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When you are watching every penny, you sit at home and make financial calculations in your mind while other people are out engaging in leisure pursuits, or so the influencers on YouTube would have you believe, then you try to spend your free time on income-generating activities, or at least on doing things that do…

If you are bummed out about the fact that everyone in California has been in a foul mood for as long as you can remember, count your blessings. Try driving a few states east to Utah or Texas, where the older generations have managed to impress upon their daughters, even in these turbulent times, that…

In a perfect world, no one would need to use credit cards, but a perfect world is so far away that you have already maxed out one credit card with grocery purchases and other expenses that no one would consider luxuries, and now you are running up the balance on at least one other card.…

How bad your finances are is, at least partially, a matter of perspective. Sure, you don’t have any money left at the end of the month to put into savings. If you are so optimistic that you transfer a percentage of your paycheck into savings every payday, then you end up transferring it back into…

After introductory quotes from texts in Latin, Classical Greek, and Italian, T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Wasteland” begins, “April is the cruellest month.” It is true that April is not especially cuddly, but all of the months are cruel these days. It is as if the financial death toll of the Christmas holidays never ends. Chances…

The 2011 United States Supreme Court ruling in the case of Stern v. Marshall has both a practical bankruptcy angle and Hollywood flair. That case concerned the longstanding litigation between Vickie Lynn Marshall, known to the public as Anna Nicole Smith, and Pierce Marshall, the son of Vickie Lynn Marshall’s former husband, J. Howard Marshall.…

Origins of Bankruptcy It is said that the term “bankruptcy” is rooted in Italian merchant markets wherein indebted peddlers who sold their wares on a bench had their benches broken. Banka rupta, or broken bench, became the symbol for indebtedness. Etymologically related to banking when bankers lent money and traded currencies on a bench, bankruptcy…

Upon filing a bankruptcy case, “all legal or equitable interests of the debtor in property as of the commencement of the case” becomes the property of the bankruptcy estate. If bankruptcy estate property is to be sold, such a sale is termed a “363 sale,” or a bankruptcy sale. A 363 sale is based on…

The old adage is that it takes money to make money. When an individual borrows money for a business venture, that individual will be responsible for paying back the loan. The same is applicable for an individual who borrows money for home improvement, a vacation or any other reason. Like other creditor-debtor relationships, borrowing money…

Bankruptcy is an option for individuals struggling with mountains of debt because it provides honest debtors with a clean slate. The clean slate, in legal terms, is a discharge. The bankruptcy process provides that a debtor can discharge his or her debt so that the debtor is no longer obligated to repay certain creditors. One…

Debtors who seek a fresh start through bankruptcy will often have secured and unsecured debt. Usually, the unsecured debt is greater than the secured debt. Debtors generally have significant, unsecured credit card debt. With the advent of online lenders offering quick, unsecured debt to borrowers, those lenders will likely have hold significant claims in bankruptcy…

When a debtor files for bankruptcy, he or she creates a “bankruptcy estate.” In broad terms, this estate is composed of any legal or equitable interest of the debtor in property as of the commencement of the case.  To note, the legislative history indicates that a bankruptcy filing “bring anything of value that the debtors…

Lien Stripping in Chapter 13 Consumers dealing with large debt and minimal prospects of repaying that debt often turn to bankruptcy to get a fresh start. Through the bankruptcy, the debtor can emerge debt-free and not have to live with collection calls and worries. The United States Bankruptcy Code (the “Code”) is confusing. What’s more,…

Criminal Proceedings and the Automatic Stay One of the most unique and perhaps most important features of the bankruptcy process is the automatic stay. The automatic stay, in section 362 of the US Bankruptcy Code, halts creditor collection of debtor assets. It is effective as soon as the debtor files for bankruptcy and provides the…

In 1968, Congress passed the Truth in Lending Act, or TILA, which was the first major Congressional venture regulating consumer credit. “The purpose of this regulation is to promote the informed use of consumer credit by requiring disclosures about its terms and cost. The regulation also includes substantive protections. It gives consumers the right to…