Do you pay off bills? Do you set up an emergency fund? Do you invest?
Spring marks the start of warmer weather, overturned soil readied for planting, and dreams of summer vacations. Winter holidays are now in the past, and tax returns are filed.
Your anticipated tax refund check may be the most significant chunk of cash you will get. Year. Federal income tax returns are an excellent prompt to consider if you will pay down bills, set up an emergency fund, or invest?
If you file electronically, you may get your return sooner than later. There are options to have it direct deposit to your bank account instead of waiting for the internal revenue service check in the mail or a check for your state tax return.
Tax returns are being processed in about 21 days by the internal revenue service as long as there aren’t errors.
E filed taxes are the quickest way to get your refund. You can always call the IRS and use their automated phone system to see your filing status. The question is what to do with the money when it gets to you.
Begin with identifying what your short and long-term financial goals are.
Where do you want to be next month, next year, and five years?
List out all of your monthly payments and when the monthly payment is due.
List the bills you have from the highest interest rates to lower interest rate balances.
Do an additional review by running a credit report to see if you forgot about the bills.
Request payoffs for major bills, so you understand what principal you still owe and interest. Some major financial institutions have fees for early payoffs, so make sure you are eligible to pay off your account in full without fees.
Make sure you know what date the payoff amount is good until.
Any other additional information you can gather will add to your decision-making.
It’s hard to believe that during the 2021 calendar year, you spent 2080 hours working your full-time position and getting your bi-weekly paycheck with taxes taken out. You weren’t happy about the taxes, but you knew you had claimed the correct number of deductions for your filing status and that at the end of the year, you would review the deductions again when you filed your income tax. The money you paid in state and federal income tax was like forced savings account you could draw on in the first quarter of 2022.
When you completed some of the steps above, you noticed some high-interest loans with sizeable balances. You have tried to make extra payments on these, but there doesn’t ever seem to be enough money between household bills, loans, and everyday spending.
Maybe this would be the time to use your state tax return to pay some of these down.
To be debt-free is a long-term goal, and you have to start somewhere.
In your research, you discovered that a pawn shop could be an option for short-term collateral loans, pawns, and a place to sell valuable things you don’t want or use.
Pawnshop = Extra Cash = Smaller Balance
You researched “pawn shops near me” that buy gold, gold bullion, diamonds, and fine jewelry. You had been searching for “where’s my refund” and when you might expect your check to be put in direct deposit and got sidetracked with an article on pawnshops.
You hadn’t considered using a pawnshop in the past but also knew you had a gob of unused, never worn fine jewelry, including a Rolex that might be something that you could sell outright.
The website you came across was Western Jewelry and Loan, and the site had a chat widget to get more help. You started a conversation and asked about the process it takes to sell unused fine jewelry. You also visited the gold page and diamond page.
You filled out a contact form and knew that you would be visiting the pawnshop soon.
As you went through your jewelry box, you found several pieces that you might be able to sell. You had some gold and diamond jewelry and some Morgan Silver Dollars your grandparents had left you. You had a Rolex that you never wore.
It was official; you would be setting up an appointment and taking your valuable unwanted items in to sell.
You wondered if it would be wise to put an emergency fund together as part of your financial plan. In today’s economy, well, really every day, you don’t know when something unexpected will come up.
Looking at the remaining balance on a few of your accounts and having a desire to be debt-free, there was still room to take part of your refund and set aside for emergencies.
Knowing your refund status by contacting your tax preparer and having them check worked best to determine if there would be any delays or problems with the internal revenue paying your return.
You took all the valuables to Western Pawn and Loan for appraisal. The process was friendly, discreet, and straightforward. You explained you were going to save some cash for an emergency fund, and the pawnbroker discussed how collateral pawn loans are often used in these situations.
You remembered a few items you thought you would like to sell but felt guilty because they were part of an inheritance you received a few years ago.
After talking to Western Jewelry and Loan, you understand how people use valuable items like gold, silver, bullion, diamonds, diamond jewelry, electronics, name brand tools, and musical equipment to secure a short-term loan with an affordable payment to help when cash is short.
You didn’t realize that you don’t have to qualify for a pawn loan because your valuable item was used to secure the loan or that pawnshops don’t need to do a credit check. They collect a minimum amount of information, including a state-issued ID.
Being pleased to notice that your refund was in your bank and added to your received from Western Jewelry and Loan, you wrote out some payoff checks and got them mailed. You were well on your way to your long-term goal of being debt-free.
It would take some time, but you also knew that Western Jewelry and Loan would be a part of your official go-to agency if emergency cash where ever needed.
Western Jewelry and Loan
We are a full-service pawnshop located in East Las Angeles. We offer short-term collateral loans, buying services, and a retail store we are conveniently located to be the solution to our customers.
We have a webpage with a drop-down menu that takes you to a page that explains what we do if you are just looking to find out what we offer.
We buy and sell luxury items like Rolex, Luis Vuitton Handbags, diamond jewelry, gold, billion, name brand power tools, musical instruments, and electronics.
The pawnshop has large retail storefronts and an online store. There are items like gold and silver jewelry available for purchase and added to your investment portfolio.
