Can you afford a new line of credit or a cash advance online in order to spend extra cash? How will the payoff affect the rest of your budget? Is it possible to change the way you think about your finances in order to create a successful financial future?

Carrying the “payment” mentality when it comes to budgets makes it easy to convince yourself that you can afford to make additional purchases. The credit card companies have earned billions of dollars off of people who think that way. “I can afford a twenty dollar payment each month” and keep thinking that year after year, all those $20 payments could have been used elsewhere.

A short -term cash advance does not promote the “payment” mentality.

Taking on additional payments each month may seem like a good idea at the time of purchase or payment, but long-term payment plans only leave room for error. If the purchase is a need, sometimes you have to do what you have to do to make things work, but letting it hang around for a long time is not something you have to do. What is the big deal? Well, who says a few months down the road that another emergency cost won’t sneak in?  When you have been making minimum payments which mostly cover the interest charged to the account each month, the payments keep adding up. Planning your monthly expenses to exclude all those small payments will free up income to pay emergency costs. If you can pass up on a few of those purchases which are not time sensitive and place that money into a savings account, you will be able to refocus the way your budget works.

Imagine using cash advance for the purpose it was created.

Save those credit cards for the real emergencies. An unplanned trip to the doctor or needing to replace tires is two examples of money well spent. Charging for items with no long-term purpose will make you pay beyond the value. Using a credit card to dine out is always convenient.  Paying for that $50 dinner over the next few months only adds to the cost of the meal. If the dinner was the only item on the charge card, it may not be such a bad idea. Most often, a credit card will have multiple charges on it and it will continue to be used. These types of revolving accounts are very profitable.

A cash advance lender wants to be paid in full.

Cash advances are a great way to support some extra payments but do not fall into the “payment” method mentality. They are designed to receive payment in full, the loan amount plus fees within the next couple of weeks.  On average the term of the loan will run 14 days or according to your pay cycle. Once the loan is paid, the deal is done and there are no future monthly costs. When people use cash advances as another alternative to credit cards find out quickly that these short-term loans are too expensive to make them long-term.

Start saving money towards into an emergency slush fund. This money can be used when emergencies arise. Using your own money is a cheap way to solve financial troubles.