I wish I could get a payday loan

I'm a realtor in Marin County, California

I am painfully aware that that simple sentence may conjure up images of a shiny new Mercedes Benz parked outside a chichi Parisian-style café in the middle of the afternoon on a nice summer day in some swanky Northern California neighborhood. But that's a far cry from me. I'm one of the invisible Marin County realtors. There are a lot of us – members of the Association of Invisible Marin County Realtors. We work and we struggle and we wonder how in the world we eve r came to this. We wonder why we don't have real jobs, and we're constantly on the look for them. And we wonder how we're going to pay our bills.

I have poor credit and I don't have credit cards

I drive a 14-year-old Honda Accord. I rent a two-bedroom cottage. It's cute, in that California garden-court 1920s sort of way. But nothing works, not even the heat, and I pay $1750 a month. Yes, I heat the place with the gas oven. Yes, the landlord knows it doesn't work. Yes, I've had PG&E come take a look. Yes, yes, yes. And no, I won't push the issue. When you're living on the financial edge, you don't push your landlord. You lose your personal power and your self-respect when you struggle with money. Plus, in this part of the country, it's tough to find a place to rent, especially when you have a dog, poor credit, and a not-too-steady income. ... click here to read the rest of the article titled "I wish I could get a payday loan"