Dear Diary,

I am in a difficult situation and I know that if no action is taken, the consequences could be disastrous. My mechanic has threatened to send a collector my way unless I pay the remaining $800 for an earlier car repair – this would get reported on my credit score which already isn’t great! I’ve spoken with Neil who gave me John’s number: he offers short-term loans but comes at a cost of 20% interest. This means if I borrow $800, it’ll end up costing me almost double by repayment time.

Anyway I remember I hadn’t caught up with Ayesha in a while. She’s been really crushing it as a working mom lately, while I’m still getting used to the fact that I’m an uncle. She told me something cool about her job at Walmart. Apparently, they’re starting an on-demand pay program. I hadn’t heard about it before but basically, she has this app that lets her keep track of how much money she makes any given day and she can actually access those funds to pay bills and stuff.

What I wouldn’t give for that right now.

Khalid