Do you remember that joy of your first ever paycheck? You may have been in college working your first summer job after years of long high school gymnastics or basketball practices that kept you from working. You may have just been a young teenager mowing five different lawns for your neighbors. You may have been fresh out of college and starting your fist nursing or teaching job. You may have been a college graduate taking a year off and working in the Colorado Rocky Mountains at a church camp before starting your real job in the fall.
Those paydays seemed so full of potential. The potential to pay for your basic needs, save for your future, and provide a little fun on Saturday nights. That payday potential, however, seems to disappear quickly for many Americans. Even with the long hours that many Americans work, the payday potential seems to pale once it runs head first into the real world realities of rent payments, car payments, grocery store expenses, and automobile insurance fees. Factor in a wedding and two kids, and the paychecks that once seemed so full of potential now barely help you make ends meet. Living paycheck to paycheck can be exhausting and stressful.
Structured Settlement Annuity Benefits Can Pave the Way Out of Debt and Uncertainty
In a campaign season that promises the extremes of making America great again and the potential for women to crash through the glass ceiling of unequal salaries and career potentials, some Americas find themselves hopeful that they will finally reach the financial security that they long for. The reality, however, is that many Americans live a life heavy with the burden of credit card, college, and home mortgage debt. And families that have never had enough collateral to even get loans find themselves even more strapped for cash to keep food on their table and a roof over their head. A secure financial future seems completely out of reach for the average household that finds itself paying as much as $6,658 in interest every single year. And while household income has grown by 26% in the past 12 years, the cost of living has increased by as much 29% in that same time period.
For a few fortunate families, however, the potential of structured settlement annuity benefits can provide an escape from these crushing financial statistics. In the event of a lottery winning, a court settlement from a traffic accident or medical malpractice incident, some Americans are given the opportunity to make significant financial progress. Structured settlements are a lengthy time schedule where a person is offered smaller payouts. Lump sum payouts offer the added opportunity to get all of the money that is available at once. Making the decision between a lump sum payout or structured settlement annuity benefits often depends on a person’s current financial situation.
In almost all cases, however, the bottom line is that there is only one basic difference between taking a lump sum and deciding on the structured settlement annuity benefits. With a lump sum, the owner of the money benefits. With the structured payment plan, the company holding the money benefits. Even for consumers who have no debt and do not find themselves struggling to meet the financial obligations of monthly expenses, it is often best for that consumer to have the money up front.
Those funds then become available for investments, even the simplest of which will likely gain more interest than letting someone else hold money for a long period of time. For consumers with debt, the answer is even more clear. Why accept low interest rates on a structured annuity if at the same time you are paying high interest credit card rates?
Consumers have options for reducing credit card debt. According to credit experts one option is to contact the card company and inquire about a late fee waivers or interest rate reductions. A CreditCards.com survey indicated that when consumers asked about waiving fees they were successful 80% to 85% of the time. These consumers were also able to reduce card interest rates nearly 60% of the time if they asked. The biggest way to eliminate this debt, however, is to take a lump sum and pay the debt off.