Tyler Perry Speaks About How Expensive It Is To Be Poor

Tyler Perry narrates a new documentary, sponsored by American Express, that came out last week titled "Spent Looking For Change."

This documentary focuses on some disturbing stats regarding how many Americans handle their personal finances. Four families are focused on that represent 70 million Americans and how they rely on alternative banking services that are costing them too much money. The alternative banking services include payday loan lenders and the use of money orders.

It is Tyler's hope that this documentary will educate  and motivated people to make a change. he completely understands where these people are because he was once a slave to that type of system as well. In an interview with 'Essence' magazine he explains what he means, when he says "It's expensive to be poor."

$89 billion is spent in these services. When you are poor, you can't just go to a bank if you don't have credit to open up a bank account. You have to rely on these services. If you go to a check cashing service, you have to pay for that. If you use one of these pre-paid cards, you have to pay for that instead of having a regular credit card. So it's very expensive to be poor."