visit Tunisia, I hear there are some fantastic historical ruins there, some of which put the Colosseum in Rome to shame. This isn’t a possibility now, I work full time and manage my children and family, and there isn’t much time to do anything else. But once I retire, have done my pension review and know how much money I have to travel, experience new things and try something different, this will be on my list.

The advantage of travelling when retired is you don’t have a deadline, you don’t have to rush home to get back to work and you can enjoy your holiday at your own leisure. What a pleasure. I hate having to rush home from a holiday, only to start work the very next day and when you have travelled overseas, work is gruelling as you struggle with jet lag. In your retirement there are no deadlines; you simply do everything at your own pace which means holidays will become more enjoyable.

Plan Your Finances

Planning your retirement is exciting and I’ve been dreaming of retirement since I was young as working seven days a week for years on end, I deserve to retire to a wonderful beach house where I can travel on a whim without deadlines. But I need a pension review to ensure I have enough money to live on for many years without working and extra money to travel, try new things and go on my cruise around the world.

It’s really important to start planning early on, save up what you can and add to your pension wherever possible to ensure a comfortable lifestyle in your older years.

Kay Brown is a writer who is passionate about finances, being prepared for the future and travel. With a pension review in place, your retirement can be a pleasant experience where you are in complete control.

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