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When people complain about the expenses and annoyances of homeownership, they can expect a derisive response from at least part of their audience. Complaining about homeownership, no matter how well the numbers back up your complaints, always comes across as sounding like a humblebrag. By complaining about the annoyances of your house, your mortgage, and your homeowners’…
Psychologists have long referred to people’s response to a fear-inducing stimulus as “fight or flight.” When the frightening stimulus is a notice of mortgage foreclosure, flight seems like the less futile response. If your choices are to abandon your home or dig in your heels and wait until the lender spends a tiny fraction of its immense…
Urban areas in California are among the most expensive places to live in the United States, but California also has a stronger social safety net than almost any other state. People in other states probably have it worse, but the government programs designed to protect Californians from financial catastrophe don’t feel like much relief. For one thing,…
Personal injury lawyers often tell injured clients that the “skate at your own risk” signs at skating rinks and “swim at your own risk” signs at swimming pools are wishful thinking; even though the sign is present, you can still file a premises liability lawsuit if you get injured in a preventable accident at a…
Filing for bankruptcy protection is for everyone, at least in theory. Everyone, regardless of age or income level, has the right to file for bankruptcy protection and discharge their eligible debts. Whether everyone should be is another matter. A bankruptcy filing is a negative mark on your credit score, so even if it grants you major relief…
When people complain about the expenses and annoyances of homeownership, they can expect a derisive response from at least part of their audience. Complaining about homeownership, no matter how well the numbers back up your complaints, always comes across as sounding like a humblebrag. By complaining about the annoyances of your house, your mortgage, and your homeowners’…
Psychologists have long referred to people’s response to a fear-inducing stimulus as “fight or flight.” When the frightening stimulus is a notice of mortgage foreclosure, flight seems like the less futile response. If your choices are to abandon your home or dig in your heels and wait until the lender spends a tiny fraction of its immense…
Urban areas in California are among the most expensive places to live in the United States, but California also has a stronger social safety net than almost any other state. People in other states probably have it worse, but the government programs designed to protect Californians from financial catastrophe don’t feel like much relief. For one thing,…
Personal injury lawyers often tell injured clients that the “skate at your own risk” signs at skating rinks and “swim at your own risk” signs at swimming pools are wishful thinking; even though the sign is present, you can still file a premises liability lawsuit if you get injured in a preventable accident at a…
Filing for bankruptcy protection is for everyone, at least in theory. Everyone, regardless of age or income level, has the right to file for bankruptcy protection and discharge their eligible debts. Whether everyone should be is another matter. A bankruptcy filing is a negative mark on your credit score, so even if it grants you major relief…
You have heard all the conventional advice about improving your credit score. Take out a loan and repay it in installments. Pay your credit card balance down to zero every month. Of course, the way to do those things is to increase your earnings and decrease your expenses. As it stands, you already spend every waking moment working,…
Welcome back to bankruptcy court. It has been a while. Then again, it has not been that long. Filing for bankruptcy protection can give you a much-needed reset and enable you to put the past behind you. For some people, that past is so painful that they spend the rest of their lives making every effort to…
The basic purpose of bankruptcy laws is to protect people from the horrible consequences of being unable to repay debts, consequences so horrible that they should not happen in a modern country with a functioning court system. In the old days, when people could not repay their debts, they went to debtors’ prisons or signed an…
Mortgage payments are expensive, which is why the process of qualifying for a mortgage loan is so expensive. With current interest rates as high as they are and with home prices so expensive, the only people who can afford to get a mortgage loan are the ones who are wealthy enough to place a large down…
You know you are rich if you have time to go to the gym or watch Netflix. About 10 years ago, a guy wrote a blog post about how he lost a lot of weight by walking on the treadmill at the gym every day while watching movies on Netflix on his iPad, but these…