Each of us lives only now, in this brief instant. The rest has been lived already. So make the most thoughtful choices you can today that will lead to a better future.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Stop drifting and hoping a magic solution will appear. Instead, you can participate in rescuing yourself. Find peace by pursuing facts through trusted advisers and research rather than the blind trust of salespeople trying to sell you something by almost any means necessary.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Make decisions to deal with your debt with logic and facts, not assumptions, and worry about what other people will think. People who judge you will soon be forgotten. Nobody thinks about anyone that much.
Steve's Thought of the Day
The world is nothing but constant change. Your life is only a perception. Choose a way out of debt based on facts, not assumptions. Do what is best for your future because those that judge you will not feed you.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Do you have a greater responsibility to repair your financial past or your financial present and future? Make good choices that allow you to tackle your debt and immediately start building your emergency fund and saving for retirement. Tomorrow will be here before you know it. Lost time is a sin.
Steve's Thought of the Day
There is no sense in wasting a perfectly good financial mistake. Instead, learn from it and do better moving forward. The past is gone. Turn and face the future now.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Those who judge you for past financial mistakes are not your friends. So don't make choices about your future out of fear of what they may think. Instead, make choices based on truth, fact, and what is best for you moving forward from today.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Don't believe everything you think. Challenge your assumptions about getting out of debt. Do what is best for you, not others.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Is it less moral to file bankruptcy or to not take action that leaves you old, broke, hungry, and dependent on others?
Steve's Thought of the Day
If bankruptcy is so bad, why did our Founding Fathers specifically include it in the U.S. Constitution as protection for financial difficulties?
Stop listening to people that say bankruptcy is a last resort. It is neither first nor last. It is a tool like credit counseling, debt settlement, and others. For the best result, you need to use the right tool for the job.
Steve's Thought of the Day
People that tell you to avoid bankruptcy want to sell you something else are repeating something they heard or do not know what they are talking about. Get the facts and then make your own decision. Don't let an unskilled script-reading commissioned salesperson make life decisions for you.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Debt problems are like fingerprints. No two are alike. A one-size-fits-all solution will give you a one-size-fits-all result. You deserve better.
Steve's Thought of the Day
You are not your debt. Your value, self-esteem, and existence should not be defined by the money troubles you may be facing right now. Debt problems are solved with proper action, not guilt, self-hatred, and disgust.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Debt is nothing more than math wrapped in emotion. The math is easy, the emotional part leads us to do impulsive things. Not the right thing.
Steve's Thought of the Day
What type of money personality do you have? It is important to know. Take my online test now and discover how you unconsciously deal with money, credit, and debt.
Steve's Thought of the Day
How much retirement savings are you willing to throw away by dealing with your old debt instead of preparing for your financial future? Find how much you will lose by making the wrong choice. Use my online debt repayment calculator now.
Steve's Thought of the Day
Does it make more sense to ask for life-altering debt advice from an unskilled and untrained commissioned salesperson in a call center or an experienced debt coach like Damon Day that provides a customized solution for money troubles?
Steve's Thought of the Day
I Don’t Want to Pay a Bankruptcy Attorney to Go Bankrupt. – Julia
After consulting with a bankruptcy attorney, I find I cannot afford to pay an attorney to file bankruptcy, so I’m going to file myself. In early March, I paid $4,000 to a credit card company to settle a $12,000 debt. He told me that money can be returned from that company on demand, and then paid to the IRS since taxes are a priority debt. How do I address that in the bankruptcy paperwork I file with the court?
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I need to know how to list a debt I paid to a credit card company within the last 60 days so that the bankruptcy court or trustee demands those funds be returned to be paid on my IRS debt, which is a priority debt?
Having to pay a bankruptcy and resenting it is like being pissed off at the dentist for them filling a cavity. Some tasks are best left to professionals.
Julia”
Dear Julia,
I don’t know because this self-representation path is not one I would take in a bankruptcy. Bankruptcy filing errors can create a lot of problems. And while you do have to pay a bankruptcy attorney to represent you, what you are getting is their professional expertise, knowledge of how to best achieve the bankruptcy goal, and how to overcome and avoid potential problems. And apparently the bankruptcy lawyer you met with already knows how to do it. I think I know what the bankruptcy attorney was talking about but the clock is ticking on that and time-is-of-the-essence for you to file to recover it within the window of recovery.
The irony here is that if you have used part of the $4,000 to go bankrupt to begin with, this would not be an issue.
Sincerely,
You are not alone. I'm here to help. There is no need to suffer in silence. We can get through this. Tomorrow can be better than today. Don't give up.
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1 thought on “I Don’t Want to Pay a Bankruptcy Attorney to Go Bankrupt. – Julia”
I have been a consumer bankruptcy attorney for years. I work for a non-profit now and I no longer file cases, so I have no ax to grind. I can tell you absolutely that filing without an attorney experienced in bankruptcy is a bad idea. Not only can you end up losing property and being sanctioned by the court for failure to properly disclose things, but the transfer to the credit card company going to the IRS where you want it to go is not an automatic “slam dunk.”
Sometimes the trustee takes some convincing and if the trustee doesn’t want to do the work (because it’s a small amount to the trustee and he won’t get much)then your attorney can recover the transfer for you to get it to the IRS. (if you’d consulted with the attorney 60 days ago, he or she would have told you to pay the IRS and not the credit card). But okay, I understand, you have a problem now because time is short and you need to file before it runs out.
I would advise seeing if your income qualifies for a reduced rate through a legal aid service and if not, see if you can borrow the money from a friend or family member to pay the attorney. In many areas, attorneys are not allowed to collect fees after they file the case because then they would be one of your creditors and their debt would be wiped out by the filing (and it would create a conflict). Bottom line: represent yourself at your own risk.
I have been a consumer bankruptcy attorney for years. I work for a non-profit now and I no longer file cases, so I have no ax to grind. I can tell you absolutely that filing without an attorney experienced in bankruptcy is a bad idea. Not only can you end up losing property and being sanctioned by the court for failure to properly disclose things, but the transfer to the credit card company going to the IRS where you want it to go is not an automatic “slam dunk.”
Sometimes the trustee takes some convincing and if the trustee doesn’t want to do the work (because it’s a small amount to the trustee and he won’t get much)then your attorney can recover the transfer for you to get it to the IRS. (if you’d consulted with the attorney 60 days ago, he or she would have told you to pay the IRS and not the credit card). But okay, I understand, you have a problem now because time is short and you need to file before it runs out.
I would advise seeing if your income qualifies for a reduced rate through a legal aid service and if not, see if you can borrow the money from a friend or family member to pay the attorney. In many areas, attorneys are not allowed to collect fees after they file the case because then they would be one of your creditors and their debt would be wiped out by the filing (and it would create a conflict). Bottom line: represent yourself at your own risk.