How to escape the payday loan cycle

Many consumers are stuck constantly taking out payday loans. Hamm suggests borrowing less, swallowing pride and putting aside cash for emergencies to break the cycle.

By Trent Hamm,?Guest blogger / June 3, 2013

American Express cards are shown in this picture taken in 2011. Hamm says that many consumers are taking out payday loan after payday loan in an effort to pay off their debt.

Mike Blake/Reuters/File

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I had a long conversation with a reader whose brother seemed to be caught in an endless cycle of payday loans.

Skip to next paragraph Trent Hamm

The Simple Dollar is a blog for those of us who need both cents and sense: people fighting debt and bad spending habits while building a financially secure future and still affording a latte or two. Our busy lives are crazy enough without having to compare five hundred mutual funds ? we just want simple ways to manage our finances and save a little money.

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He works about thirty hours a week earning about minimum wage at a convenience store. About two years ago, his car broke down and in order to get it back on the road very quickly, he took out a payday loan.

The problem, of course, is that the loan he took out ? say, $200 ? charged a significant fee for the service. The average payday loan charges somewhere around $50 in fees, according to this article, which also outlines habitual payday loan practices:

"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that the average consumer took out 11 loans during a 12-month period, paying a total of $574 in fees ? not including loan principal."

So, let?s take a look at the brother in question. He takes out a $200 loan and, after all of the fees and interest are paid, let?s say he?s on the hook for $240.

Now, his weekly check for his minimum wage job at thirty hours a week adds up to about $200 a week. If he gets paid on Friday and takes out that loan on Tuesday, he?s in a bind. Let?s say he?s agreed to pay half of the total money this week and the other half next week.

So, he?s got his car fixed on Tuesday, but on Friday, he?s only keeping $80 of his paycheck, which has to last him the following week. After that week, on Friday, he gets another paycheck, but he can only keep $80 of that check, which again has to last until the following Friday, at which point he?s free of the loan.

In other words, our friend here has to go through a seventeen day period where he?s only bringing in $160. If it?s perfectly timed, he?s not going to have to be late on any bills.

But let?s say that seventeen day period crosses the first of the month, meaning he?s going to be late on rent? Or, let?s say it crosses the due date for his electricity bill?

In both cases, he?s probably getting hit with a late fee, meaning the burden of his bills is even steeper.

He?s also likely not in a position to explore other forms of credit due to a poor or very short credit report.

His other option? Another payday loan. It?s a vicious cycle that?s very hard to escape from.

So, what can he do?

The first step is to borrow less each time you borrow money. Your goal shouldn?t be to break free immediately ? that?s essentially impossible. The goal should be to borrow less each time you return.

So, let?s say, instead of borrowing $200 the next time, he finds a way to borrow only $180. At the same fee rates, that adds up to $36 in fees, bringing his total to only $216 rather than $240. If he lives the same way during the following weeks, the next loan can go down by $56 ? the $36 saved on that loan plus the $20 saved as he did before. Suddenly, his next loan is $124 rather than $180.

That?s a perfect situation, of course, but even if he can just drop the amount he borrows by $20 per loan, he?s going to escape the cycle before too long.

What this does is it turns the focus on the here and now. Can you find a way to spend $20 over the next couple of weeks? If you can, then you can borrow $20 less the next time you?re in a tight situation. That puts things in much easier terms to handle than trying to solve the big problem all at once.

The second step is to swallow a little pride. Use community resources that are meant for people in these kinds of tight situations. People who are struggling like this are the reason that food pantries exist. They?re why soup kitchens exist, too.

Some people have negative views on those resources, but they?re out there for a reason. A lot of people have used them as a helping hand when they?re in a very tough financial spot.

If some food from the food pantry and a meal from the soup kitchen can save you the $20 you need to lower your next loan, then it?s a move you need to make.

The final step is to put some cash in the bank for emergencies once the loan is gone. You?ve been surviving on less than your paycheck for a while to be able to pay back the loan, so keep doing it for a while longer. Put part of your pay into a savings account and just leave it there until the next emergency strikes.

When that emergency does happen, you don?t have to head to the payday lender. Instead, you can head to the bank, withdraw the cash you?ve been saving, and use it to deal with the situation.

This is an emergency fund, and it?s a vital tool for anyone to have.

Those three steps are the path out to any cycle of debt, but they work particularly well for those earning very little and finding themselves caught in a payday loan cycle.

Good luck.

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Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/CbrHkYYQwc0/How-to-escape-the-payday-loan-cycle

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Despite Mammoth Blood Discovery, Cloning Still Unlikely

Despite the recent discovery of a stunningly preserved mammoth, the odds of scientists using it to clone a real-life mammoth anytime soon are still low, experts say.

"To clone a mammoth by finding intact cells ? and, more importantly, an intact genome ? is going to be exceptionally difficult, likely impossible," said Love Dal?n, a paleogeneticist at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. "Finding this mammoth makes it slightly less impossible."

Dal?n is referring to the amazingly preserved mammoth remains found recently in the icy tundra on an island off the coast of Siberia. Some of the tissue was locked beneath the ice, and when researchers struck it with a pick, blood came flowing out, they said. [See Images of the Preserved Mammoth]

Even tissue that looks as juicy and fresh as a steak, however, can be damaged on the cellular level. That would mean very little useful DNA (the molecules that carry the instructions for life), could be extracted, the researchers said.

Stunning find

Outside researchers haven't examined the tissue and blood that was reportedly preserved in this 10,000-year-old mammoth. but Dal?n's conversations with the research team suggest the fossilized beast is in incredibly good shape, he said.

"Every mammoth that has ever been found ? it's either its bones or dried tissue and skin or pieces of hair, so to find a piece of frozen mammoth that's so well preserved that there's blood inside is pretty amazing," Dal?n said. "From a DNA standpoint, it might be the most well-preserved specimen ever found."

Holy Grail

Because flash freezing could preserve the cells, and possibly their genetic information, everyone in the field is searching for the Holy Grail: a mammoth that fell into a frozen lake, which then immediately froze overnight and stayed perennially frozen for 10,000 years, said Hendrik Poinar, an evolutionary geneticist at McMaster University in Canada.

The chances of finding such a perfect specimen are incredibly slim, Poinar said.

Even if a mammoth were buried in ice at the time of discovery, it wouldn?t be clear how many times the fossil had thawed and refrozen over the millennia, he added.

Past mammoth discoveries have looked very good on the outside ? even shooting out what initially looked like blood ? only to later be found to have heavily damaged cells that contain unusable DNA.

"When you take [samples] back to the lab, you realize that they're pretty heavily degraded," Poinar told LiveScience.

For cloning, intact DNA is needed, as the process requires replacing the DNA in an elephant egg with a mammoth's genome, then gestating the egg inside an elephant.

But time and harsh weather conditions inexorably degrade DNA, splitting it up into millions of tiny snippets that are extremely difficult to piece together. For instance, a 2012 study found that in bone, half of the chemical bonds in DNA break down within 521 years after death, and the genetic material degrades completely by 6.8 million years.

Elephant in disguise?

If the white blood cells ? or more likely, tissues ? from the recently discovered mammoth are in fairly good condition, then there may be longer intact DNA snippets, which should be easier to piece together, Poinar said.

Either way, the mammoth genome would probably be reconstructed by using the elephant genome as the blueprint.

By comparing genomes, researchers would try to identify the key genes that create distinctive traits ? such as body size, the tusks and shaggy coats of the extinct creatures ? and tack those in to the elephant genome, Poinar said.

Cloning based on that blueprint may result in a rather odd creature: something that looked, on the outside, like a mammoth, but was basically an elephant in disguise.

Is cloning a mammoth a worthy endeavor for science? "I hope the science moves slow enough in this case that we can actually have that discussion," Poinar said.

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitterand Google+.?Follow?LiveScience @livescience, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/despite-mammoth-blood-discovery-cloning-still-unlikely-191645141.html

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Southern Calif. wildfire explodes in size overnight

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A fire that burned at least five structures and threatened about 1,000 others exploded in size overnight, burning dangerously close to two foothill communities north of Los Angeles.

Erratic wind fanned the fire in the Angeles National Forest to nearly 41 square miles early Sunday, triggering the evacuation of nearly 1,000 homes in Lake Hughes and Lake Elizabeth, officials said.

Matt Corelli of the Forest Service told The Associated Press that five structures had been destroyed. He said they could be homes but crews were waiting for more daylight to make a positive determination.

"That's the only number we have confirmed right now," he said.

At least 10 other structures were damaged.

Patty Robitaille, 61, grabbed personal photos and documents before fleeing her Lake Hughes home with her pit bull, Roxie, as flames approached Saturday night. She said her home was among the first in the direct path of the fire.

"Driving away, you could see the town burning up," she told the Los Angeles Times. "I don't think there's going to be much left."

Crews working in steep terrain expected cooler weather Sunday after triple-digit temperatures a day earlier.

The wind pushed the fire up and down steep slopes, creating embers that sparked spot fires in different directions.

The fire was 20 percent contained.

A huge plume of smoke could be seen from much of various parts of northern Los Angeles County throughout Saturday, and air-quality officials warned against strenuous outdoor activity.

The blaze broke out Thursday just north of Powerhouse No. 1, a hydroelectric plant near the Los Angeles Aqueduct, forcing about 200 evacuations in the mountain community of Green Valley.

Evacuations remained in effect for the Cottonwood campground and two youth probation camps along Lake Hughes Canyon Road.

The flames were chewing thick, dry brush that hasn't been burned in about a dozen years.

The cause of the fire was under investigation.

Elsewhere in the West, firefighting crews in New Mexico battled wildfires that have blackened thousands of acres and threatened homes and buildings, spurring numerous evacuations.

An uncontained blaze near Santa Fe, N.M., had spread to nearly 10 square miles by Saturday night, placing the city under a blanket of haze. The thick smoke also covered the Gallinas Canyon and Las Vegas, N.M.

Officials asked residents in about 140 homes, mainly summer residences, to evacuate as a crew of more than 400 battled the flames near the communities of Pecos and Tres Lagunas.

Another New Mexico blaze, the Thompson Ridge fire near Jemez Springs, grew to nearly 2 square miles by Saturday night, state forestry officials said. Between 40 and 50 homes in the area were evacuated as more than 200 crew members and a helicopter were fighting the blaze burning through pine forests and brush.

Forecasters said some rain was possible in both fire areas on Sunday as well as gusty winds.

And in Colorado, a spokesman for the Rio Grande National Forest said a fire 15 miles southwest of the small town of Creede was reported. No structures have been damaged, but three homes and several outbuildings were threatened Saturday.

___

AP writer Russell Contreras contributed from Albuquerque, N.M.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/southern-calif-wildfire-explodes-size-overnight-141911328.html

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Alaska?s Bristol Bay mine project: Ground zero for the next big environmental fight? (Washington Post)

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A look at the latest Syria developments

BEIRUT (AP) ? Here are the latest developments in the Syria crisis:

? Syria's foreign minister and the main Western-backed opposition group issue terms that would make it difficult for U.S.-Russian sponsored peace talks on ending Syria's civil war to succeed. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem insists Bashar Assad will remain Syria's president at least until elections in 2014. He says that any deal reached in the proposed Geneva conference would have to be put to a referendum at home. The opposition Syrian National Coalition demands weapons and international guarantees that Assad would step down ahead of any talks.

? U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says Syria is "disintegrating" and urges international support for the U.S.-Russian talks initiative.

? The U.S., Turkey and Qatar push through a U.N. resolution demanding an inquiry into the fighting around the Syrian town of Qusair, near Lebanon, and condemnation of foreign fighters supporting Assad. The resolution, approved by a vote of 36-1 in the U.N. Human Rights Council, calls for urgent investigation into alleged abuses by government forces and Hezbollah fighters in Qusair. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says Syria's civil war is "spilling out of control" and represents a failure to protect citizens against war crimes and crimes against humanity that are now routine.

? Britain sends a letter to the U.N.'s Ban with new information on three further incidents of alleged chemical weapons use by the Syrian government.

? Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi says Tehran supports an international conference to end the bloodshed in Syria. His remarks reflect an attempt by Iran to angle for a role in the negotiations on resolving the conflict. He spoke as representatives from 40 different countries, including Russia and China, met in Tehran to discuss Syria.

? Syria-based activist groups accuse Syrian National Coalition of failing the Syrian people and threaten to withdraw its support if its leaders don't come up with a joint strategy. The Coalition has been meeting for days in Istanbul but has failed to agree on several issues, including on whether to attend talks in Geneva with representatives of Assad's regime.

? A Jordanian official says nearly 60,000 Syrian refugees have left the kingdom to go back home, some to fight Assad's regime and others because living conditions in their camp have become too difficult.

? Lebanon's parliament moves to extend its term, skipping scheduled elections because of the country's deteriorating security linked to the civil war in Syria next door.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/look-latest-syria-developments-200148296.html

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As budget cuts hit S.C., a congressman is surprised at constituents? reactions (Washington Post)

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Cockroaches Are Evolving to Avoid Poison, Will Rule Us All

Think twice before stomping the lights out of the next cockroach you come across?you're going to want them to return the favor after the takeover. Thanks to new research on this most vexatious blight of mankind, we can now say more or less definitively that the despised cockroach will, in fact, come to rule us all. Because, apparently, they're developing the ability to outsmart our attempts at poisoning them dead.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/J0nrErBA4DY/cockroaches-are-evolving-to-avoid-poison-will-rule-us-509702307

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