May I suggest a 2023 New Year’s resolution? It doesn’t involve diets or workouts or commitments to huge personal transformation. Take a hard look at your financial situation. Consider whether a fresh financial start makes sense. Just getting by A life of minimum payments, minuscule bank accounts, and no retirement savings is a life fraught […]
Unicorns, Wookies, And Medical Bankruptcies
What do Unicorns, Wookies, and Medical Bankruptcies have in common? Each is a figment of our imagination. None of them exists in the real world. Medical bankruptcy does not exist, despite the suggestion in a recent FoxBusiness article, where the author talked about medical bankruptcy contrasted to personal bankruptcy. When it comes to medical bankruptcy, consumers […]
Your Tax Refund In The Crosshairs In Debt Collecting Season
Who knew that there was a season for debt collecting? My friend and colleague attorney Mike Cardoza does. See what he says. The beginning of the year through about the end of March is the big season for debt collection! Why? Because collectors are pretty sure that you have some money in your pocket – […]
Don’t Fall For Your Mortgage Lender’s Insurance
If the mortgage company provides your property insurance, you are not in good hands. No matter how much time it saves you. Your lender is not a good neighbor when it comes to insurance. When your home insurance lapses Somehow my client let her homeowners insurance lapse. She wasn’t worried about it, she told me, […]
Cheat Sheet For Passing Bankruptcy Means Test
The bankruptcy means test has a fatal weakness in its attempt to keep people out of bankruptcy. Like so much recently, it’s health care. It’s health care, in the future, to be paid before your creditors get any money in your bankruptcy. It works because, in a logic that only Congress could employ, the means […]
When Is The Time Right To File Bankruptcy
Just like stand up comedy and batting in baseball, filing bankruptcy is all about timing. Timing your bankruptcy filing is no different. File bankruptcy too early, or too late, and you risk losing assets or advantages that better timing could have assured. Admittedly, you don’t always have the luxury of filing bankruptcy on your own […]
Cut Tax Penalties In Bankruptcy
Get in tax trouble and the tax penalties often grow huge. What starts as a manageable problem can soon tower over you. Breathe deep; there is a solution. Chapter 13 bankruptcy can cut tax penalties down to size. All tax penalties discharged in 13 Old or new, large or small, Chapter 13 discharges all unsecured […]
Hold Or Fold? How To Decide If Filing Bankruptcy Is Right For You
You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em; know when to walk away, know when to run… So goes the gambler’s advice to the young card player in the hit Kenny Rogers song. Hum along as we think about how we play our cards when we’re in debt: the hardest call is […]
How Does Your Household Budget Measure Up?
The living expenses your paycheck has to cover go on and on. Each dollar is stretched; each expense clamors for attention. Too often, the expenses go on long after the available money is gone. What seem like immediate needs squeeze out those necessities that only come round occasionally but in big numbers: car repair, medical incidents, […]
Whopping exemption for CA 529 college accounts
A substantial new California exemption snuck into law in 2021. It protects 529 college savings accounts from the creditors of parents. The exemption applies in all California collections and to California bankruptcies when the CCP 704 exemptions are selected. The eyeopener is that a parent (or other donor) can contribute the amount of the federal […]
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