Talking about our financial troubles is taboo in this society. In fact, we are more willing to talk about our sex lives than our money troubles. We lionize those who make a fortune. Everyone expects to live the middle class life. It becomes easy to think that something is wrong with you if you aren’t […]
Reduce Your Tax Hit By Filing Bankruptcy Rather Than Settling Debts
Settle your debts outside of bankruptcy and you may be bitten by taxes you didn’t expect years later. Yet, everyone I talk to would rather cut a deal with their creditors than file bankruptcy. It’s universal. But here’s the killer reason why bankruptcy alone protects homeowners from a unexpected tax consequence down the road. Debt […]
Stressed Families Can Take A Card From Trump Casino
From our archives, but still on point: Donald Trump’s Atlantic City casino operation filed bankruptcy, following in the steps of his other entities. What does that mean to ordinary folk here on the West Coast struggling with bills and the grind of staying afloat month to month? Why does this bit of news show up […]
Is It Too Late For Bankruptcy?
Worried that it’s too late to file bankruptcy? You’ve put off considering bankruptcy, hoping to tough it out, or hoping for a miracle. But at some point, time runs out: you’ve been served with a lawsuit; judgment has been entered against you; or even, a garnishment appears on your paycheck. Is it too late to […]
What Causes Bankruptcy?
I was playing in my head with a piece I was writing for consumers about the bankruptcy decision. I caught myself thinking about “whether the bankruptcy was caused by mortgage debt or ….” . And I hauled myself to a halt. How did the words “bankruptcy” and “cause” get linked in my head? In my […]
California Garnishment Now Provides Greater Protection Of Wages
Workers making close to the California minimum wage got additional protection from wage garnishments under a change in the law effective back in 2013. With the annual increases in the state minimum wage, in 2019 California law now protects an employee’s weekly net wages up to 40 times the state minimum wage, currently $11 to $12 […]
What The Wild Things Teach Us About Bankruptcy
I miss Maurice Sendak, the late author of children’s books. What does a book about a naughty child who adventures in a nighttime land of monsters have to do with bankruptcy? The last image in his signature book, Where The Wild Things Are, is my touchpiece for clients afraid to file bankruptcy. Do you remember […]
Six Rotten Excuses Not To File Bankruptcy
I am not a bankruptcy attorney. I never have been. I am a mortgage law attorney. But in the current financial climate, I see clients in my office daily who desperately need to file bankruptcy…And they won’t. The reasons they give, and the parade of horrors they’ve built up in their minds about bankruptcy, are heart-felt, […]
Better To Live With Debts Than File Bankruptcy?
Locked up in debt? Should you file bankruptcy? Or, is it better to live with your debt and keep making minimum payments? Does life get better or worse if you file bankruptcy? That question sums up most people’s fears about shedding their debt through bankruptcy. What will life be like, after bankruptcy? Good questions. And I […]
How Filing Bankruptcy Can Benefits Your Heirs
Elders in California enjoy enhanced state exemptions that protect them from debt collectors. Those protections often make it unnecessary for a debt-laden senior to file bankruptcy. But no one talks about one consequence of relying on exemption law to fend off creditors. California exemption laws that fully protect the assets of seniors provide no protection to the heirs. […]
