Hi, I’m Mike Greiner. I’m a bankruptcy attorney with The Financial Law Group here in Warren, Michigan. And I’m here to talk to you today about your IRAs and 401Ks as you go through bankruptcy.
One of the biggest concerns that my clients have is the fact that they might have accumulated some retirement funds in a IRA or 401K and their concerned about losing those funds, and rightfully so. That is most people’s retirement, these days so, protecting that is a very, very important part of the process. The good news is, is that IRAs and 401Ks, generally speaking, are totally protected as you go through the bankruptcy process. So, even if you have $1,000,000.00, sitting in 401K accounts, those funds are totally protected. They’re there for your retirement and your creditors cannot touch them.
The sad thing that I sometimes see is where people have taken a bunch of money out of a 401K account to pay back their creditors. Because what happens then it that you’ve essentially given your creditors access to funds that otherwise they would have no access to otherwise. I strongly urge people to think of 401K accounts as savings for retirement. It is a savings account. It is not something that you can dip into when an emergency comes up or when you need to pay a certain bill or when you need to take care of one issue. What it is, is it’s a savings for retirement. I will say that there’s one exception to my rule there and it is where people have sometimes been able to take money out of a 401K and actually buy a house.
There are some opportunities for buying houses that are very inexpensively in the current economy and I’ve had some clients that have been able to take money out of a 401K, buy a house and own it free and clear or darn near free and clear and that’s been a really good option for a lot of people. Point being, don’t take money out of your 401K to pay credit card debt. That’s a complete waste. And don’t worry about as you’re going through a bankruptcy case losing your 401K. If you want to find out more about bankruptcy or your 401K for that matter, please feel free to give me a call. My phone number is 586-693-2000. We offer free consultations and I’d be happy to meet with you personally.
Hi, I’m Mike Greiner. I’m a bankruptcy attorney with The Financial Law Group, located here in Warren, Michigan. Our phone number is (586) 693-2000, and our website is financiallawgroup.com. I’m here to talk to you today about the credit counseling requirement for filing bankruptcy. A lot of people get scared off, thinking they’re going to have to go to some class. I’m going to have to sit in this class, and I’m going to have to answer questions, and I’m going to have to take a test. And none of that is true, that’s the good news. For most of the people who do their credit counseling, they do it one of two ways. They either do it at a website on a computer or they do it by a call on the phone line where generally speaking there will be an automated system that they’ll go through and listen to some information and then someone will get on the phone at the end of the call to talk with them for 5 minutes or so. There is always some requirement that you have some interaction with the company whether it be that you make a phone call at the end after you’ve compiled the website or sometimes I’ve seen it where they’ve had some type of online system where you chat directly with a credit counselor online. Those are two options. But the vast majority of the cases where the people go through the credit counseling that’s how they do it.
Credit counseling- The cost of it will vary anywhere from 30 to 50 dollars and it is a requirement. It’s a jurisdictional requirement. So what that means is literally you can not file your bankruptcy case until you have completed that credit counseling. You are not eligible to be a debtor. The bankruptcy court doesn’t have jurisdiction over you until you have completed that credit counseling. Typically credit counseling takes about an hour to an hour and a half. If you spend much more than that you’re doing it wrong.
A lot of people I’ve seen where they go in, go in have a lot of trouble and try to dig our all kinds of documents, try to get all their bills, and try to see how much they owe. Don’t do that. It’s not worth it. This information doesn’t go anywhere. What you just want to do is you want to go through, you want to proximate things, you want to read the information and a lot of people find it very helpful. But at the end of the day it doesn’t go anywhere. It’s just something you need to complete so you’re eligible to file bankruptcy.
There is a second set of credit counseling you need to do once your case if filed. But we’ll also set that up for you as well. If you want to find out more about filing bankruptcy please feel free to call my office. 586-693-2000 is my phone number and I’d be happy to meet with you personally.
Hi, I’m Mike Greiner, I’m a bankruptcy attorney here with The Financial Law Group here in Warren, Michigan. Our website is financiallawgroup.com, and our phone number is (586) 693-2000. And I’m here to talk to you today about taxes, an issue that none of us like to talk about. Taxes are actually dischargeable in some cases in bankruptcy, and that usually a big surprise to most people. Most people think that, if the, if the federal government or the state is coming after you, there’s nothing you can do about it, and that’s actually not the case.
If you have a tax debt that’s more than three years old and there’s a good chance that that tax debt would be dischargeable in bankruptcy. That’s as long as you’ve filed your tax return on time. The way that you calculate the amount of time that has to be is if you look at the date that the tax was accessed, for example the date that you filed the tax return or that the last date the tax return could have been filed. So, say, April fifteenth, and then go three years from that date. Any taxes that are more than three years old based on that calculation would be the type of thing that would be dischargeable in bankruptcy. Now, even if the tax that is newer than that, it is still something that could be handled in a bankruptcy. In those cases we might look at a chapter 13 case.
What we can do, we can file the case. We will set up a payment arrangement, essentially, with the IRS that will allow you to pay back the taxes generally speaking interest free over 5 years. Usually, that’s a better deal than you’ll get working directly with the IRS, although, not always. That is an option for people who might have tried to do something with the IRS but wasn’t quite able to work something out or if the tax is a smaller amount of money such as, $10,000, where it would be the type of thing that would be a reasonable payment over time. That has worked out quite well for a number of my clients as well. If you owe some tax liability and are interested in talking about some of your options please feel free to give me a call at my office. I’d be happy to meet with you personally. My phone number is 586-693-2000.
Hi. I’m Mike Greiner. I’m a bankruptcy attorney here with The Financial Law Group located in Warren, Michigan. Our website is financiallawgroup.com, and my phone number is 586-693-2000. And I’m here to talk to you today about steps you can take to repair your credit after filing bankruptcy. One of the biggest concerns a lot of my clients have is how they can rebuild their credit after filing bankruptcy and it’s really surprisingly easy. What improves your credit over time is making timely payment on debts. So people a lot of the time will have all kinds of theories about this will improve your credit or that will improve your credit or this will hurt your credit or that will hurt your credit and the truth is most of those ideas are just myths. What helps your credit is making payment on your debts on time. So what you’re going to want to do after you file bankruptcy is actually get a little bit of debt. I know that sounds crazy but that’s the way that you improve your credit score. You want to get a credit card or two. Now if you say, I can’t get credit cards, you’ll be amazed how soon after filing bankruptcy you’ll start to get credit card offers in the mail. If for some reason you don’t get credit card offers in the mail, there are two other routes you can go. Some of my clients have found that gas stations are a great place to go where you can go apply for their local credit card and then just use that credit card to buy gas every month and pay it off on time each month. Marathon in particular I’ve seen is a good one.
Another option would be to gets what’s called a secured credit card. If you Google secured credits cards you’ll see a bunch of options pop up. I believe Consumer Reports said that Orchard Bank had a particularly good one. What a secured credit card is, is it’s a real credit card. It’s not a debit card, like you, what you got from your bank or a prepaid credit card. It’s a real credit card but it’s just that, they, you give the bank a certain amount of money for them to hold on to, to make sure you make your payments. So, for example, say, then, you give the bank $300, then they give you a credit limit up to $300. And, over time, as you start to establish your history of charging a little bit and paying it off on time each month they’ll start to increase that credit limit, and at some point they might not require you to have a deposit with them anymore. Secure credit cards are actually excellent ways of rebuilding your credit. Ideally you’ll want to get two or three ongoing credit lines that you can pay on each month as you’re going forward.
Car payments would be included. Car payments are a good option. As long as you reaffirm the car as you’re going thru bankruptcy. If you continue to make those car payments, that would be something that would improve your credit. Again secured credit cards or other credits cards are great options as well. Don’t count on your mortgage payment helping you. Making your mortgage payment each month will not actually help you improve your credit score. So again, the key thing will be get some credit, and charge a little bit each month, and pay it off on time each month. Doesn’t have to be a lot, twenty, thirty dollars a month will be enough on some of these credit cards. They just want to show that you have that history of charging a little bit and paying it off on time each month. That’s what’ll improve your credit over the long term.
If you want to find out more about filing bankruptcy or repairing your credit, give my office a call. Our phone number is 586-693-2000 and I’ll be happy to meet with you personally.
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