Last night I watched a documentary narrated by Tyler Perry (you may know him as Madea “I’m a diabetical”..).

Humor aside, I have always wondered “who are the people that use payday or title loans? Can’t they see that this is a total rip-off?”

In the film, we’re introduced to 2 families and a young entrepreneur who are now haunted by financial mistakes they made in the past, not using credit cards?, a boy raising himself @ 16, or sacrifices for illnesses-cancer, autism, MS.
I recognised the terrain (Houston) and thought “these are my neighbors” and felt so sad.
The film explains the endless downward spiral of Payday loans and repossession of a nurse’s car in the middle of the night. It also demonized large banks and software built around maximizing overdraft fees for banks.
I wondered how they could be helped. What would Suze Orman advise? What would I advise?

What would I do if I woke up in their shoes knowing what I know today?

1. I might try to use a free checking account from one of the online-only banks and get back into the financial system.

2. I would move to another part of town with better public schools, forgoing private school.

3. I would sell my car and get a “hoopty” worth $1,000 or less.

4. I would get rid of cable.

5. I might not be looking to buy a house unless I could really afford it. If I could, I would use Churchill mortgage.

6. I would ask the boutiques to front me $ for making bags as in the entrepreneur’s case.

The film is worth a look and really left me asking more questions and wanting to meet these hard-working people and see how I could help.

Have a look and see what you think: