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Should I File for Bankruptcy?You lost your job and were living on credit cards to make ends meet.  You suffer from medical bills.  You are separated/divorced from your spouse.  These are real life issues that have made you wonder whether to file for bankruptcy.  This is a very personal decision.Considering Bankruptcy ChecklistIf several of the following apply in your situation, you might consider bankruptcy:

• Your salary is garnished or your bank account is attached
• Most of your bills are credit card bills, hospital or doctor's bills, etc.
• Your bills is more than you could reasonably pay over three years
• Collection agencies are calling you at home and/or at work
• Your payments are more than 30 days behind 
• You are being sued by creditors
• You owe income taxes that you are currently unable to pay
• You have few assets
• You have little or no savings
• You have had property repossessed (such as a car)
• Your mortgage lender has threatened or started foreclosure proceedings against your home.

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Chicago Bankruptcy Trustee In certain circumstances a Chicago bankruptcy trustee can take your tax refund. It all depends however on the facts of the case. Let’s start with the chapter 7 situation. If you receive your tax refund prior to your chapter 7 bankruptcy case being filed and you exhaust that refund prior to the+ Read More
The post Will The Chicago Bankruptcy Trustee Take My Tax Refund? appeared first on David M. Siegel.

If you’re in over your head with student loans, chances are you’re getting desperate.
You’ve seen the ads claiming that there are ways to get your student loans forgiven, and that new programs exist to help you. But when you make a phone call, you find out that it’s the same old bait-and-switch maneuver that won’t get you anywhere.
You know it’s an uphill battle to wipe out student loans in bankruptcy, but maybe … just maybe … your claim of undue hardship will prevail. Tell the judge your story, beg for mercy, and maybe it will work.
But then you talk with a student loan lawyer and are told in no uncertain terms that an undue hardship claim will cost a small fortune and chances of success are slim at best. We’ve talked about the cold, hard reality in the past.
Collectors are coming at you, demanding payment. You’re waiting for the lawsuits, wage garnishment, and tax refund offset.
But wait – maybe there’s something you can do.
Is Bankruptcy May Be The Hidden Solution
Even if you can’t wipe out the student loan debt in bankruptcy, there’s a lot that the process may be able to do for you.
Take, for example, those credit card debts. Bankruptcy may be able to wipe those out for you. Same with medical and dental bills, personal loans, and some tax debts.
Remove those obligations and suddenly you’ve got a few bucks left over to pay down the student loan debts. It won’t make the problem go away immediately, but at least bankruptcy will give you some breathing room so you can work with the student loan creditors.
Using Bankruptcy To Force A Student Loan Repayment Plan
Even if you don’t have other debts to wipe out, you may decide to use bankruptcy as a way to structure a repayment plan for your student loans.
The repayment plan will run up to 60 months and won’t result in the balance of the student loan debt being wiped out (in fact, the balance may rise if your repayment plan doesn’t cover the accrued interest). It will, however, give you room to breath more freely.
When the repayment plan is done, maybe your income will be high enough to resume regular payments. If not, you can go back to bankruptcy court.
A Tool For Debt Relief
All too often, we look at the bankruptcy process as a way to get out of debt immediately. If bankruptcy won’t help with one specific debt right away then it doesn’t seem worth it.
But dig a little more and you’ll see that bankruptcy may be able to help with student loan problems even without a discharge.
The goal is to get into a better financial position, and that means a review of the big picture. Looking at things on a debt-by-debt basis will only serve to make things worse.

If you are in Chapter 13, the vehicle operating budget you are allowed will be too small. That’s (almost) a mathematical certainty.   Here’s why. The census bureau shows–no surprise–that people who are working spend on average double on transportation gasoline and maintenance than people who aren’t.    (For more, see this from the American […]The post Chapter 13: Your vehicle operating budget is too small. by Robert Weed appeared first on Robert Weed.