Question: Dear Steve, Should I file for bankruptcy? I’m making 60k a year and have about 35k in debt, in which I’ve been making minimum payments for the last 14 months. It feels like I’m getting nowhere. This debt seems like it would never clear. Please advise. Bee Thank you Answer: Dear Bee, The honest …
Tax man troubles. Bad investments. Shady financial advisors. Lavish spending. These are some of the pitfalls that lead the rich and famous to file for bankruptcy. Most famous folks end up filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a much less common form (7,735 filings in 2018, compared with 480,933 for Chapter 7 and 290,566 for Chapter 13). But some of their …
Question: Dear Steve, 40-year-old single mom, 2 master’s degrees (still paying off at $700/mo), always gainfully employed as a clinical social worker, currently at same job past 8 years and currently at $66k/yr. The problem: after becoming pregnant 3 years ago, my ex dumped me, I relocated back to my hometown and moved in with …
Question: Dear Steve, I retired over a year ago. I began using credit cards to continue to support the lifestyle I had been living. MISTAKE NUMBER ONE. I have spent all my retirement savings to continue to pay the cc’s on time. I now have no savings and no money. I am not ignorant. I …
Question: Dear Steve, Everything was going great last year; I had just bought a nicer car and started making modifications to it when my work place suddenly dropped out hours from 58+ to less than 32. I drained all my savings and maxed my credit card to stay caught up on my bills. Now things …
Question: Dear Steve, The bank called me and told me that I must pay 12600 first before I can apply for account restructuring with an interest rate of 1%. I was not able to pay it as of now because I am jobless. What should I do or how should I respond to the threats …
Question: Dear Steve, I started a collision repair business in 2011 and it started off well but it started dying out slowly but surly, the area kept getting worse and worse not to mention my rent was $2500 per month not including all of my other bills. So the scary part came when I had …
Now don’t get me wrong, there is no substitute for the experience, knowledge, and wisdom of an experienced bankruptcy attorney. But for decades people have been filing out their own bankruptcy petitions, because they can. The forms were not geared for the average person to easily figure out. On December 1, 2015 the bankruptcy forms …
I seem to spend a lot of time educating people that most everything they know about bankruptcy is just plain wrong. In fact a friend of mine just told me they were going to file bankruptcy and my answer was, “congratulations.” You see, even studies by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York have come …
People consider filing bankruptcy when the alternative has become worse. Figuring out if you are at that point though can be difficult. One misconception that makes people hesitate to file bankruptcy is the impact on their credit. An in depth study by the Federal Reserve Bank comparing the credit of people who’ve filed bankruptcy with …
