Mccaffery Mysteries

As inflation continues to plague the United States as we head into the holiday season, buyers are looking for whatever monetary relief they can get. This includes short-term “buy now, pay later” loans. Many consumers, especially younger consumers, prefer BNPL over other financing options due to the lack of interest charges, simple approval process, and ease of use.

A buy now pay later plan lets you spread equal payments over multiple months, making it useful for big purchases like a TV or sofa. When you repay a BNPL loan on time and in full, you can often avoid interest charges. Borrowers generally find it easier to qualify for an BNPL plan with lenders such as Affirm, Afterpay and Klarna than a traditional credit card or loan.

However, some BNPL loans offer 0% interest for a certain period only, meaning you could be stuck with interest payments down the road. Other BNPL loan options charge interest upfront.

Additionally, some BNPL plans hit borrowers with fees. And if you pay late, it could show up on your credit reports.

In November, Forbes Advisor and OnePoll surveyed 1,000 US consumers who have used BNPL at least once to find out what their experiences have been, what they think of the popular funding trend and how they could use it this holiday season.

The survey results indicate that BNPL will be almost as popular among holiday shoppers as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but this payment method could eat away at their finances the way Jack Frost nibbles on people’s noses.

Americans plan to rely on buy it now and pay later during the holiday season

The survey results demonstrate the widespread use of BNPL, with five major industry players originating 180 million loans in 2021 totaling more than $24 billion, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

In the survey, 64% say they will use BNPL to buy gifts during the holiday season. And many of those shoppers may shell out more money than they bargained for: 70% of respondents say they would use BNPL to spend more than they bargained for.

The survey also indicates that buyers do not necessarily use BNPL for big ticket items. The most popular types of purchases are clothing, electronics and shoes. And 40% of respondents say they would use BNPL for a purchase under $100.

Howard Dvorkin, president of Debt.com, says BNPL can be a useful tool or a nuisance. Dvorkin says you could win if you use a BNPL loan and pay it off before interest charges kick in instead of carrying a balance on a high-interest credit card.

“But you have to be a checklist type of person – someone who regularly watches the deadlines in your life. Otherwise, these benefits evaporate,” he adds.

Consumers are using buy now, pay later in surprising ways

The main reason cited for using BNPL is to reduce the impact of a large purchase (66%). But the second reason is more open to interpretation. More than half (51%) say they use it to buy something they can’t afford right now.

Meanwhile, 70% would consider BNPL for everyday purchases, not just special purchases. One in five respondents would use it for less than $50.

Ed Mierzwinski, senior consumer program director at the nonprofit watchdog group PIRG, cautions against relying on BNPL to pay for everyday purchases like food and gasoline.

“You should never pay over time — ‘four easy payments!’ — for something you’ll need to replace sooner. You’ll need food and gas again before you finish paying,” says Mierzwinski. “These consumers need better budget planning, not more opportunities to spend money.”

In fact, a recently published academic study found that new BNPL users experience “rapid increases” in overdraft fees and credit card interest and fees compared to non-users. The study looked at the banking data of 10.6 million US consumers. The researchers say their study underscores concerns about the potential damage BNPL could cause to overall spending habits and financial health.

Types of purchases made with Buy now, pay later

Lowest purchase amount with Buy Now, Pay Later

What is the lowest amount for which you would use “buy now, pay later”?

Does buy now pay later encourage reckless spending?

When it comes to BNPL, the splurges may be on the rise.

Seventy percent of respondents say they use BNPL to spend more than expected, while one in four uses it to justify an impulse purchase. Still, some BNPL users are practical: 57% say knowing that BNPL exists makes them more comfortable dealing with a surprise bill, like replacing a major appliance.

Dvorkin says that in many cases it might be better to use a credit card unlike a BNPL loan. That’s partly because the BNPL makes it even easier to spend the money you don’t have, he says.

“While each plan is a little different, all charge high late fees. And if you don’t pay off the full balance, you’ll face a financial nightmare later,” says Dvorkin.

When a borrower fails to make timely payments, many BNPL lenders charge late fees that often amount to around $7 for each missed payment on an average loan of $135, according to a report published in September 2022 by the CFPB.

For example, BNPL lender Klarna charges a late fee of up to $7 after a 10-day grace period after a missed payment. Klarna only charges one late fee for each late payment. For comparison, a credit card issuer can charge up to $30 for the first late payment and $41 for a subsequent late payment within six billing cycles.

Reasons Consumers Use Buy Now, Pay Later Services

For some people, like those who can’t qualify for a credit card, BNPL can be a blessing, according to Jim Triggs, president and CEO of Money Management International, a nonprofit credit counseling agency.

“If a consumer needs tires for their vehicle, their water heater breaks down, or other unforeseen, unbudgeted emergency expenses arise, BNPL is often their only option, especially when it comes to free or low-cost financing options,” says Triggs.

Still, Triggs says customers often tell him they regret making a major purchase with an BNPL plan, even though they felt able to repay the loan.

Majority of Gen Z users don’t believe they are in debt when using Buy Now Pay Later

Forty-three percent of BNPL users do not consider themselves in debt when they owe money on a purchase, even though BNPL is a form of debt. This rises to 51% among Gen Z users. Meanwhile, 57% of all respondents say they have made late payments on an BNPL purchase.

Dvorkin notes that many BNPL plans offer multiple months of 0% interest. But if you make a late payment or miss a payment, you could face hefty financial penalties, he says. And the situation can get worse if you are dealing with several BNPL loans at the same time.

The survey shows that the average BNPL user currently refunds three previous purchases.

“I would never recommend juggling multiple BNPL shots at once, any more than I would recommend juggling hand grenades with all the pins drawn,” advises Dvorkin.

Taking out multiple BNPL loans around the same time can potentially cause you to overspend and increase your debt load.

It should be noted that most BNPL providers do not yet report payment activity to the three major credit bureaus. However, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion accept BNPL payment data, which means BNPL loans may show up on your credit reports.

What does all this mean? Depending on your behavior, BNPL payments could help or hurt your credit score if they show up on your credit report. Or your BNPL payment activity might have no effect on your credit score if your BNPL lender does not report your information to major credit bureaus.

Conclusion

The trendy “buy now, pay later” financing option is used for purchases that are smaller than you think, including holiday gifts. Consumers should be careful though – BNPL may encourage unplanned purchases. And while it’s different from other types of debt like credit card debt or mortgage debt, owing money on a BNPL purchase is still a form of debt.

Survey methodology

This online survey of 1,000 American American adults who have used a “buy now, pay later” service at least once was commissioned by Forbes Advisor and conducted November 9-14, 2022 by the market research firm OnePoll.

After reaching all-time highs in 2021, cryptocurrency prices have not found a permanent bottom. And the appeal of crypto’s promise to reinvent money has also reached its limit with a very niche audience. To appeal to a wider, more mainstream user base, proponents of the new technology will need to completely overhaul the way they promote it.

Imagine your cousin, your dentist, or someone else you know who is least likely to experiment with money or technology. I think of my mother. She will never use a bitcoin wallet at Coinbase or open a savings account in USDC, a dollar-pegged digital stablecoin. She will never want a non-fungible token for a digital collectible on Tom Brady’s Autograph Network. But she might be willing to verify her identity on her mortgage lender’s website if it would speed up the home buying process. And if this process of digital identification was powered by the blockchain technology that underpins cryptography, she wouldn’t even have to know.

Most people are like her: they aren’t interested in any new technology unless it can help them do things faster, cheaper, and more securely. This is why iTunes was a winner. This is why Amazon.com is a juggernaut. This is why Netflix has gained so many followers. And that’s why payment apps like Zelle and Venmo have massive appeal.

The problem with crypto so far – in addition to its volatility, scams and failures of untested middlemen – is that many of the problems it claims to solve have already been solved. We can already send digital payments or create online savings accounts. And we can do it with the same currency that we use to pay our taxes and conduct cash transactions. So why do we really need cryptocurrency?

Create trust

Let’s go back to where it all began: our need to trust money. This is why the financial sector is full of terms such as trust, security, custodian, guarantee. Nevertheless, every once in a while there is a calamitous breach of confidence in which bankruptcies proliferate, investors are wiped out and millions of people lose their jobs and homes.

An example was the Great Depression, when people discovered that the banks they had entrusted their money to were not as safe as they had hoped. In the aftermath, government power and a new regulatory structure were put behind the banks to help restore confidence. In the United States, that meant creating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Securities and Exchange Commission, and a new housing authority to help support an increase in home lending.

Then the financial crisis of 2008 showed how insufficient these guarantees were. Major financial institutions and their regulators seemed unprepared for the collapse in house prices and its effects on financial markets and the economy in general. Suddenly, people no longer trusted the banks or the government.

Enter crypto. Bitcoin was born in a white paper published on October 31, 2008, just weeks after Lehman Brothers went bankrupt and the government and Federal Reserve began bailing out the banks. The document said digital trade was too dependent on trust in financial institutions. The idea was to create “an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust”. Indeed, the lack of trust. Instead of relying on bankers repossessing your house while paying themselves massive bonuses, people could opt for a secure, decentralized network called the blockchain. The crypto, enthusiasts said, would rival the existing centralized financial system in due course.

Almost 15 years later, this new currency has lost much of its utopian appeal. It turns out that, for most people, this new financial system requires trusting an institution – perhaps a wallet provider or token exchange or decentralized finance (DeFi) lender. And too many of them have turned out to be fraudsters or vulnerable to hacks. Today, even some of crypto’s most passionate advocates say the market needs government regulation to regain trust and attract established financial institutions that were once the enemies of crypto.

If crypto doesn’t offer a more reliable alternative to traditional finance, then what’s the point? So far, its main users seem to be people afraid to use their own government’s currency due to political or economic risks or because they want to evade law enforcement. Otherwise, its primary use has been for speculation – betting on the value of currencies themselves or digital assets, such as NFTs, purchased with currencies.

How to Rebuild Crypto

I have an idea, however. When we talk about financial transactions, we are actually talking about two different things.

There is money, a medium of exchange that allows us to buy or sell goods and services more efficiently than barter. But to make such media trustworthy, it must be a reliable store of value over time. Otherwise, you risk exchanging your valuable good or service for a token that quickly drops in purchasing power. Indeed, it is the intertemporal nature of certain transactions that requires the most trust.

So, when we talk about money, the second thing we also talk about is debt, that is, transactions that are intertemporal from the beginning. At the end of the first quarter of 2022, total credit to the non-financial private sector stood at over $37 trillion in the United States.

And few types of debt are more common than mortgages. In 1920s America, buying a house might mean paying half the value up front and borrowing the other half for five years. Before the US government stepped in, lenders didn’t trust buyers enough to make a 30-year loan with just 10% or 20% upfront, as is often the case today. There are now over $10 trillion in residential mortgages in the United States.

But real estate transactions and mortgages are notorious for the amount and complexity of documents required. Keeping track of necessary information and processing it efficiently can be difficult. Facilitating these types of transactions – by putting essential information about properties, owners and loans on an immutable digital ledger – could make crypto indispensable.

For loan originators, after an initial investment in technology, a digital record could result in significant time and labor savings. Some of these savings could be passed on to borrowers. For the mortgage applicant, automated verification of identity, income, bank account statements, etc., would speed up a stressful but unavoidable process.

If established and regulated financial services companies moved their home loan documentation to such an ecosystem, they could eventually move a myriad of other services as well.

We have already seen well-known companies investing in blockchain technology. Hedera Hashgraph enjoys the membership of some of the biggest names in technology and banking, including Boeing, Deutsche Telekom, Google, LG and Nomura. And even though JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has called cryptocurrencies “decentralized Ponzi schemes,” he invests the bank’s money in a digital ledger called Onyx coin systems, which JPMorgan’s website describes as seeking “to help address the complex challenges of cross-border payments, simplify customer liquidity funding needs, and deliver next-generation corporate treasury services. Could this portend a new future for the underlying crypto technology? A highly regulated system of established businesses transacting through a more secure digital database?

Not only do these initiatives lack the Wild West appeal of the early years of crypto, but they are also the polar opposite of the completely anonymous and decentralized networks that crypto enthusiasts hoped to create. Ethereum’s website describes DeFi as “an alternative to an opaque system, tightly controlled and maintained by decades-old infrastructure and processes.” But Ethereum’s examples for current DeFi use cases — helping people take out loans without using personal ID and allowing crypto-savvy Argentinians to escape inflation — seem unlikely to stick. extend to the general public.

When I first started thinking about crypto and trust, I was optimistic about the chances of restarting the crypto space. But as I thought more about how existing crypto platforms are organized, it seemed almost impossible to turn the culture of DeFi and NFTs into something that can truly replace existing banks and money. But the idea of ​​moving part of our financial system to a distributed ledger could still work.

We could end up with a hybrid of three different trust systems: trust in established brands and institutions, trust in regulatory protections, and trust created by a supposedly immutable and tamper-proof digital ledger. All of these were proven imperfect by the Great Depression, the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, and the crypto crash. Perhaps the combination will be less imperfect. There is some value in that. But that’s not the future of money.

Edward Harrison writes about bonds and currencies for Bloomberg’s Markets Live blog.

• Genesis announced it was pausing withdrawals but other features were running
• A Few Crypto Projects Came Out to Indicate Their Exposure or Lack of Genesis

Another blow has been dealt to the cryptocurrency industry as it begins to recover from the ripple effects of the FTX crash and apparent bankruptcy filing.

This November has been a brutal month for cryptocurrencies, and now Genesis has declared that it will no longer process withdrawals. How far does this go and what aspects of Genesis were affected?

Explain Genesis

On November 16, Genesis Global, an institutional crypto lender, announcement that it would temporarily halt takeovers and new loan originations. Genesis Global has claimed unusual market instability linked to the collapse of the struggling cryptocurrency exchange FTX as the reason for the decision.

This turmoil led to abnormally high withdrawals, which the company says depleted its liquidity.

Genesis Global further affirmed that all of its operations, including derivatives trading, custody and spot trading, are operating normally. Digital Currency Group, the company’s parent company, had declaredcategorically, that the news had no bearing on its own operations since the release.

Gemini and Circle exposed, Tether covered

Good, Geminia cryptocurrency exchange, job on November 16 that there may be withdrawal delays for its Earn product. The Earn product on the cryptocurrency exchange is operated by Genesis.

This product allows users to earn interest on their dormant cryptocurrency deposits. The announcement went on to say that the cryptocurrency exchange is working to return Earn Program customer funds as soon as possible. The company also assured customers that the move had no negative effect on other Gemini offerings.

Gemini platform users seemed terrified of the suspension of withdrawals for the Earn program. This may have been aggravated by the brief breakdown that the exchange experienced on November 16.

Interestingly, on the same day, Tether published a brief statement claiming that the company was not involved in Genesis Global or the Gemini Earn program. This meant that there was no USDT on deposit with the institutional lender for the project.

On the other hand, Circle claimed to have been exposed to Genesis. In response to Genesis’ announcement, the project Posted a statement revealing the existence of a product called Circle Yield.

He also mentioned Genesis as a counterparty in Circle Yield, which was described as an oversized fixed-term yield contract. The total value of the loans was listed at $2.6 million by Circle, which added that “strong collateral agreements” had been put in place to protect the loans.

There are still rumors of an additional impending collapse related to the FTX disaster. The cryptocurrency industry seems to be on its toes at the moment, preparing for the worst. The longest month on record for investors and businesses could be this November.

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ADDS Analyst Comment, Hong Kong Stocks Close

Chinese authorities have unveiled sweeping measures to save the country’s ailing real estate sector, as regulators seek to make up for years of tough pandemic measures and a real estate crackdown that have stalled the world’s second-largest economy.

Insight

We are one of the world's leading developers of mobile games creating fun,
innovative experiences that entertain and engage our users. We have built
best-in-class live game operations services and a proprietary technology
platform to support our portfolio of games which enable us to drive strong user
engagement and monetization. Our games are free-to-play, and we are experts in
providing novel, curated in-game content and offers to our users, at optimal
points in their game journeys. Our players love our games because they are fun,
creative, engaging, and kept fresh through a steady release of new features that
are customized for different player segments.

Components of our operating results

Revenue

We primarily derive revenue from the sale of virtual items associated with online games.

We distribute our games to the end customer through various web and mobile
platforms, such as Apple, Facebook, Google and other web and mobile platforms
plus our own direct-to-consumer platforms. Through these platforms, users can
download our free-to-play games and can purchase virtual items to enhance their
game-playing experience. Players can purchase virtual items through various
widely accepted payment methods offered in the games. Payments from players for
virtual items are non-refundable and relate to non-cancellable contracts that
specify our obligations and cannot be redeemed for cash nor exchanged for
anything other than virtual items within our games.

Our games are played primarily on various third-party platforms for which the
platform providers collect proceeds from our customers and pay us an amount
after deducting platform fees. We are primarily responsible for fulfilling the
virtual items, have the control over the content and functionality of games and
have the discretion to establish the virtual items' prices. Therefore, we are
the principal and, accordingly revenues are recorded on a gross basis. Payment
processing fees paid to platform providers are recorded within cost of revenue.
Cost of revenue

Cost of revenue includes payment processing fees, customer support, hosting fees
and depreciation and amortization expenses associated with assets directly
involved in the generation of revenues, including servers and internal use
software. Platform providers (such as Apple, Facebook and Google) charge a
transactional payment processing fee to accept payments from our players for the
purchase of in-app virtual goods. Payment processing fees and other related
expenses for in-app purchases made through our direct-to-consumer platforms are
typically 3-4%, compared to a 30% platform fee for third party platforms. We
generally expect cost of revenue to fluctuate proportionately with revenues.

Research and development

Research and development consists of salaries, bonuses, benefits, other
compensation, including stock-based compensation and allocated overhead, related
to engineering, research, and development. In addition, research and development
expenses include depreciation and amortization expenses associated with assets
related to our research and development efforts.

Sales and Marketing

Sales and marketing consists of costs related to advertising and user
acquisition, including costs related to salaries, bonuses, benefits, and other
compensation, including stock-based compensation and allocated overhead. In
addition, sales and marketing expenses include depreciation and amortization
expenses associated with assets related to our sales and marketing efforts. We
plan to continue to invest in sales and marketing to retain and acquire users.
However, sales and marketing expenses may fluctuate as a percentage of revenues
depending on the timing and efficiency of our marketing efforts.

                                      -26-
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general and administrative

General and administrative expenses consist of salaries, bonuses, benefits, and
other compensation, including stock-based compensation, for all our corporate
support functional areas, including our senior leadership. In addition, general
and administrative expenses include outsourced professional services such as
consulting, legal and accounting services, taxes and dues, insurance premiums,
and costs associated with maintaining our property and infrastructure. General
and administrative expenses also include depreciation and amortization expenses
associated with assets not directly attributable to any of the expense
categories above. We also record adjustments to contingent consideration payable
recorded after the acquisition date, and legal settlement expenses, as
components of general and administrative expense.

Interest and other, net

Interest expense is primarily related to borrowings under our Credit Agreement
dated as of December 10, 2019 (as amended, the "Credit Agreement"). Our interest
expense includes amortization of deferred financing costs and is offset by
interest income earned on the investment of excess cash. We expect to continue
to incur interest expense under our Credit Agreement, although such interest
expense will fluctuate based upon the underlying variable interest rates. In
March 2021, we entered into two interest rate swap agreements, each with a
notional value of $250 million, reducing our overall exposure to variable
interest rates.

Interest income includes interest earned on cash, cash equivalents and short-term bank deposits.

Provision for income taxes

The provision for income taxes consists of current income taxes in the various
jurisdictions where we are subject to taxation, primarily Austria, Germany,
Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as deferred income
taxes reflecting the net tax effects of temporary differences between the
carrying amounts of assets and liabilities in each of these jurisdictions for
financial reporting purposes and the amounts used for income tax purposes. Under
current U.S. tax law, the federal statutory tax rate applicable to corporations
is 21%. Our effective tax rate can fluctuate based on various factors, including
our financial results and the geographic mix to which they relate, the
applicability of special tax regimes, changes in our business or operations,
examination-related developments and uncertain tax positions, and changes in tax
law.

Net Income

We calculate net profit as revenue minus the cost of revenue, research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative expenses, interest, and taxes.

Consolidated operating results of Playtika Holding Corp.

We measure the performance of our business by using several key financial
metrics, including revenue and operating income, and operating metrics,
including Daily Active Users, Average Revenue per Daily Active User, Paying
Users, and Average Revenue per Paying User. These operating metrics help our
management to understand and measure the engagement levels of our players, the
size of our audience and our reach. See "Basis of Presentation" and "Summary
Consolidated Financial and Other Data" for additional information of these
measures.

Daily active users

We define Daily Active Users, or DAUs, as the number of individuals who played
one of our games during a particular day. Under this metric, an individual who
plays two different games on the same day is counted as two DAUs. Similarly, an
individual who plays the same game on two different platforms (e.g., web and
mobile) or on two different social networks on the same day would be counted as
two Daily Active Users. Average Daily Active Users for a particular period is
the average of the DAUs for each day during that period. We believe that Daily
Active Users is a useful metric to measure the scale and usage of our game
platform.

                                      -27-
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Daily paying users

We define Daily Paying Users, or DPUs, as the number of individuals who
purchased, with real world currency, virtual currency or items in any of our
games on a particular day. Under this metric, an individual who makes a purchase
of virtual currency or items in two different games on the same day is counted
as two DPUs. Similarly, an individual who makes a purchase of virtual currency
or items in any of our games on two different platforms (e.g., web and mobile)
or on two different social networks on the same day could be counted as two
DPUs. Average DPUs for a particular period is the average of the DPUs for each
day during that period. We believe that Daily Paying Users is a useful metric to
measure game monetization.

Daily Payer Conversion

We define the daily payer conversion as the total number of DPUs divided by the number of DAUs on a given day. The average daily payer conversion for a given time period is the average of the daily payer conversion rates for each day in that time period. We believe daily payer conversion is a useful metric to describe the monetization of our users.

Average revenue per daily active user

We define Average Revenue per Daily Active User, or ARPDAU, as (i) the total
revenue in a given period, (ii) divided by the number of days in that period,
(iii) divided by the average DAUs during the period. We believe that ARPDAU is a
useful metric to describe monetization.

Monthly active users

We define Monthly Active Users, or MAUs, as the number of individuals who played
one of our games during a calendar month. Under this metric, an individual who
plays two different games in the same calendar month is counted as two MAUs.
Similarly, an individual who plays the same game on two different platforms
(e.g., web and mobile) or on two different social networks during the same month
would be counted as two MAUs. Average Monthly Active Users for a particular
period is the average of the MAUs for each month during that period. We believe
that Monthly Active Users is a useful metric to measure the scale and reach of
our platform, but we base our business decisions primarily on daily performance
metrics, which we believe more accurately reflect user engagement with our
games.

                                      -28-
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Operating results

The table below shows the results of our key financial and operating metrics for
the periods indicated. Unless otherwise indicated, financial metrics are
presented in millions of U.S. Dollars, user statistics are presented in millions
of users, and ARPDAU is presented in U.S. Dollars.
                                                   Three months ended                     Nine months ended
                                                     September 30,                          September 30,
(in millions, except percentages, Average
DPUs and ARPDAU)                                2022                2021               2022               2021
Revenues                                    $    647.8          $   635.9          $ 1,984.3          $ 1,934.0
Total cost and expenses                          516.4              481.4            1,641.2            1,483.8
Operating income                                 131.4              154.5              343.1              450.2
Net income                                        68.2               80.5              187.8              206.2
Credit Adjusted EBITDA                           203.5              217.0              602.5              672.6
Adjusted EBITDA                                  230.7              247.8              690.1              770.2

Non-financial performance metrics
Average DAUs                                       9.0               10.4                9.7               10.4
Average DPUs (in thousands)                        310                293                315                296
Average Daily Payer Conversion                     3.4  %             2.8  %             3.3  %             2.8  %
ARPDAU                                      $     0.78          $    0.67          $    0.75          $    0.68
Average MAUs                                      30.2               35.4               32.4               34.4

Comparison of three and nine months ended September 30, 2022 compared to the three and nine month periods ended September 30, 2021

                                                           Three months ended September               Nine months ended
                                                                        30,                             September 30,
                                                               2022              2021              2022               2021
(in millions)                                                                          (Unaudited)
Revenues                                                   $   647.8          $ 635.9          $ 1,984.3          $ 1,934.0
Cost of revenue                                            $   181.8          $ 179.2          $   554.8          $   546.1
Research and development                                       115.1             91.5              353.0              268.5
Sales and marketing                                            145.4            141.1              476.9              427.7
General and administrative                                      74.1             69.6              256.5              241.5
Total costs and expenses                                   $   516.4          $ 481.4          $ 1,641.2          $ 1,483.8



Revenues

Revenues for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022 increased by
$11.9 million and $50.3 million, respectively, when compared with the same
periods of 2021. The net increase in revenues is primarily derived from the
combination of meaningful growth in select non-slot game titles and the
acquisition of Reworks in the third quarter of 2021, which were partially offset
by meaningful declines in certain of our slot-themed games. We continue to see
favorable impacts on revenues in certain of our games from our ongoing
improvements to monetization, new content and product features

                                      -29-
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Revenue cost

Cost of revenue for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022 increased
by $2.6 million and $8.7 million, respectively, when compared with the same
periods of 2021. The favorable impact of reduced platform fees associated with a
higher percentage of our revenues being derived through our direct-to-consumer
platforms was more than offset by the increased platform fees associated with
revenue from Reworks and an increase in amortization expense associated with
both the acquisition of Reworks and with recently capitalized software
development costs.

Research and development costs

Research and development expenses for the three and nine months ended
September 30, 2022 increased by $23.6 million and $84.5 million, respectively,
when compared with the same periods of 2021. In addition to the impact of
increased expenses associated with the acquisition of Reworks, the increase in
research and development expenses was primarily due to increased headcount and
employee compensation costs, including increased stock-based compensation
expense, and increased facilities costs associated with additional leased
premises.

Sales and marketing expenses

Sales and marketing expenses for the three and nine months ended September 30,
2022 increased by $4.3 million and $49.2 million, respectively, when compared
with the same periods of 2021. In addition to the impact of increased expenses
associated with the acquisition of Reworks, the increases in sales and marketing
expenses were primarily due to increased marketing promotions and increased
media buy expenses.

General and administrative expenses

General and administrative expenses for the three and nine months ended
September 30, 2022 increased by $4.5 million and $15.0 million, respectively,
when compared with the same periods of 2021. Included in general and
administrative expenses for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022,
with no comparable amounts for the three and nine months ended September 30,
2021, are decreases to contingent consideration of $11.4 million and $14.1
million, respectively. Included in general and administrative expenses for the
nine months ended September 30, 2021, with no comparable amounts for the nine
months ended September 30, 2022, are bonus expenses of approximately $35.4
million paid as a result of the successful initial public offering of our stock
in January 2021. Excluding these specific discrete items, general and
administrative expenses would have increased during the three and nine months
ending September 30, 2022 when compared with 2021, primarily as a result of
increased headcount and employee compensation costs, including stock based
compensation costs, and expenses incurred in 2022 in connection with the
evaluation of strategic alternatives for the Company.

Other Factors Affecting Net Income

                                         Three months ended               Nine months ended
                                           September 30,                    September 30,
                                          2022             2021           2022            2021
(in millions)                                               (Unaudited)
Interest expense                   $     31.5            $ 23.7      $    81.1          $ 124.8
Interest income                          (5.8)             (0.2)          (9.1)            (0.5)
Foreign currency exchange, net           (1.5)              0.8            0.9              0.6
Other                                     0.1               0.6            1.3             (0.3)
Provision for income taxes               38.9              49.1           81.1            119.4


Interest expense

Interest expense for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022
increased by $7.8 million and decreased by $43.7 million, respectively, when
compared with the same periods of 2021. Interest expense for the three months
ended September 30, 2022 increase as a result of higher average interest rates
on our variable rate debt. Included in interest expense for the nine months
ended September 30, 2021, with no comparable amounts in 2022, is the write-off
of approximately 22.9 million of
                                      -30-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

original issue discount and the recording of approximately $14.5 million in
expenses, both recorded in connection with the March 2021 refinancing
transactions. Excluding the impact of these discrete components of interest
expense from 2021, interest expense declined by approximately $6.3 million for
the nine months ended September 30, 2022 when compared to 2021, primarily as a
result of lower average interest rates on our outstanding indebtedness in the
early part of 2022.

Provision for income taxes

The effective income tax rate for the three months ended September 30, 2022 was
36.3% compared to 37.9% for the three months ended September 30, 2021. The
effective income tax rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2022 was 30.2%
compared to 36.7% for the nine months ended September 30, 2021. The effective
tax rates were determined using a worldwide estimated annual effective tax rate
and took discrete items into consideration. The primary differences between the
effective tax rate and the 21% U.S. federal statutory rate for the three and
nine months ended September 30, 2022 were due to tax positions that do not meet
the more likely than not standard, the inclusion of Global Intangible Low-Taxed
Income, and nondeductible share-based compensation. The primary differences
between the effective tax rate and the 21% U.S. federal statutory rate for the
three and nine months ended September 30, 2021 were due to tax positions that do
not meet the more likely than not standard and rates in foreign jurisdictions
and the relative amounts of income earned in those jurisdictions.

Net revenue

Upon aggregating all of the components of our results of operations above, net
income for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022 decreased by $12.3
million and $18.4 million, respectively, when compared with the same periods of
2021.

Reconciliation of Credit-Adjusted EBITDA to Net Earnings

Credit-adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure and should not be construed as an alternative to net income as an indicator of operating performance, or as an alternative to cash flow from operating activities as a measure. liquidity, or any other measure of performance. in each case, as determined in accordance with GAAP.

Below is a reconciliation of Credit Adjusted EBITDA to net income, the closest
GAAP financial measure. Our Credit Agreement defines Adjusted EBITDA (which we
call "Credit Adjusted EBITDA") as net income before (i) interest expense, (ii)
interest income, (iii) provision for income taxes, (iv) depreciation and
amortization expense, (v) stock-based compensation, (vi) contingent
consideration, (vii) acquisition and related expenses, and (viii) certain other
items. We calculate Credit Adjusted EBITDA Margin as Credit Adjusted EBITDA
divided by revenues.

Credit Adjusted EBITDA and Credit Adjusted EBITDA Margin as calculated herein
may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies
within the industry and are not determined in accordance with GAAP. Our
presentation of Credit Adjusted EBITDA and Credit Adjusted EBITDA Margin should
not be construed as an inference that our future results will be unaffected by
unusual or unexpected items.
                                      -31-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                          Three months ended            Nine months ended
                                            September 30,                 September 30,
(in millions)                             2022           2021          2022           2021
Net income                            $    68.2       $  80.5       $  187.8       $ 206.2
Provision for income taxes                 38.9          49.1           81.1         119.4
Interest and other, net                    24.3          24.9           74.2         124.6
Depreciation and amortization              39.6          36.5          121.7         103.0
EBITDA                                    171.0         191.0          464.8         553.2
Stock-based compensation(1)                31.6          23.0          106.8          72.8
Contingent consideration                  (11.4)            -          (14.1)            -
Acquisition and related expenses(2)         6.1           1.2           19.7          43.2
Other one-time items(3)                     6.2           1.8           25.3           3.4
Credit Adjusted EBITDA(4)             $   203.5       $ 217.0       $  602.5       $ 672.6
Net income margin                          10.5  %       12.7  %         9.5  %       10.7  %
Credit Adjusted EBITDA margin              31.4  %       34.1  %        30.4  %       34.8  %


_______
(1)  Reflects, for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022 and 2021,
stock-based compensation expense related to the issuance of equity awards to
certain of our employees.
(2)  Amounts for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022 primarily
relates to expenses incurred by the Company in connection with the evaluation of
strategic alternatives for the Company. Amount for the nine months ended
September 30, 2021 primarily relates to bonus expenses paid as a result of the
successful initial public offering of the Company's stock in January 2021.
(3)  Amounts for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, consists of
$1.9 million and $12.1 million, respectively, incurred by the Company for
severance and for the nine months ended September 30, 2022, $4.0 million
incurred by the Company for relocation and support provided to employees due to
the war in Ukraine. Amounts for the three and nine months ended September 30,
2022 also include $2.7 million and $6.1 million, respectively, incurred related
to the announced restructuring activities.
(4)  Executive management is compensated, in part, based upon achieving certain
Adjusted EBITDA targets as more completely described in our proxy statement.
Adjusted EBITDA for these purposes represents Credit Adjusted EBITDA shown
above, further adjusted to reflect certain elements of cash-based compensation
and other items as shown below.
                                        Three months ended            Nine months ended
                                          September 30,                 September 30,
(in millions)                           2022           2021          2022           2021
Credit Adjusted EBITDA              $   203.5       $ 217.0       $  602.5       $ 672.6
Long-term cash compensation(a)           27.0          28.5           79.9  

88.5

M&A related retention payments(b)         0.2           2.3            7.7           9.1
Adjusted EBITDA                     $   230.7       $ 247.8       $  690.1       $ 770.2
Adjusted EBITDA margin                   35.6  %       39.0  %        34.8  %       39.8  %


Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin are key operating measures used by
our management to assess our financial performance and to supplement GAAP
measures of performance in the evaluation of the effectiveness of our business
strategies, to make budgeting decisions, and to compare our performance against
other peer companies using similar measures. We evaluate Adjusted EBITDA and
Adjusted EBITDA Margin in conjunction with our results according to GAAP because
we believe they provide investors and analysts a more complete understanding of
factors and trends affecting our business than GAAP measures alone.
(a)  Includes expenses recognized for grants of annual cash awards to employees
pursuant to our Retention Plans, which awards are incremental to salary and
bonus payments, and which plans expire in 2024. For more information, see Note
13, Appreciation and Retention Plan, of our consolidated financial statements
included in this document.
                                      -32-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(b)  Includes retention awards to key individuals associated with acquired
companies as an incentive to retain those individuals on a long-term basis. The
amounts for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, primarily
relates to the reduction of contingent consideration payable to employees of the
Company that were also selling Shareholders of Reworks. This portion of the
contingent consideration is being accounted for as an M&A retention payment to
these employees, with changes in the amounts recognized as compensation expense.

Cash and capital resources

Capital expenditure

We incur capital expenditures in the normal course of business and perform
ongoing enhancements and updates to our social and mobile games to maintain our
quality standards. Cash used for capital expenditures in the normal course of
business is typically made available from cash flows generated by operating
activities. We may also pursue acquisition opportunities for additional
businesses or social or mobile games that meet our strategic and return on
investment criteria. Capital needs are evaluated on an individual opportunity
basis and may require significant capital commitments.

Liquidity

Our primary sources of liquidity are the cash flows generated from our
operations, currently available unrestricted cash and cash equivalents,
short-term bank deposits, and borrowings under our Credit Facility and Revolver.
Our cash and cash equivalents and short-term bank deposits totaled $1,255.4
million and $1,117.1 million at September 30, 2022 and December 31, 2021,
respectively. As of both September 30, 2022 and December 31, 2021, we had $600
million in additional borrowing capacity pursuant to our Revolving Credit
Facility. Payments of short-term debt obligations and other commitments are
expected to be made from cash on the balance sheet and operating cash flows.
Long-term obligations are expected to be paid through operating cash flows, or,
if necessary, borrowings under our Revolving Credit Facility or, if necessary,
additional term loans or issuances of equity.

Our restricted cash totaled $1.6 million at September 30, 2022 and $2.0 million
at December 31, 2021. Restricted cash primarily consists of deposits to secure
obligations under our operating lease agreements and to secure company-issued
credit cards. The classification of restricted cash as current and long-term is
dependent upon the intended use of each particular reserve.

On October 10, 2022, we announced the acceptance for purchase of 51,813,472
Shares in the Tender Offer at a price of $11.58 per Share. Upon the closing of
the Tender Offer, we used approximately $600 million of the cash from our
balance sheet, excluding fees and expenses, reducing our balance of cash and
cash equivalents to approximately $650 million.

Our ability to fund our operations, pay our debt obligations and fund planned
capital expenditures depends, in part, upon economic and other factors that are
beyond our control, and disruptions in capital markets could impact our ability
to secure additional funds through financing activities. We believe that our
cash and cash equivalents balance, short-term bank deposits, restricted cash,
borrowing capacity under our Revolving Credit Facility and our cash flows from
operations will be sufficient to meet our normal operating requirements during
the next 12 months and the foreseeable future and to fund capital expenditures.
                                      -33-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cash flow

The following tables provide a summary of our cash flows for the periods indicated (in millions):

© Edgar Online, source Previews

In high school, I spent time in foster care and homelessness, praying that an Ivy League college and a top job could catapult me ​​into stability. Even as a teenager, I realized that getting into a somewhat more exclusive college would make it easier for me to land a well-paying job right out of college – and that would make the difference between taking on the debt that afflicts so many of my millennial peers or immediate security. In the talk of the death of workaholism, few talk about the winner-takes-all circumstances that make the phone impossible for many of us.

As a teenager, I embodied the hustle culture, not because I wanted to, but because I had to. I grew up in a chaotic working family. My parents’ mental health issues meant an unstable home life. In high school, I jumped from sofa to sofa, slept in my car and stayed in a shelter. College seemed like my only way out, but only a few elite universities offered full financial aid to low-income students. In a school, even at a lower level, I would have had to take out massive student loans that would have kept me attached to the life I was fighting to leave. The pressure weighed on me constantly. I couldn’t sleep, seized with terror from the test results and grades. I abused Adderall and cut myself to clear my mind so I could study harder.

I would never say it was healthy. But I didn’t make those choices in a vacuum. They were calculated based on available incentives. And when the admissions decisions rolled in, I felt vindicated: Harvard gave me a full ride, including a check each semester for travel and books. The other Ivies and liberal arts schools I attended asked me to pay around $13,000 a year. If I had chosen to go to a school that was a little less selective, I would have gotten over $200,000 in student loans.

While I was extremely lucky to land a full ride to Harvard, I saw disappointment and the cost of missed opportunities all around me. After losing her job during the Great Recession, my mother attempted to revive her career by applying for a government job. But after failing a typing test — and not getting the job — she ended up working three gigs to pay the bills, none with health insurance.

Once on campus, I met international students who were terrified of not getting jobs that sponsored visas and being forced to leave the country after graduation. The line between success and failure seemed razor thin. And everything was so unpredictable: it was almost impossible to know if you had succeeded until it was too late. The only solution I could think of was to work as hard as humanly possible at every possible moment. The Hustle culture was ingrained not only in my mind but also in my body, etched in my nervous system.

Sometimes I relaxed. I landed an internship in software engineering at Google for the summer before my senior year of college. Feeling safer, I spent my evenings after work at the gym and socializing instead of studying for interviews. In the fall, Google offered me a full-time position, but I received no other offers. It meant that I had no way to negotiate. Google was offering me $130,000 a year, an impressive sum and more than four times what my single mom made when I was a teenager, but my classmates were getting much higher offers. In an industry notoriously hostile to women, I was loath to earn less. Could it really be 12 weeks of dining with my roommates instead of studying Crack the coding interview would make a six figure difference?

I consoled myself by telling myself that I had been lucky to get the job at Google, that I couldn’t have hoped for better. Then, the day before Google’s decision deadline, I received a call from another company’s recruiter who told me he had lost my resume. I flew to California the next day and easily landed the most lucrative job. By the end of the week, Google had matched the offer to pay me $200,000 a year. With just one interview, I was going to make an extra $70,000 a year, and that amount grew to a gap of $100,000 by the time my shares were acquired.

I was stunned, less ecstatic than shocked. The huge difference confirmed my long-standing paranoia that one wrong move could materially alter my future. Like many people, my salary was not just for me: I wanted to be able to provide for my mother’s needs financially and, when the time came, to participate in the studies of my nephews and nieces. Because I graduated from Harvard without any student loans and immediately landed a six-figure job, I was able to save money right out of school, gain stability, and ultimately have the type of life I might consider retiring to.

But I can’t help but notice how the dialogue around the silent shutdown makes so many assumptions about race and class. Yeah, it’s great that a white lawyer can go down to four days a week without taking a pay cut or that an upper-middle-class creative can take a step back to just focus on the projects he love. But these hypotheticals ignore the realities of our unequal society, where cashiers, warehouse workers and home health aides work long hours for low pay and little job security. Most people don’t scramble for self-realization. They jostle each other because they need to survive.

It is crucial that, as a society, we recognize the toll that work takes on us. But treating the culture of hustle as an individual disease ignores the “culture” part of it: this behavior stems from a system where tiny gains lead to outsized prizes. While it’s healthy to step back and ask yourself if the benefits are worth the cost, quitting smoking silently isn’t the solution for everyone. This risks being one more individual solution to a social problem, one that does not benefit everyone and which may leave the most vulnerable workers to take over.

Emi Nietfeld is a former Google engineer and Facebook. She is the author of a memoir, Acceptance. You can find her on twitter @eminietfeld.

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OMAHA, November 2, 2022 – United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today that the Biden-Harris administration is investing $73 million in 21 grant projects in the first round of the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program (MPPEP). MPPEP is responding to President Biden’s call to increase competition across the economy to reduce costs for American families. Today’s announcement will increase meat and poultry processing capacity, which in turn will increase competition, support producer incomes and strengthen the food supply chain to reduce costs for producers. working families and create jobs and economic opportunities in rural areas. In addition, the Authority is investing $75 million in eight projects under the Meat and Poultry Intermediate Loan Program, as well as more than $75 million in four meat and poultry projects in the under the Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Scheme.

These announcements support the Biden-Harris Administration’s Action Plan for a Fairer, More Competitive, and Resilient Meat and Poultry Supply Chain, which devotes resources to expanding independent processing capacity. As President Biden Underline earlier this year, the creation of fairer markets and more opportunities for family farmers is helping to lower prices at the grocery store.

“Since President Biden made a commitment earlier this year, the USDA has worked tirelessly to give farmers and ranchers a fair chance to compete in the marketplace, which in turn helps reduce food costs to the American people,” the agriculture secretary said. Tom Vilsak. “By launching independent processing projects and increasing processing capacity, these investments are creating more opportunities for farmers and ranchers to get a fair price, while strengthening supply chains, delivering more food produced closer to home for families, expanding economic opportunities and creating jobs in rural America.”

The USDA is achieving the multi-pronged goals of these investments:

• Support producer-driven business models: Montana Premium Processing Cooperative (MPPC)a start-up cooperative, created in partnership with the Montana Farmers Union and Farmers Union Industries, will use MPPEP funds to offer independent producers in Montana an option for a local USDA-inspected meat processing facility in an area that is currently not federally inspected. Processing.
• Strengthening local and regional food systems: Vermont Livestock Slaughtering and Processing connects hundreds of Vermont and Northeast farmers with the individuals, families, schools and businesses they supply. Thanks to their MPPEP investment, they are now ready to revitalize and modernize their multi-species facility, tripling their throughput.
• Reduce barriers to treatment: Cutting-edge meat company, a plant in Leakesville, Mississippi, processes pork and beef for producers in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida. With this investment, they will significantly increase their capacity and reduce the six-month processing backlog producers are currently facing.
• Large-scale competition: Greater Omaha Packing in Omaha, Nebraska, will open new opportunities for cattle producers by increasing their beef processing capacity by 700 head per day. The project will also support 275 additional jobs.
• Restoring jobs in rural areas: pure grassland, recently purchased a shuttered poultry plant in Charles City, Iowa, with the goal of returning hundreds of jobs to the small rural community and increasing poultry processing in the upper Midwest. The project sources directly from producers in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, who are also shareholders and co-owners of the company.
• Empowerment of family businesses: New Stockton Poultry in Stockton, Calif., is a family-run business that sources and processes specialty chickens to meet demand within diverse immigrant communities and beyond.

The investments announced today are part of a series of financial assistance tools to help producers and lenders increase their capacity in the food supply chain.

The MPPEP was designed to support capacity expansion projects in concert with other private and public financing tools. Today’s announcement is the first round of funding made available under MPEPP Phase I. Further announcements are expected in the coming weeks. The USDA will also soon begin receiving applications for a new phase of deployment of an additional $225 million, for a total of up to $375 million, to provide surge funding for independent processing plant projects. that meet a demonstrated need for more diverse processing capability. For more information on the MPPEP, see the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program Page.

The Meat and Poultry Intermediate Loan Program (MPILP) provides grants to not-for-profit intermediary lenders who are financing – or planning to finance – the start-up, expansion or operation of a slaughterhouse or other meat and poultry processing. MPILP’s goal is to strengthen the financing system for independent meat processors and create a more resilient, diverse, and secure U.S. food supply chain. In the first round of MPILP, $75 million was awarded to eight lenders in seven states. Applications for the second round ($125 million) are currently being accepted and are due December 31, 2022.

Under the Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program (FSCGLP), the USDA partners with lenders to guarantee loans to help eligible entities develop meat processing and poultry and strengthen the US food supply chain. Lenders provide loans to eligible cooperatives, for-profit corporations, non-profits, tribal communities, government agencies, and rural and urban dwellers. Since the launch of the FSCGLP in December 2021, more than $250 million in loans have been guaranteed for projects in the middle of the food supply chain. Four of them, announced today and totaling more than $75 million, are aimed at meat and poultry processors.

For a complete list of rewards under these programs, visit: www.rd.usda.gov/sites/default/files/11-02-2022-Food-Systems-Transformation-Chart-OSEC.pdf (PDF, 211 KB)

Today’s announcement is one of several actions the USDA is taking to increase processing capacity and increase competition in meat and poultry processing to make agricultural markets more accessible, fair , competitive and resilient, and builds on the Department’s efforts to transform the country’s food system. Additional information about all of these programs is available at www.usda.gov/meat.

The USDA touches the lives of all Americans every day in so many positive ways. Under the Biden-Harris administration, the USDA is transforming the U.S. food system with a greater emphasis on more resilient local and regional food production, promoting competition and fairer markets for all producers, ensuring the access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and income streams for farmers and producers using climate-smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and capacity clean energy in rural America, and committing to equity across the department by removing systemic barriers and creating a workforce that is more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.

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The USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.

Insider experts choose the best products and services to help you make informed decisions with your money (here’s how). In some cases, we receive a commission from our our partners, however, our opinions are our own. Terms apply to offers listed on this page.

• My wife and I had about $20,000 in student loans and auto debt when we got married.
• We decided to use the debt snowball method to pay it all off, but realized we needed to earn more.
• We got promotions and took side hustles, and celebrated every milestone.

$20,000. This is the amount of non-mortgage debt my wife and I accumulated in our marriage before we started getting serious with money. 15% of our take home pay went to student loans and car payments, and we only paid the bare minimum. We felt like we were stuck in debt until the terms of the loans were lifted, and by then we would probably have new debt to replace it since that’s exactly what people were doing.

My wife was, at the time, the more financially knowledgeable half of our partnership due to her family’s decent education in the fundamentals of money management. I was a little more naive about the whole money thing and was happy to let my wife control the financial direction of our new marriage.

Two big moments happened around the same time to change that. My wife encouraged me to learn more about money so we could be equally responsible for our family’s financial decisions, and the school where I was teaching asked me to teach a financial math class during of the next school year.

Both were signs that I needed to get on board and learn more about finance, which I did through many podcasts and books. The end result was a blazing fire to get us out of debt and onto a journey of financial independence that included the ability to early retirement.

We opted for a debt repayment strategy

Our debt was pretty straight forward and there were a lot of positives to build on. There was no credit card debt, we didn’t overbought our house, and when we did buy new cars, we bought some of the cheapest new cars on the market (a Corolla and a Civic). Our student loan debt was collective $12,000 and the rest was car debt.

Having seen the Snowball methods and debt avalanche set up, we opted for a snowball approach to take advantage of the first victories for motivation. This meant that we tackled our smallest debt first, then accumulated the largest, deferring the payment of the previous debt to the next as they were paid off.

Our refrigerator was adorned with a new poster showing each of our debts (three student loans and two cars), the total amount owed for each, and small fundraising thermometers to visually show our progress toward paying off each.

The chart made it a fun experience and kept us going when progress seemed small or insignificant each month. Walking by the board each day helped keep the fire burning to stay true to our plan and not give up until it was all gone.

We have reduced expenses as much as possible

Personal finance is really simple at its core. Earn more than you spend and put that extra money (“the spread”) to work on increasing your net worth.

In this case, paying off our debt was the best way to improve our net worth. The problem for us is that there was no gap at the start. We had inflated our lifestyles to the point of consuming our entire paychecks each month, with a minimal amount going to retirement accounts and nothing to savings.

We cut expenses where we could, but there wasn’t much else we could cut back then. We needed more revenue to fill the gap needed to aggressively pay down our debt.

We found ways to earn more

Over the next 18 months, my wife and I increased our income through eight different sources. These included improving our earnings in our full-time jobs through professional development and job changes, as well as finding part-time jobs, employment contracts and starting our own businesses.

As a teacher with summer leave and a therapist who sets her own schedule, one thing we had going for us was the time and flexibility to create these new sources of income and sustain them for a short period of time. My wife worked in a vineyard and took a part-time job as a school social worker. I wrote up the curriculum for my school district and started tutoring math in the evenings.

My favorite side activity was officiating girls’ lacrosse. While being the one in the center of the field with the whistle might not sound appealing to you, it was a way to earn a great hourly rate of around $1 per minute, plus it had exercise built in.

We identified milestones and celebrated them

At first it was easy. The first two student loans were only a few hundred dollars each, so they dropped pretty quickly. After that, progress was slow. The snowball of money we were throwing at the debt had grown, but it was still only making a small dent each month, which was super demoralizing at times.

We’ve found that if we break down big debt into smaller steps that we can celebrate, it keeps the small quick wins mentality alive.

Celebrating usually consisted of a little treat for ourselves. Nothing to derail our efforts, but something to reward us for our hard work and persistence. It could be as simple as a sweet treat or takeout instead of cooking.

We were smart about future debt

Once we made the last payment 18 months after starting, it was decided that future debts were going to be avoided as much as possible.

We continue to use credit cards, but they are still refunded in full each month for enjoy the rewards.

We immediately began funding an emergency fund to cover events that might force us into debt.

Instead of inflating our budget with all the money freed up through debt repayment, we kept making car payments to ourselves and saved it in a high yield savings account. This allowed us to pay for a used car in 2021 without having to take out a long-term car loan.

We’ve also used high-yield savings accounts for things like Christmas gifts, annual HOA expenses, and vacations. Everything we can now reasonably plan, we do.

Swedish FinTechs created and Klarna said Wednesday (October 26) that their partnership has helped small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in this country to receive larger loan offers at lower interest rates.

According to a Press release, the collaboration is between Krea, a digital lending platform for SMEs, and Klarna Kosma, Klarna’s fintech platform for banks and retailers. The statement said the partnership has helped businesses receive 15% larger loan offers on average, at a 4% lower interest rate.

“Using Klarna Kosma, SMBs can quickly and securely deliver transaction-level data directly from their business bank account to the Krea platform,” the statement said. “This detailed data on the company’s day-to-day operations gives lenders the confidence to offer larger loans at lower interest rates.”

The companies say this has led Krea to facilitate more small business loan approvals, with more than 20,000 loans offered to SMEs this year.

“Following the Covid pandemic, it has become even more important for lenders to value businesses based on their most recent cash flows,” said Carsten Leth, chief commercial officer of Krea. “Klarna Kosma’s open banking solution allows us to help more small businesses access finance at better rates.”

PYMNES noted earlier this month that many small businesses find themselves in a precarious situation. Although more than half of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) surveyed for our Main Street Health report said they expected to see full-year revenue for 2022, a surprisingly large number – 12% – said that ‘they were less certain of their chances of surviving until 2024.

Read the report: Inflation has mixed effects on high street small businesses

More than two years of COVID-19 chaos, coupled with protracted and runaway inflation, rising interest rates and economic uncertainty, have been strong enough to give many of these so-called SME survivors a second thought.

While this has had a negative effect on the prospects of some SMEs, it has also opened up the possibility for some financial institutions to offer capital and cash flow assistance or payment solutions that can reduce costs and help companies stressed out to save time.

For all PYMNTS EMEA coverage, subscribe daily EMEA Newsletter.

Taiwanese financial authorities on Friday tightened restrictions on short selling, following similar action in the Taiwanese market taken on October 3.

Under new rules enforced by the Financial Supervisory Commission of Taiwan (FSC), restrictions will apply to short sales of an equity security if its stock price has fallen 3.5% or more from its closing price for the previous trading session.

Under these circumstances, investors will be prohibited from using the previous closing price, or a lower price, to short sell the stock by borrowing securities, according to a statement released by the FSC via the Central News Agency (CNA). from Taiwan.

However, securities firms and futures traders will be exempt from these restrictions if they conduct short selling activities for hedging purposes, according to the FSC.

The FSC’s Securities and Futures Bureau reported that stock prices of 105 stocks on the main board of the Taiwan Stock Exchange and 47 stocks traded on the OTC market fell 3.5% or more on Friday, October 21.

As a result, these stocks were covered by the new short-selling rules when Taiwanese markets reopened this morning.

An Iowa couple who unwittingly bought a critically ill dog on a loan with an 189% interest rate now wants lawmakers to protect consumers from a similar experience.

Jeff and Jennifer Bowman, whose story was the first reported by the Washington Postbought a 12-week-old English Bulldog from a Petland store in Iowa City three years ago.

The price for the pup, which they later named Zeke, was $4,400. “They told us the price and I almost fell on the ground,” recalls Jennifer Bowman. The couple hadn’t planned on spending so much money on a new dog, but with Zeke, she says, it was “love at first sight.”

“They put us in a little room where we could sit with Zeke and he could run around, and we fell in love with him,” Jeff Bowman said.

Adding taxes, a $300 “returning supplies kit” and an Iowa Hawkeyes dog collar, the Bowmans owed Petland a total of $5,001.07. The couple deposited $500 and, with the help of Petland staff, they signed papers financing the rest of the purchase through two separate loans, one for $1,500 and the other for 3. $000.

A Petland clerk warned the couple of the interest rate they would face if they did not repay the $1,500 loan within 90 days.

“They said, ‘Try to pay because after a certain point the interest rate is going to skyrocket,'” recalls Jeff Bowman. “But we didn’t know how much it would increase.”

Rent-a-bank loans avoid state interest caps

Although Iowa interest rates are capped at 36%, the Bowmans later discovered that the $1,500 12-month loan, issued through a company called EasyPay, stipulated that they did not repay the loan within 90 days, an interest rate of 188.98% would be applied to the loan.

The loan documents, which include a disclosure statement from the federal Truth in Lending Act, clearly set out the precise terms of the agreement – ​​showing the Bowmans would have to pay $1,827 in finance charges to borrow $1,500 , for a total refund of $3,327. EasyPay would automatically withdraw $128 from the couple’s bank account every two weeks.

But that statement was one of many filed with the Bowmans that day, and the couple were more focused on Zeke than on the terms of the loan. Additionally, they were unaware that Zeke had serious health issues that would result in multiple and costly visits to the vet, which would impact their ability to repay the loan.

The higher interest rate was made possible by EasyPay processing the loan through Utah-based Transportation Alliance Bank. It’s a process that animal welfare and consumer advocates call “rent-a-bank,” and it allows finance companies like EasyPay to route loans through federally regulated banks in out of state who do not have to conform to interest rates. ceilings set by the States.

The National Consumer Law Center claims that these “predatory” practices have resulted in hundreds of complaints.

Among them:

• A New Jersey consumer who purchased a Cocker Spaniel and was charged 152% interest, five times the New Jersey legal limit of 30%.
• A Georgian consumer who complained that the pet store did not tell her that EasyPay finance charges amounted to an interest rate of 180%. “My pup was supposed to be $2,500 (and) is now almost $7,000.”
• A Florida consumer who said he ended up with damaged credit after buying a puppy that immediately fell ill and eventually died. “I only borrowed $2,200. …I owe $5,500 on my credit report, due to interest,” the consumer complained.
• Another Florida consumer purchased a Shih Tzu puppy that died after the family incurred $1,280 in veterinary bills. After the pup died, a debt collector kept calling to collect on the loan.

Last year, Congress passed a resolution repealing a Trump-era rule that was enacted by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that facilitated such lending.

“In many states, these lenders are controlled by caps on the amount of interest they can charge,” President Joe Biden said as he signed the resolution. “But some loan sharks and online lenders have figured out how to circumvent these limits…using a partnership with a bank to avoid the state cap and charging outrageous interest – some as high as 100% interest, which is staggering. … The last administration let it happen, but we won’t.

Eliminating the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency rule hasn’t stopped the bank leasing process — and proponents say further action by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Congress are still needed.

A coalition of consumer groups, including Public Citizen, the Public Interest Research Group and the Consumer Federation of America, have petitioned the FDIC, which regulates banks. The groups are urging the agency to end the practice of banks serving as “fronts” for companies they view as predatory lenders.

Earlier this year, they wrote to the FDIC and said, “FDIC-supervised banks are helping predatory lenders make loans up to 225% APR that are illegal in nearly every state. … Bank leasing programs have flourished at FDIC banks over the past few years, and it’s time for that to end.

Zeke dies, collection calls continue

The Bowmans say the financial impact of the loans for Zeke was significant. “We almost lost our home,” Jennifer Bowman said.

When the couple realized the interest rate they would face if they didn’t rush to pay off the EasyPay loan, they enlisted the help of Jeff’s mother, who paid off the balance using a credit card with a much lower interest rate.

As difficult as it was, it pales in comparison to the emotional and financial problems that Zeke’s health issues caused the couple.

“It wasn’t until a few days after we brought him home that he started bleeding from his hindquarters,” Jennifer Bowman said. A series of diagnostic tests would eventually show that Zeke had Giardia, an intestinal infection caused by a microscopic parasite. Further tests by a specialist showed that Zeke had an abnormal kidney and was unlikely to reach the age of 5.

“It was terrible,” Jennifer Bowman said. “I used to take him to puppy training classes, but he couldn’t play too long because he was getting exhausted. It was so hard to watch because he was so full of life and he wanted to play. He was the best dog – so happy.

In February 2021, Zeke died of kidney failure at the age of 20 months, with veterinary records describing a number of physical issues including a history of allergic skin disease, gastrointestinal complaints and respiratory issues. A veterinarian later said Zeke’s death was a direct result of his “genetic and breeding history”.

Violation history

American Canine Association records of Zeke indicate he was born at Twin Birch Kennels, a kennel run by Lavern and Marietta Nolt of Charles City. The kennel has a history of regulatory issues, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture records.

The kennel’s last USDA inspection, in June, found several violations, including failure to provide adequate veterinary care to four English Bulldog puppies who had weak hind legs, and failure to maintain adequate identification and veterinary records.

In February, similar issues were noted by a USDA inspector who reported that several Twin Birch dogs were not receiving adequate care, including a bulldog with a “big red growth” covering a third of its right eye. “The dog has not been evaluated by a veterinarian,” the inspector said, and the kennel did not intend to have the condition diagnosed or treated.

Petland officials reimbursed the Bowmans in full for the purchase price of Zeke, less finance charges, and some of the couple’s veterinary bills. After Zeke’s death, the Bowmans stopped paying the second of two loans they had obtained through Petland. To this day, Jennifer Bowman said, they continue to receive calls from a collection agency and their credit rating has taken a hit.

Legislation stalled in Congress

In 2019 and 2021, a bill was introduced in Congress to provide a permanent national solution to the rent-a-bank problem by establishing a 36% interest rate cap that would apply to all lenders. But this proposal has met with strong opposition from the financial sector and has not yet been approved by Congress.

With federal action stalled, some states have taken action. Illinois banned high-interest loans, and California now prohibits online pet stores, regardless of their physical location, from assisting with the financed purchase of dogs, cats or rabbits.

As for EasyPay, the company acknowledges that its interest rates can reach 199%, but says it makes financing an option for people who otherwise wouldn’t even qualify for a loan.

“Many Americans are being left behind by the traditional banking and credit system,” the company told The Washington Post. “EasyPay facilitates financing options to ensure that these consumers have a reliable and secure choice to access otherwise unavailable credit for urgent needs and discretionary purposes.”

Petland officials could not be reached for comment, but told the Washington Post that in April 2021, the company stopped offering loan options with triple-digit interest rates.

As for the Bowmans, they now have a new dog — one acquired from a friend, not a dealer — but they still want others to know about Zeke and the financial and veterinary risks associated with puppy mills and pet financing. company.

“We reached out to the Better Business Bureau, the US Department of Agriculture, the Attorney General’s office — all of them,” Jennifer Bowman said. “We tried to get Zeke’s story out there just so another family wouldn’t go through what we went through.”

This article first appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatcha sister site to the Nebraska Examiner in the State Newsroom Network.

REGIS-TR has partnered with Spanish wholesale bank Cecabank to simplify and facilitate reporting compliance processes for its clients.

Cecabank previously worked with REGIS-TR as a long-term provider of regulatory solutions in the Spanish market.

Cecabank specializes in securities services, offering reporting solutions to Spanish financial institutions, supporting them through EMIR, UK EMIR and SFTR reporting.

Nick Bruce, Head of Business Development at REGIS-TR, comments: “We have worked closely with the Cecabank team for a long time and are delighted to officially partner with them. Our wide range of partners from industry-leading organizations enables our customers to realize operational advantages and greater efficiency.

Massimo Salerno, Director of Treasury, Risk and Reporting Services at Cecabank, comments: “Partnering with REGIS-TR will help our Regulatory Reporting as a Service clients in the Iberian Peninsula to gain efficiencies and comply with regulatory requirements. EMIR, SFTR and EMIR REFIT in a smooth and efficient way.

“The partnership will mark a new step in the long-established relationship between the Cecabank ecosystem and REGIS-TR, leveraging previous experiences of EMIR and SFTR prior to the implementation of EMIR REFIT.”

By Cecilia Clark

Whether you need smaller payments, want to pay them back faster, or work in the public service, make a plan now before the holidays.

This article is reprinted with permission from NerdWallet.

According to an August press release from the White House, twenty million people, or nearly 45% of federal borrowers, will see their debt wiped out by the cancellation of President Joe Biden’s student loan. However, for the 23 million borrowers who still have debt, now is the time to develop a repayment plan.

“January will be here before you know it,” says Damian Dunn, certified financial planner and vice president of corporate financial wellness platform Your Money Line.

Payments resume in January 2023. But, Dunn says, with the holidays coming up, by January, spending and borrowing time are the biggest for many people. As a result, many borrowers can be overburdened in January if they don’t plan now.

They won’t just pick up where they left off in March 2020, when payments and interest were halted. Payment amounts and options may vary.

Borrowers can expect the remaining balance of their loan to be re-amortized after cancellation. This means that their cancellation amount, either $10,000 or $20,000, will be deducted from the total they owe. Their payment term will not change, but they will receive a new monthly invoice based on the recalculation of the remaining balance. Many borrowers will see a smaller bill as a result.

Here’s what to do next.

If you work in the public service

Prioritize Public Service Loan Forgiveness Waiver, or PSLF, if your job makes you eligible. The Department of Education can count more payments toward the 120 needed for pardon under the waiver. This means you could see full forgiveness much sooner.

The last day to apply for the waiver is October 31.

You can still apply for the PSLF after the waiver ends, but the terms won’t be as generous.

If you are comfortable with your regular payments

If you made regular payments during the pandemic pause without financial strain, keep doing it. Continuing to pay during the pandemic means you saved money because your dollars went straight to the main balance.

However, if you haven’t made payments during the pandemic, start setting aside your payment amount now to make sure it will fit into your budget. By doing so, you could pay a three-month lump sum once payments resume.

If your student loan bill is smaller after the cancellation is applied, continue to make your original payment if you can. This way, you’ll save money on interest charges and pay off your debt faster.

Making room in your finances gives you time to adjust your budget if necessary. But you have other options if you can’t make it work.

Read: Have your student loans been forgiven? Here’s where to put some of that extra cash now

If you need small monthly payments

If you know you’ll have trouble making your monthly payments, contact your servicer to discuss income-based reimbursement, or IDR, options. Four income-driven repayment plans currently set your payout at 10% of your Discretionary Income. Payments could be set at $0 if your income is low.

These plans also wipe out your remaining balance after 20 or 25 years.

Borrowers can also expect a new income-based repayment option, announced alongside the cancellation. The new plan will reduce the amount of income considered discretionary and halve the payout percentage to 5%. It will also reduce the forgiveness period to five years for those whose original total loan balance was $12,000 or less.

As unpaid interest continues to accumulate and capitalize under existing plans, the government will cover unpaid interest with the new IDR. That means borrowers who want to cut their monthly payments — potentially by half or more — and who don’t mind extending their repayment term could benefit the most from the new plan.

However, high-income borrowers may not see lower payments with income-driven repayment.

Related: Moving forward with federal student loan relief — what’s next?

If you want to pay off your debt faster

If you want to pay off your debt faster and don’t want to refinance with a private lender, the best strategy is to:

Consider refinancing if you have private student loans or federal debt carrying higher rates.

With student loan refinancing, borrowers replace their existing loan with a new one. Ideally, the new loan will have a lower interest rate and more favorable repayment terms.

Student loan refinance rates have increased, but borrowers with the strongest credit profiles can still find a lower rate.

Borrowers should not refinance until at least 2023 – once the cancellation is applied to their account and the interest-free forbearance is over. If you refinance, your federal student loans will become private and will no longer be eligible for federal benefits, like forgiveness and IDR.

The decision to refinance should come down to long-term financial benefit, says Clark Kendall, certified financial planner and president of Kendall Capital Management. For example, if you can go from a 7% rate to a 5% rate, you can save that 2% or increase your 401(k) contribution.

See also: Your $10,000 student loan debt has been forgiven. Should you pay your credit card bill or take advantage of the falling stock market?

Dunn also warns borrowers to consider their risk of losing federal benefits. “I would double-check the math and make sure you’re in a better position,” he says. “Maybe a slightly lower payout doesn’t outweigh the overall benefit of having federal protections.”

More from NerdWallet

Cecilia Clark writes for NerdWallet. Email: [email protected]

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10-15-22 1425ET

Copyright (c) 2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

A reverse mortgage allows a homeowner who has paid off their property to borrow money using the equity as collateral.

This is a type of home loan available to Australians aged 60 and over, and it helps people who have exhausted their savings and sources of income. In other words, someone who is asset-rich but cash-poor.

Interest is charged on a reverse mortgage as with any loan, but the borrower is not required to make any repayments. That said, voluntary payments are possible.

How does a reverse mortgage work?

A person with a reverse mortgage stays in their home and does not make repayments. Interest is charged on the loan and the interest rate is usually higher than a standard home loan. The loan must be repaid in full, plus fees and interest, when the home is sold on the person’s death.

Reverse mortgage lenders apply different criteria, but generally as a person ages they can access a greater proportion of the equity in their home.

“There are pretty strict loan-to-value (LVR) guidelines that borrowers can release,” says Darren Moffatt, Founder and CEO of Seniors first. “Everything is determined by age and linked to life expectancy.”

For example, a person over the age of 60 may have access to funds worth 15% or 20% of the total property value. As a guide, add 1% for each year after age 60.

What are the advantages ?

Perhaps the greatest benefit of a reverse mortgage is that it allows a person to stay in the home they love. You don’t have to sell the house to free up some cash.

It also comes with a negative equity guarantee, which means that even if a property loses value to the point that it is worth less than the loan (known as “negative equity”), the borrower will not owe any additional money on the loan.

“Reverse mortgages are the most regulated financial credit product in Australia. There are very strong consumer protections written into the regulations, one of which is a non-negative capital guarantee,” says Moffatt.

To benefit from the guarantee, three conditions must be met. Council rates must be paid on time, the property must be insured and any necessary repairs must be carried out.

What are the disadvantages ?

A reverse mortgage can be costly if the wrong loan structure is chosen for your situation. Choose a lender carefully and weigh the different alternatives they offer. A reverse mortgage is more complex than a standard home loan.

“Will you take a lump sum or a reserve of money? You don’t want to unnecessarily incur more interest charges than necessary,” says Moffatt.

What to consider before applying

Moffatt encourages families to talk about the possible implications of a reverse mortgage. Moffatt encountered a small minority of children who focus more on the size of their inheritance than on the day-to-day financial needs of their parents.

“In our experience, adult children and recipients are generally very supportive of parents using these loans,” Moffatt says. “But there were times when the kids weren’t super happy. It is better to put everything on the table before embarking on this kind of loan.

There are also potential implications for the old-age pension that need to be taken into account.

“In the vast majority of cases, borrowing funds through a reverse mortgage will not affect the old age pension. It depends on the use of the funds,” says Moffatt.

If the funds are used to give money or make an investment, they can be valued according to the asset test and reduce the amount of the pension. Always check with Centrelink first.

How to qualify for a reverse mortgage

A reverse mortgage is not subject to income conditions. It is accessible to people over 60 who own their home.

Other options

In addition to a reverse mortgage, there are several ways to leverage the equity in your home:

equity release agreement

sharing of the proceeds of the sale of the house (reversion of the house)

· the Home Equity Access Program

Home equity release

An equity release agreement allows you to sell a portion of a home’s value. The owner receives a lump sum or installment payments while continuing to live in the house. Fees are paid on the part that has been sold and the proportion of owner’s equity decreases over time, which covers the fees paid.

Sharing of the proceeds of the sale of the house (reversion of the domicile)

Also known as house reversion, this allows the owner to sell a “share” or “transfer” (in other words, a proportion) of the future value of the house while remaining in it. A lump sum is paid to the homeowner, who keeps the remaining equity in their home.

Home Equity Access Program

Formerly known as the Pension Loans Scheme, it is provided by the government through Services Australia and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Qualifying older Australians can receive a tax-free voluntary fortnightly loan, which can be used to supplement their retirement income.

Chime is a fintech company, not a bank. Banking services provided by The Bancorp Bank or Stride Bank, NA, Members FDIC.

Chime is a popular fintech app that provides users with simple banking services like a checking account, savings account, and secure credit card. It is a very popular application due to its simplicity and user-friendly interface. Although Chime simplifies the banking process for its users, you might need some extra help if you’re in a cash crunch.

Best cash advance apps that work with Chime

Although they seem like an obvious option, payday loans are actually very dangerous. This is why you should consider cash advance applications because of their easier processing and quick service. If you use Chime, you should research cash advance apps that work with it for easier processing.

Here are some of the most popular cash advance apps that work with Chime:

• albert
• Cleo
• Empower
• Varo
• SilverLion
• David
• Fork
• Klover

1.Albert

Albert is one of the most popular cash advance apps compatible with Chime. There are no processing or late fees. You can get an advance of up to $250 that you can repay with your next paycheck.

Albert is not a bank itself and banking services are provided by Sutton Bank. He deposits the advance directly into your Chime account.

Advantages

• Funds deposited in Albert Cash and Albert Savings are FDIC insured.
• Users can earn up to 20% cash back when they purchase gas, groceries and more with an Albert debit card.

The inconvenients

• The free version of Albert does not include personal finance tips and rewards.

2. Cleo

Similar to Albert, Cleo is one of the cash advance apps that will work with Chime. There are no processing fees when trying to get a cash advance in the Cleo app. A user can get up to $100 cash advance through Cleo.

Advantages

• Cleo has many useful features that help users build credit and avoid overdrafts.
• It provides users with tools that encourage savings and prepare budgets.

The inconvenients

• Cleo’s cash advance feature is not free. Users must subscribe to Cleo Plus or Cleo Builder by paying a monthly fee of $5.99.
• Cleo charges an additional $4 fee for express transfers.

3. Empower

You can easily connect your Chime account to Empower as it is one of the Chime compatible cash advance apps. You can get instant credit up to $250 on the app. Empower is a very popular cash advance app and has provided over $400 million in cash advances.

Advantages

• Empower does not charge any interest on the money it advances.
• There are no late fees for late payment.
• It has a debit card called Empower Card which has no overdraft fees and users can get express cash advance delivery on the debit card.

The inconvenients

• Cash advance features are not free, and users must sign up for an $8 monthly subscription after a 14-day trial period.

4. Varo

Varo has a financial management system and is one of the best cash advance apps that works with Chime. It helps users take control of their money with Varo Bank Visa contactless debit cards and 24/7 branchless mobile banking. Depending on your usage, you can get up to $100 instant cash advance.

Advantages

• Users can get up to 6% cashback for using Varo cards. Each time the cashback amount reaches $5, Varo automatically transfers the amount to your bank account.
• Varo has high-yield savings accounts that pay interest.

The inconvenients

• The criteria for receiving cash advances are complicated. You can only qualify if your account has been active for more than 30 days.
• A cash advance is only available to those who have received $1,000 in direct deposits in the past 31 days. The user must have their Varo Bank debit card linked to their Varo bank account.
• There is a tiered fee structure for cash advances.

5. Silver Lion

MoneyLion is a complete banking platform and one of the best cash advance apps that works with Chime. Similar to Varo, MoneyLion’s cash advance limits are dependent on direct deposits. A user can get an advance of up to $250.

Advantages

• MoneyLion offers different financial products and users can get an advance of up to $1000 if they register with them.
• If you have a MoneyLion debit card, you can access instant cash advances.

The inconvenients

• Users need to pay 3%-5% of the total cash advance amount as a fee.

6.David

Dave can be considered one of the best cash advance apps that work with Chime. It is very popular due to its ExtraCash feature which allows users to get a cash advance of up to $500. The process is quick and you can easily transfer funds to your Dave spending account to spend the money you received.

Advantages

• There is no interest or credit check required to obtain a cash advance from Dave.
• You can spend the money instantly with the Dave Debit Mastercard®. There is no waiting period or low balance issue.

The inconvenients

• Dave charges a subscription fee, even though it’s only $1 per month.
• There are additional fees for Instant Funds Transfer.

7. Branch

Although Branch is one of the cash advance apps that work with Chime, you must place your direct deposits into the Branch account to qualify for a cash advance. It is a comprehensive financial management tool that provides advances of up to $500 on a user’s earned salary.

Advantages

• Branch has several financial wellness tools that can be used by businesses and incorporated into their policy structure. It can act as a complete financial management system for all employees.
• Users can get cash advances of up to 50% of their paycheck – limited to $500 – which are automatically deducted on the next payday. There are no fees involved in these advances.
• Branch Cards are debit cards that come with a free checking account and digital wallet that can be used to pay bills and make purchases. There are no overdraft fees or minimum balance requirements for these cards.

The inconvenients

• Branch’s mobile app often experiences disruptions that create issues with cash advances.

8. Klover

Klover is a cash advance app that works with Chime. It’s a good option if you need extra money before payday and lets you get up to $100 free of charge.

Advantages

• The registration process is very simple and fast. The user just needs to provide their personal details, link their bank account and verify their paycheck to get started.
• You can win extra cash in daily raffles in the Klover app. Winners are announced daily and you get cash rewards. You can also earn points by adding information about yourself which is converted into cash and increases the amount of your advance.

The inconvenients

• To be eligible for an advance, the user must have made three regular direct deposits within the last two months. They cannot have a job gap and the payments must come from the same employer.

Final take

Sometimes, when money is urgently needed, asking your friends and family can get awkward. That’s why a cash advance is often seen as a convenient option for getting some quick cash.

Although they may seem useful, you should be careful when borrowing money from cash advance apps, never borrow more than you can afford to repay.

Information is accurate as of October 10, 2022.

Editorial note: This content is not provided by any entity covered by this article. Any opinions, analyses, criticisms, evaluations, or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or otherwise endorsed by any entity named in this article.

Chime is a fintech company, not a bank. Banking services provided by, and debit card issued by, The Bancorp Bank or Stride Bank, NA; FDIC members.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on almost every aspect of modern life and business, including the local real estate market, favoring sellers and creating fierce competition between buyers and renters.

For the past year and a half, there has been a shortage of homes for sale, especially in the entry-level and mid-range price ranges. Homes that came to market in decent condition sold quickly and above asking price. Cash buyers have come to southeast Connecticut for its coveted coastline.

Homeowners who have sold in the past year have capitalized on the market, selling quickly and generally well above the asking price. But they also faced challenges. Now, as buyers, they were on the other side of the negotiating table, looking for a home to buy or rent, in a highly competitive market with few stocks to choose from.

This was Stacy Parent’s predicament. A few years ago she sold a house in Preston. It took a single day on the market to garner multiple bids. Parent hoped to move to a new home for herself and her two school-age daughters. His wish list was neither elaborate nor indulgent. She just wanted three bedrooms, a garage, and preferably staying in Preston, so her daughters wouldn’t be uprooted from school and their friendships. She preferred a neighborhood setting, where children make friends and adults get to know each other.

As a buyer, Parent had a few things going for her. She is employed as a senior ethics and compliance officer at Pratt & Whitney. Plus, she had an average budget – around $250,000 to $600,000 in New London County.

Parent also came to the table with the assurance of a VA loan. She served in the US Air Force for eight years.

Dispelling VA Loan Myths

In 1944, the United States Congress voted in favor of a mortgage guarantee program administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Since then, the VA has backed more than 25 million VA loans, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

A VA loan is a lifetime benefit given to active duty military personnel and veterans, guaranteeing them a fair and favorable mortgage rate and a loan requiring no down payment. The CBO reports that fiscal year 2020 was a banner year for VA loans – 12% of all single-family home mortgages that year were VA loans.

From a seller’s perspective — especially in a market where he’s picking the best of multiple offers for his home — a buyer with a VA loan is a “safe bet.” According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, eight out of 10 VA loans are closed (if applicants applied within the previous 90 days).

The CBO also studied default rates, comparing VA loans to FHA loans during the years 2004, 2010 and 2012 – notably, before the pandemic. In each of those years, the default rate for VA loans was lower.

However, misconceptions about VA loans abound, among the real estate community and even among service members.

The Navy Federal Credit Union surveyed 1,000 active duty personnel and veterans for its “Spotlight on VA Loans Report (May 2022),” which found that many respondents were misinformed about how VA loans work, which is eligible, the interest rates to which applicants are subject to, or the amount of down payment required.

The survey found that 59% of active duty and 41% of veterans think VA loans have longer processing times; 58% of active duty and 40% of veterans think VA loans will have delays because of all the paperwork involved.

“One of the myths we’ve heard from the real estate community is that it takes longer to get a VA loan approved compared to a conventional loan,” according to Jessye Jordan, Corporate Communications Specialist III for the Navy Federal Credit Union, based in Vienna, Va. “We see no significant difference in the data. It usually takes about 35 days from contract to closing in both cases. There is also a notion that there is more paperwork required, but other than the borrower’s certificate of eligibility, the paperwork is basically the same for a VA loan and a conventional mortgage.

Navigate the market

After selling her home in Preston, Stacy Parent signed up with a realtor, got her approved for a VA loan through Flagstar Bank, and started her search. She found a few houses – including one she really wanted – and made serious offers, only to lose out to other buyers.

She began to experience “buyer’s fatigue”, brought on by the grief of the cycle – the search, the search for a house, the offer and seeing it go to someone else. This has caused countless buyers to resolve to rent instead.

Parent found that renting was also his best option. A friend introduced her to a landlord to whom she was renting a house for $1,500 a month – a bargain, she said, compared to others she had seen for over $2,000. As the lease expiration date approached, she dipped her toes back into the market, hiring a new real estate agent, Sara Vegliante, the broker-owner of Sara’s Realty in Preston.

The market was still competitive. The houses were selling well above the list; they sold out in record time, and buyers had to be nimble and ready “to make the biggest decision of their lives” within hours.

“The cash buyers were coming out of the woodwork,” recalls Parent.

She bid and lost four houses before she found one – and the right house too, which ticked her most important boxes: three bedrooms, a garage, in Preston, part of a neighborhood. The two-level colonial was built in 1974. It sits on a 0.73 acre lot across from Lake Amos.

The property was listed for $289,000 on May 5 and Parent purchased it on June 21 for $323,000.

It wasn’t in perfect condition, and it was a concession that Parent realized she had to make based on market conditions. While a move-in ready home would have been ideal, these types of properties fetched prices beyond his budget.

Over time, she will have to deal with fixing leaks and mitigating mold in the garage, which had poor ventilation.

“That’s the nature of the market today. You have to settle,” she said.

As with the other offers she had made on the homes, Parent had to make a high offer – about $40,000 more than asked – and she decided to use a conventional loan rather than the VA loan she had been using. started.

“I think it’s really terrible that we can’t even use that advantage,” she said.

“Some people were waiving inspections, compared to a VA loan, where you won’t be able to and they’re a little stricter on appraisals,” she said.

“This house ended up being perfect. It needed some work, but the layout itself and the space is what I was hoping for, and we’re right in front of a lake,” she said.

She believes it is also a good investment.

“When I was buying houses in the past, my grandfather would always tell me, ‘Location, location, location! Location is key. But anyone buying a house today – unless you have a lot money to put in – you’re paying too much,” Parent said. “It’s just the deal. But for the location I got, the neighborhood I got, and even though I had to do a lot of work and invest some money in it, it’s definitely a good investment.

The Biden administration is moving forward with its student loan forgiveness plan, and officials appear to be on track to issue a formal request within the next two weeks. Senior administration officials are stepping up outreach to borrowers and providing more details on how to apply and when to expect relief.

Here is the latest.

Up to $20,000 in student loan forgiveness under the Biden plan

Under a plan first announced last month, President Biden’s one-time student loan forgiveness initiative will allow up to 40 million federal borrowers to receive up to $20,000 in forgiveness. federal student loan.

Borrowers will be eligible for student loan forgiveness under Biden’s plan if they made less than $125,000 (or less than $250,000 if married) in 2020 or 2021. All federal student loans Government-held loans, including undergraduate, graduate, and Parent PLUS loans, are potentially eligible for relief.

New Student Loan Forgiveness Application Details

The Biden administration has indicated that while some relief will be granted automatically, most borrowers will need to submit an application, which will be available this month. Borrowers can also decline student loan forgiveness if they do not wish (i.e. to avoid potential state tax liability).

According to the Ministry of Education, the application for student loan forgiveness will be simple, short and easy to complete. No supporting documents will be required.

“In October, the U.S. Department of Education will launch a short online application for student debt relief,” the administration said in a mass email to borrowers. “You will not need to upload any supporting documents or use your FSA ID to submit your application.”

“We will send more details [to borrowers] over the next few days as we approach the application period,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. recorded video message to borrowers.

When Will Borrowers Receive Student Loan Forgiveness

The Department of Education expects a four to six week processing time for student loan forgiveness applications. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis during the application period, which will run from October 2022 to December 31, 2023.

“Once you submit your application, we will review it, determine your eligibility for debt relief, and work with your loan officer(s) to process your relief,” the education department said in the e mass email to borrowers. “We will contact you if we need additional information from you.”

According to a court filing in a legal challenge brought by Republican states trying to block the student loan forgiveness plan, the Biden administration does not expect any student loan forgiveness approvals. before October 17, 2022. A preliminary hearing on that new lawsuit is scheduled for this week — and it’s possible that legal action will complicate the expected timeline for student loan forgiveness.

Biden administration changes loan eligibility for FFELP borrowers applying for student loan forgiveness

In response to new litigation challenging Biden’s student loan cancellation plan, the Department of Education abruptly changed eligibility rules last week to exclude certain corporate-held FFEL loans (former loans issued in under the Federal Family Education Loan Program) relief. FFELP loans held by companies that have not yet been consolidated into a direct loan, or that have not been included in a request for direct loan consolidation before September 29, 2022, would not be covered.

Other FFELP loans, including defaulted FFELP loans and FFELP loans administered by the U.S. Department of Education, are still eligible for relief. The Biden administration has indicated it is exploring alternative avenues to provide relief to excluded borrowers.

Further Reading on Student Loans

In Reversal, Biden Administration Announces New Student Loan Forgiveness Eligibility Limits

5 key takeaways from the sudden change in student loan forgiveness eligibility

Biden’s student loan forgiveness could be taxable in some states

Millions of student borrowers to get payments back under Biden’s loan forgiveness initiative