General and Administrative Expenses.Our general and administrative expenses, comprising expenses for personnel, occupancy, marketing, and other expenses, increased $12.4 million, or 12.0%, to $116.1 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2019, from $103.7 million during the prior-year period. Our operating expense ratio (annualized general and administrative expenses as a percentage of average finance receivables) decreased to 16.2% during the nine months ended September 30, 2019, from 16.6% during the prior-year period. We believe that our operating expense ratio will continue to decline in future years as we continue to grow our loan portfolio and control expense growth. The absolute dollar increase in general and administrative expenses is explained in greater detail below.
Personnel.The largest component of general and administrative expenses is personnel expense, which increased $6.7 million, or 10.8%, to $68.7 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2019, from $62.0 million during the prior-year period. Labor expenses and recruiting costs increased $5.1 million and $0.3 million, respectively, due to added headcount in our home office and legacy branches to effectively service active account growth since September 30, 2018. Personnel expenses related to our 12 net new branches that opened since September 30, 2018 were $1.9 million. Branch incentive expenses increased $0.4 million as a result of improved branch performance. These increases in personnel expenses were partially offset by $1.1 million decrease in corporate incentive expenses.
Occupancy. Occupancy expenses increased $2.2 million, or 13.0%, to $18.7 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2019, from $16.6 million during the prior-year period. The increase was primarily due to our 12 net new branches that opened since the prior-year period. Additionally, we frequently experience increases in rent, leasehold improvements, and computer equipment expenses as we renew existing branch leases.
Marketing. Marketing expenses increased $0.5 million, or 8.0%, to $6.3 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2019, from $5.8 million during the prior-year period. The increase was due to increased convenience check mailings related to our 12 net new branches that opened since September 30, 2018, as well as expanded digital marketing.
Other Expenses. Other expenses increased $3.1 million, or 16.1%, to $22.3 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2019, from $19.2 million during the prior-year period. Other expenses increased as a result of account growth and our 12 net new branches that have opened since the prior-year period. We frequently experience increases in other expenses including legal and settlement expenses, collections expense, bank fees, and certain professional expenses as we grow our loan portfolio and expand our market footprint.
Interest Expense.Interest expense on long-term debt increased $6.0 million, or 25.3%, to $29.8 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2019, from $23.8 million during the prior-year period. Increases in the average balance of our long-term debt facilities from finance receivable growth resulted in $3.9 million increase in interest expense. Increases in the average cost of our total-long term debt resulted in $2.2 million increase in interest expense. The increase in the average balance of our senior revolving credit facility was partially due to stock repurchases of $14.4 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2019. The annualized average cost of our total long-term debt increased 0.43% to 5.94% during the nine months ended September 30, 2019, from 5.51% during the prior-year period. The average cost of our long-term debt has increased as we have diversified our long-term funding sources.
Income Taxes.Income taxes increased $1.6 million, or 21.8%, to $9.2 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2019, from $7.5 million during the prior-year period. The increase was primarily due to an increase in income before income taxes of $6.1 million and a decrease in tax benefits related to the exercise of stock options of $0.3 million. Our effective tax rates were 24.0% and 23.5% for the nine months ended September 30, 2019 and the prior-year period, respectively.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Our primary cash needs relate to the funding of our lending activities and, to a lesser extent, expenditures relating to improving our technology infrastructure and expanding and maintaining our branch locations. In connection with our plans to improve our technology infrastructure and to expand our branch network in future years, we expect to incur approximately $9.0 million to $12.0 million of expenditures annually. We have historically financed, and plan to continue to finance, our short-term and long-term operating liquidity and capital needs through a combination of cash flows from operations and borrowings under our debt facilities, including our senior revolving credit facility, revolving warehouse credit facility, and asset-backed securitization transactions, all of which are described below. We had a fundeddebt-to-equity ratio of 2.5 to 1.0 and a shareholder equity ratio of 27.3% as of September 30, 2019.
We believe that cash flow from our operations and borrowings under our long-term debt facilities will be adequate to fund our business for the next twelve months, including initial operating losses of new branches and finance receivable growth of new and existing branches. From time to time, we have extended the maturity date of and increased the borrowing limits under our senior revolving credit facility. While we have successfully obtained such extensions and increases in the past, there can be no assurance that we will be able to do so if and when needed in the future. In addition, the revolving periods of our warehouse credit facility, RMIT2018-1 securitization, and RMIT2018-2 securitization (each as described below) end in April 2021, June 2020, and December
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