Budget tricks keep lots of us from seeing where our money goes. If you don’t know where it’s going, you don’t know whether your spending priorities are sound. As a bankruptcy attorney, I hear this alot: I can’t save anything because it takes every dollar I make just to get by. Sound like a description of […]
We Live In An Economic House Of Cards
I’ve long said to bankruptcy clients that bankruptcy can’t fix an income problem, it can just ameliorate an outgo problem. In the last round of frantic bankruptcy filings a decade ago, one symptom seemed to be that too many families in the Silicon Valley couldn’t really afford to live a middle class life here. They […]
Pay Down Debt Or Save? Which Should Come First
Pay off debt first or start saving now? It’s a debate almost as convoluted as which came first, the chicken or the egg? Experts heatedly take opposite sides. You get rid of debt faster if you put all available cash into paying off balances. BUT You have no reserves for the unexpected if you spend everything that […]
The Most Powerful Debt Management Tool
The most powerful debt management tool isn’t a software program. It isn’t a website, nor a consulting firm. It isn’t even a calculator. The most powerful debt management tool is a letter opener. Or, less threateningly, that the lender has transferred the servicing of your loan. You don’t know anything about your situation except that […]
10 Things Personal Finance Bloggers Need To Get Right About Bankruptcy
Too many personal finance bloggers need to sharpen their game when it comes to bankruptcy. Personal finance bloggers do so much good promoting better financial habits and deeper understanding of money. But too often they drop the ball when it comes to bankruptcy. One, they get the basic facts about bankruptcy wrong; and Two, they […]
Bills I Gotta Pay, But There’s A Pandemic Out There
I have bills I have to pay but no income. That despairing line was repeated over and over again in interviews with pandemic-furloughed workers on last night’s news. COVID-19 has ground the economy to a halt, no one’s working, and no money is flowing. Whether it’s called social distancing, shelter in place, quarantine, or lock-down, […]
The Parent School Loan
Take a good look at the result of the parent loan for college. Tied up, captive, grimacing. That’s what my client’s situation looks like to me: If college makes the life of the kids, it stands to ruin the lives of the parents. What kind of educational system not only tolerates, but facilitates such […]
Update Your Mental Money Software To 2.0
What kind of life style are you entitled to? When was your sense of your place in the economic world formed? For a significant slice of us, decades ago. Just like the anti virus software on our computers and the operating systems on our smart phones, our mental software about our money needs an update. […]
