The Six-Month Sliding Window: How Your Filing Date Changes the Means Test
The Six-Month Sliding Window: How Your Filing Date Changes the Means Test Two people with the same salary can get two different answers on the bankruptcy means test. Sometimes the only difference is the month they file. The means test does not look at what you earn today; the Means Test looks at an average […]
Dave Ramsey Told a Caller to Settle $100,000 in Debt for $20,000, Here Is What He Left Out
Dave Ramsey Told a Caller to Settle $100,000 in Debt for $20,000, Here Is What He Left Out On the August 26 episode of The Ramsey Show, a caller named Dean described a situation we see in our Chantilly and Manassas offices almost every week. He owed roughly $100,000: about $32,000 in hospital bills, $10,000 […]
New Research Finds Debt Settlement Damages Credit Scores More Than Bankruptcy
New Research Finds Debt Settlement Damages Credit Scores More Than Bankruptcy Debt settlement companies sell one main idea: settlement is the gentler option. Bankruptcy is the last resort, the permanent mark, the thing you avoid at all costs. Settlement, in their telling, is the quiet fix nobody has to know about. New research from TransUnion, […]
What Happens to Your Chapter 13 If You Lose Your Job Mid-Plan
A Chapter 13 plan runs three to five years. Almost nobody gets through a stretch that long without something changing. In Northern Virginia, the change we see most often is a job loss, and it is rarely the dramatic kind. A contract does not get renewed. A task order gets descoped. A position gets eliminated […]
You Are Not Alone: Many Are Struggling With Debt
You Are Not Alone: Many Are Struggling With Debt Why the isolation is an illusion, and why bankruptcy is far less frightening than it looks One of the hardest parts of struggling with debt has nothing to do with the numbers: It is the loneliness. So many of the people who come into our Northern Virginia […]
What to Do If Your Debt Settlement Program Is Not Working
What to Do If Your Debt Settlement Program Is Not Working Most people who enroll in a debt settlement program are trying to do the responsible thing. They want to pay something back. They want to avoid bankruptcy. They were told that if they made monthly payments for three or four years, the debt would […]
Allowable Expenses in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy: What Counts, What Gets Capped, and What Actually Decides Your Case
Allowable Expenses in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy: What Counts, What Gets Capped, and What Actually Decides Your Case Expenses work differently in Chapter 7 bankruptcy than most people expect. In Chapter 13, expenses help set a monthly plan payment. In Chapter 7, there is no plan payment. Your expenses do something else entirely. They help decide […]
15 Mistakes That Can Sink Your Chapter 13 Case
15 Mistakes That Can Sink Your Chapter 13 Case A Chapter 13 case is a three-to-five year commitment; it is a long time. Life does not stop while your plan runs. People change jobs, cars break down, kids need braces, and tax season comes around every single year. Many Chapter 13 cases that fail do […]
Retired and Considering Bankruptcy? Your Social Security, Pension, and Retirement Savings Are Better Protected Than You Think
Retired and Considering Bankruptcy? Your Social Security, Pension, and Retirement Savings Are Better Protected Than You Think If you are retired and lying awake at night over credit card balances, medical bills, or a lawsuit from a debt collector, please take a breath. The fear most retirees carry into my office is that filing bankruptcy […]
The Death of a Thousand Cuts: How micro-debts are quietly destroying household budgets
The Death of a Thousand Cuts: How micro-debts are quietly destroying household budgets Most people think financial trouble starts with one big event: A job loss; a medical emergency; a divorce; a credit card balance that suddenly reaches $30,000. While those situations certainly happen, they are not what we see most often. In our Northern […]