It's Your Money: Todays Technology Lets You Take it When You Need it

Abstract

At one time or another, no matter our age, address, or income level, we all want or need to borrow funds to purchase goods or services. At year’s end 2015 in the United States alone, some 321 million people, comprising 126 million households, had outstanding debt of $12 trillion. The purpose of the loans varied widely, from cell phone purchases to cars, college tuition, and homes. But access to credit doesn’t just enable us to buy more goods and services; it contributes to job creation and economic growth. In short, active and well-functioning loan markets promote social welfare.For lower-income households, however, efficient and expeditious access to credit is quit difficult, even though at times it can be a life-saver. To helps such households, one can allow them access to their own earned income, which could reduce or remove the need to take out a loan at all, especially a short-term loan with its attendant high fees. New financial technologies are making this possible. Employees can now access their earned income more frequently than the typical two-week pay cycles now in use.This paper examines and discusses these issues.