Dear Diary,

At work today, my manager laughed at me in the best of ways. I asked him for an advance today and he chuckled and said “I don’t think you need one.” I was confused, obviously. Why would I ask for an advance if I didn’t need it?

He asked me why I wasn’t using my Payactiv app to use Earned Wage Access and I drew a blank.

I was embarrassed because I had no idea what he was talking about.

During our last all-staff meeting, they introduced this benefit that offers on-demand pay. I probably spaced out, thinking it was something like a 401(k).

We can download the app and link it to our employee ID and track  how much we’ve earned on a particular day and we can access our wages without waiting for the two week payroll cycle, basically accessing wages when we need to.

I was mind-blown. I got home and created an account  and realized I could take some of my money from earlier this week already. I called Jean to tell her and she laughed. Apparently, she had been using it for over a year through her company. A lot of my friends were already familiar with this benefit and were using it. It was so normal, no one ever brought it up. 

I guess the world’s changing, but I’m here for it. 

Rupa