One of the more tone-deaf pieces of advice people can give you when you are trying to get out of debt is that you should take up a hobby that does not cost money, such as reading. Canceling your Netflix subscription and spending your last hour before sleep reading books you borrowed from the public library…

You do not have much money to spend, or else you would not have decided to file for bankruptcy protection. In fact, you might even be waiting until your tax refund arrives in the spring before you can afford to file. Hiring a bankruptcy lawyer sounds like a luxury. The thought might have even crossed your mind…

The reason that bankruptcy protection exists is to stop you from losing all your property when you apply for debt relief. Bankruptcy protection is what happens when you file a case in bankruptcy court; the court discharges your eligible debts in exchange for you paying a settlement amount, which is what happens in a Chapter…

Filing for bankruptcy protection is an option for everyone, at least in theory. You might not consider it a viable option for you, though, at least not now. The federal Bankruptcy Code sets minimum intervals between bankruptcy filings, so maybe it is not legally possible for you to file this year because you are still making payments…

It may not always be true that with age comes wisdom, but older people tend to spend money more thoughtfully than their younger selves did. If you splurged on a pair of shoes or a steak dinner just because it caught your eye, you probably did this when you were younger than 30. The so-called…

Wage garnishment is the worst-case scenario, at least in California. The Constitution and its amendments outlaw debtors’ prisons; the worst creditors can do is ask the courts to divert your earned income to them. This dystopian process is known as wage garnishment or wage attachment. The bad news is that even when wage attachment seems inevitable, you must…

In the old days, financial stress during the holidays was a rite of passage. You knew you were an adult when, instead of being excited about the Christmas cookies in the kitchen and the presents under the tree, you worried about the cost of plane tickets and learned to bake your own cookies from scratch to…

If you are feeling stuck financially, your feelings are completely understandable. Even if you work full-time, your income is barely enough to cover groceries, utilities, and rent.  It is easy to feel like the people who own their own houses, and therefore build equity with every mortgage payment, have it made while you are just treading…

Even though you may have seen other couples be there for each other in difficult times, you probably cannot imagine how difficult life will eventually get for you and your spouse. Maybe you saw your grandmother take care of your grandfather at home for years when he was in poor health, while all of your other…

If we lost our ability to socialize during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, we began to rebuild our social bonds by grumbling with our neighbors and coworkers about grocery prices. People cannot agree on much these days, but we can reminisce about the times when it was possible to find enough coins between the couch cushions to…