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Financial education program worthwhile

By Cathy Moran

Stand by:  I’m going to say something nice about BAPCPA, the bankruptcy “reform” law of 2005.  The debtor education requirement that is a condition of getting a discharge is a good idea.  Just this week, two clients have reported that they learned useful stuff from the required program.

Filing bankruptcy is a teachable moment for many:  they are trying to figure out what happened to them and how not to go through this again.  There is an openness to ideas and skills that may not have existed before.

The prebankruptcy “credit counseling”, the twin of the financial management class, is uniformly  held to be worthless. (Are you reassured that my keyboard hasn’t been hijacked by my evil twin?)  No one is deterred from filing as a result; for nearly everyone who readies themselves to file, there is no non bankruptcy alternative.

April is Financial Literacy Month.  You don’t have to be bankrupt to add to your bag of money skills.

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Filed Under: How bankruptcy works

About Cathy Moran

I'm a veteran bankruptcy lawyer and consumer advocate in California's Silicon Valley. I write, teach, and speak in the hopes of expanding understanding of how bankruptcy can make life better in a family's future.

Bankruptcy Basics

About The Soapbox

You’ve arrived at the Bankruptcy Soapbox, a resource of bankruptcy information and consumer law.

Soapbox is a companion site to Bankruptcy in Brief, where I try to be largely explanatory and even handed (Note I said “try”).

Here, I allow myself to tell stories and express strong opinions. We dig deeper into how to consider bankruptcy and navigate a bankruptcy case.

Moran Law Group
Bankruptcy specialists for individuals and small businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area

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