I think the two biggest fears of someone in middle age is to either die before your time or live broke.  Well, actually to die broke and leave a family behind in bankruptcy is perhaps worse.

The genes for colon cancer run in my family. I should get a colonoscopy once every 3-5 years, and it would make economic sense to do so.  Because I have no health insurance, if I were to get sick it would cost tens of thousands of dollars to treat – way beyond my means at this point.  The trouble is, the common diagnostic, a colonoscopy, would cost me close to $3000, something I can’t afford right now either.  But it’s a real situation of an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure.

When I worked for Stanford in Palo Alto I had great medical insurance.  But I left there in 2006 because my job was eliminated, now I work part time in three different jobs.  None of them provide medical insurance.  I was due to get my colonoscopy early this year, but didn’t feel I could afford the $3000.

Also, I have bad credit.  When I think of finding fast cash, I look around my garage in Santa Clara to see what I might sell on Craigslist.

But one day I surfed around and found Car Title Loans in San Jose.  When they said my six year old Subaru is good for a $5000 loan, I said, “this is for the colonoscopy.”  The company processes everything on the Internet — you complete an online application, in about ten minutes, then you get an email with the approval within hours.  The money is sent by electronic funds transfer to your checking account the next day.  

I scheduled the scope for a few weeks later and thankfully there were only two polyps, both non-cancerous.  I now have no fear of dying early or bankruptcy because I was willing to collateralize my Subaru with a cash title loans company.  

– Othello P.