Susanne Robicsek has already written about the Senate’s refusal to take action which would help homeowners in foreclsoure keep their homes. According to The Hill, Senator Dick Durbin, sponsor of the legislation (who, by the way, fought valiantly for its passage) had this to say:
“This really tries my patience,” he said. “At this point [...]

Popularity: 9% [?]

I had an interesting question today from a client who is preparing to file bankruptcy. When he and his wife married, they each owned a home. They moved into one, and rented out the other.
They have been talking with their tenant for some time about buying the home, but she has so far [...]

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Sheryl Schelin blogs about the social stigma of filing bankruptcy. She notes that although experts acknowledge that many people who are “entrapped in the prison of debt” should file bankruptcy, they are discouraged from doing so.
This is what concerns me about the social stigma placed on bankruptcy filing. The simple fact is, whatever stigma [...]

Popularity: 18% [?]

Congress has passed a stimulus package which will offer most taxpayers a tax rebate. Most of us are supposed to receive the rebate by May of this year. But how will that affect you if you file bankruptcy?
If you liked that post, then try these…Can the Chapter 7 Trustee Seize Your Home [...]

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Although the mainstream media has recently been full of reports on subprime mortgage lending, credit crisis, and the housing market woes, that same reports often overlook the obvious solution to some of those problems for consumer–bankruptcy relief. As Peter Orville noted, so-called money experts often fail to mention Chapter 13 as an option to [...]

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Completing a Chapter 13 Plan is quite an accomplishment for anyone, and it’s something to be proud of, no matter the circumstances. I recently discovered that one of my clients had not only completed her Chapter 13 Plan payments (which totaled more than $1000 per month for 60 months) but that she had never [...]

Popularity: 19% [?]

In Part One and Part Two, we looked at the importance of budgeting in Chapter 13s, and the use of historical data to project future expenses. But what if your historical expenses don’t really help you project future expenses?
Every once in a while, I meet someone who has been through such extreme financial hardship that [...]

Popularity: 18% [?]

In Part One, I discussed the importance of preparing a thorough and accurate budget in a Chapter 13 case, and considered the possibility that underestimating expenses may be at least part of the reason for a high failure rate in Chapter 13s in my district. But how do you prepare a budget?
If you liked that [...]

Popularity: 15% [?]

In a recent discussion among some colleagues here in South Carolina concerning the new IRS standards for living expenses, there was general agreement that the IRS standards for things like food, utilities and household expenses are higher than actual expenses reported by most of our clients.
One of the group remarked that maybe the reason so [...]

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If you have read anything at all about bankruptcy, you probably know that bankruptcy laws are federal. That means that the way the law is applied is uniform all across the country, right? Whether you live in New York, California, Wyoming or Georgia, bankruptcy laws will be just the same, won’t they? Well, maybe not.
For [...]

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