California, it turns out, is a great place to retire. Not because of the cost of living, certainly. It’s great in spite of the cost of living. Because California exemptions are very generous to those of retirement age. Those exemptions effectively make many indebted seniors collection-proof. Bankruptcy for those seniors may seem unnecessary. How exemptions protect […]
Credit Scores Go Up Quickly After Bankruptcy
After bankruptcy, credit scores go steadily up, says a 17 year study released by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Got that? Scores go UP. Every year. Importantly, credit scores start improving the same year that the bankruptcy is filed. Think on that for a moment. Creditors and their shills shout that bankruptcy trashes your credit […]
Your Tax Refund Is Exposed In Bankruptcy, Unless…
The prospect of a tax refund makes most of us light up even when we haven’t even calculated what the refund might be. But if you’re thinking of filing bankruptcy before you actually see Uncle Sam’s check, take a minute to plan. Your right to that refund is property of your bankruptcy estate even if […]
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: do you file bankruptcy […]
Should You Keep Paying Your Creditors Rather Than File Bankruptcy?
Is there an alternative to bankruptcy, my clients often ask. Can I realistically avoid filing bankruptcy? A fellow bankruptcy lawyer outlined what it takes to get out of debt without bankruptcy. If you could do all three, for long enough, and, your debt isn’t too large, it probably works. I want to pose the question: […]
Damaged Credit Heals More Rapidly Than You Think
Will filing bankruptcy hurt my credit? Probably. [Keep reading, there’s more.] Should that hit to your credit keep from filing bankruptcy? Not by a long shot. Incredibly, I encounter people drowning in debt who think their credit report is more important than their financial health. Their thinking seems to be that credit, once damaged, is never […]
Debt Is Nothing To Shrug Off
When this site was young, U.S. Armed Services disclosed that a significant number of service personnel could not be deployed overseas because they had too much debt. The military said that excessive debt both distracts from job performance and makes the G.I. vulnerable to corruption. It’s the same for the rest of us who aren’t […]
Bankruptcy Is Not Your Last Resort
Every personal finance guru intones that “bankruptcy is the last resort.” In my opinion, they have it wrong: bankruptcy is the big gun in getting out of a financial mess. But it shouldn’t be the last thing you try to get financially healthy. You shouldn’t mess around with lesser solutions if those solutions don’t do […]
The Real Importance of Your Credit Score
Getting credit after bankruptcy is the most frequent search term that bring visitors to Bankruptcy in Brief, my encyclopedic sister site on bankruptcy. In these visitors’ minds, the impact of bankruptcy on their credit score is critical. It’s ironic that readers, saddled with enough debt to consider bankruptcy, worrymost about their credit score. After all, […]
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