Filing Bankruptcy Before a Creditor Files a Lawsuit While bankruptcy offers a tremendous amount of protection for debtors even after a creditor files a lawsuit, filing bankruptcy before any lawsuit is filed against you may be a better strategy. Here's why: Pre-Bankruptcy Wages Unprotected If a creditor files a lawsuit and eventually garnishes a debtor's [...]

You've heard the words over and over: if you've declared bankruptcy, you need to learn how to live within a budget. Like with most things, a budget looks great on paper - yet can be one of the hardest things to follow, especially if you have a family.  Fortunately, living within your means isn't impossible; [...]

What is the Bankruptcy Abuse Reform Act? The Bankruptcy Abuse Reform Act of 2005 was designed to change the bankruptcy in the United States to prevent abuse. To do this they implemented several changes which each person has to comply with in order to complete bankruptcy. These changes are: Within 180 days before your bankruptcy [...]

In 2005 the government decided to overhaul the bankruptcy program in an effort to prevent abuse and fraud. The Bankruptcy Abuse Reform Act does this by looking at a person's income for the last six months and comparing it to incomes in the rest of the state. For people who want to file bankruptcy, for [...]

Thinking About Filing a Joint Bankruptcy? First, let's be clear that only legally married people can file for joint bankruptcy. Same sex couples are gaining some ground in this arena, but they cannot have a civil union, they too have to have a legal marriage to be able to file joint bankruptcy.While married couples have [...]

Getting a Car Loan After Bankruptcy You've had to declare bankruptcy - but that doesn't mean your needs for big-time purchases have been put to an end.  If you need to purchase a car - and you have the mark of bankruptcy on your credit score - it's easy to think that a dealer or [...]

After filing bankruptcy, there's no denying that you'll need to learn new financial habits, such as smarter saving and spending techniques.  You also know that buying much-needed products during a sale will inevitability help to plug up wasteful spending and help you put more money towards your savings. But sales often occur at random times, [...]

Projecting Future Income in Bankruptcy When projecting future income in bankruptcy, debtors must determine what they can reasonably expect to earn in the near future. Below are few income scenarios that bankruptcy debtor's may face: Unemployment If a bankruptcy debtor is unemployed at the time of filing bankruptcy, their only projected income may be unemployment [...]

Before the deregulation of the debt industry in the 1970s, Americans were limited in how much debt they could take on.  If they wanted to take out a mortgage, monthly payments could not be more than 30 percent of their paycheck, while car loans could take up no more than 10 percent of their monthly [...]

Bankruptcy For People With High Income Despite the common misconception that high income earners cannot file Chapter 7 bankruptcy , it is entirely possible that they can. But for a high income earner trying to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy, they must overcome the presumption of abuse and make it clear that they are filing their [...]