When considering bankruptcy, retirement should definitely be taken in account.

I meet with quite few potential bankruptcy clients in Dalton, Dallas, Cartersville and Rome, Georgia who reluctantly come to my office and resist the idea of bankruptcy even though economic reality demands it.  The tide usually begins to shift when we start talking about retirement.

Sometimes, I ask the question, “How soon do you plan on retiring?”

The potential bankruptcy client usually responds, “To be honest, I haven’t really thought about it.  I get at least 10 nasty creditor calls a day which stresses me out so bad that all I can think about is this debt problem.”

“Why not wipe out the debt problem and start focusing on a retirement plan?”  I will respond.

Many clients become more open to the idea of bankruptcy when they start to contemplate retirement.  When both a husband and wife are working full time, a married couple might be able to squeak by each month and make that minimum credit card payment.  However, once one of them retires, reality hits.  Half the income is gone but the bills are the same.  Actually, with twenty-five percent interest on credit card debts, they can grow rapidly.

I’ve heard many clients say to me, “I wish I had filed this case years ago.  I’m about to retire and I have no savings.”

A most disheartening situation is when a person empties out their 401k account to make payments on credit card debt.  Under Georgia law, your retirement account is 100 percent protected from your creditors.  Why would you ever want to take a protected asset and convert into cash so that you can pay a debt that could have been wiped out in a bankruptcy?

Everyone knows that you can’t retire on social security alone.  You must have some savings to cover medicine and other medical expenses.

Busting your tail to pay twenty five percent interest on your credit card debt instead of funding your 401k retirement account just isn’t smart.  Make funding your 401k a priority and if you there is nothing left for the credit card companies, you need to come see me soon.

Related Posts:

1.  Can I Keep Contributing to My 401k After I File Bankruptcy?

2.  Don’t borrow against your 401k to pay off credit cards or medical debt!

3. What is Chapter 13?

4. What is Chapter 7?

5. How much does it cost to file?

Anyone who has an active Chapter 13 bankruptcy must understand that any distribution of insurance proceeds in Georgia must be approved by the Bankruptcy Court.  In April 2011, Northwest Georgia was ravaged by tornadoes.  Many people in Ringgold, Rome, Calhoun and Cave Spring had serious damage to their houses.  Some people lost their home altogether.

If your house was damaged and you intend on filing a claim with your insurance company, the first step is to speak with the insurance adjuster.  They will come to your house and give you an estimate as to how much it will cost to fix it.

The next step is for you to find a contractor that will make the repairs.  You should get at least three estimates from contractors and make sure you check their references.  The local newspapers are already reporting that many scammers are going door to door in hard hit areas and trying to rip people off.

Once you have your contractor lined up, your insurance company will issue you a check.  In most cases, the check will be made payable to you and your mortgage company.

Call your bankruptcy attorney and make sure they are aware of every step in the process.  If you have temporarily moved to another location, I need to know so that I can forward you any notices we may receive from creditors or the Court.

At this point, we want to file  a Motion To Distribute Insurance Proceeds with the Bankruptcy Court.  In this motion, we need to know the amount of insurance proceeds that you  will receive and the total cost of repairs.  It will usually take 30 to 45 days to get approval from the Court.  Once an order is signed by the bankruptcy judge, everything can move forward.

If you don’t get court approval of the distribution of the insurance proceeds, most mortgage companies will not sign the sign the check.  As a result, this can cause a major headache and slow things down for you and your contractor.

When you do it correctly from the beginning, you will save yourself some time and things will flow much more smoothly.

Other Posts:

1.  What is Chapter 13?

2.  What is Chapter 7?

3.  What is the Means Test?

4.  How much does it cost to file bankruptcy?

If you want to file Chapter 13 bankruptcy to stop the foreclosure of your home, don’t wait until the last second to file.  If you want to stop the foreclosure, you must understand that there is no guarantee that a law office will have time to squeeze you in at the end of the month.  You never know what may prevent you from being able to get to a bankruptcy attorney at the last second.

April 2011 has been a rough weather month for Northwest Georgia.  Last night, Rome was under a tornado warning.  The Rome News Tribune reports that over 30,000 people are without power.  Floyd County schools are closed today because of the power outage.  The Cartersville Daily News Tribune reports that Grassdale Road got hit pretty hard by the storm as well.  I have a friend in Cave Spring whose house was destroyed by this storm.  Berry College has over 150 trees down.  Yesterday, no one could leave that campus for a few hours because the entrance and exits were blocked by the downed trees.

With this crazy weather, you never know what may block you from getting to wherever you need to go.

Waiting until the last second to file Chapter 13 to stop a foreclosure is a bad idea.  I spoke with a bankruptcy client from Cartersville, Georgia yesterday who wants to wait until this Friday to file his case because he is hoping that the mortgage company will come through with a loan modification at the last second to stop the foreclosure of his Cartersville home.  What if they don’t?  Fortunately for my Cartersville client and for me, all of my offices have electricity this week.  We won’t have any problems stopping foreclosures this month.

As a general rule, foreclosures take place the first Tuesday of every month.  Once your house is cried out on the courthouse steps, your house is gone.  No excuses about bad storms or no electricity will undo a foreclosure of your home.

Why wait until the last second?  If the mortgage company was going to work with you to keep your house, don’t you think they would have done so before they paid an attorney to start the foreclosure proceedings?  Don’t you think they would have worked with you before they started advertising your house for foreclosure in the local paper?

There is no excuse in waiting until the last second.  Take a lot of stress off yourself and your bankruptcy attorney and take care of business well before the foreclosure date.

Related Posts:

1.  How Fast Do I need to file bankruptcy to stop a foreclosure in Georgia?

2.  Bankruptcy – When is it too late to file in Georgia?

3.  How Much Does it to file bankruptcy?

4.  Should I file bankruptcy or short sale my house?

The foreclosure crisis was supposed to end with help from the federal government. Consumer Bankruptcy News reports in the May 6, 2010 issue that the response of the federal government to the mortgage crisis is too slow.  The article reports that is has “been more than one year since President Obama announced the establishment of the Making Home Affordable initiative that included the Home Affordable Modification Plan.”  The plan was supposed to help between 7 and 9 million families restructure their mortgages and save their homes from foreclosure by the mortgage companies.  The article goes on to report that “the actual number of homeowners who have received final, five-year loan modifications through the program administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury stands at 168,708.

The Congressional Oversight Panel’s April 2010 report entitled, Evaluating Progress of Tarp Foreclosure Mitigation Programs, “finds that Treasury is still struggling to get its foreclosure programs off the ground even as the crisis continues unabated.”  The report also states that in 2009, 2.8 million homeowners received a foreclosure notice,and one in four homeowners with a mortgage currently has negative equity. While housing prices have begun to stabilize in many regions, home values in several metropolitan areas continue to fall sharply.”

I have personally witnessed in my Dallas, Rome, Cartersville and Dalton Georgia office locations that consumers are not getting the promised federal help they need to stop the foreclosure of their homes.  While I have seen a few loan modifications approved even after my clients have filed Chapter 13, most loan modification applications have been denied.  I have been shocked how many mortgage companies are aggressively pursuing foreclosure in this dreadful market.

The good news is that Chapter 13 stops foreclosure   In a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, we can eliminate credit card debt and medical debt.  As a result, most consumers find it much easier to make their future mortgage payments when they no longer have worry about their past due credit card debts and medical debts.

I have been a practicing consumer bankruptcy attorney for over 11 years.  My main office is located at 107 East Fifth Avenue, Rome GA 30161.  We are located on top of Clocktower Hill in the historic district of Rome.  We are diagonal from the Clocktower.  If you are driving from Turner McCall down Broad Street, take a left onto East Fifth Avenue.  We are on top of the hill on your left.  Please check out my home page at   www.kellycanhelp.com.

If you are driving in from GA Highway 20, as you are coming into Rome, you will see Home Depot on your left and Kroger on your right.  When you come to the CVS drugstore, take a left onto 1st Avenue.  At the top of the hill, take a left onto East Fifth Avenue.  We are just a few blocks down on your left.

If you are coming from Highway 53, stay to the left when the road forks.  You should see Dairy Queen on your left and BP Gas station on your right.  Go straight and cross over Turner McCall Blvd.  At the top of the hill, take a left on 5th Avenue.  We are just a few blocks down on your left.

Rome Bankruptcy Attorney

We serve Calhoun and all of Gordon County with our offices located in Rome, Dalton and Cartersville. I look forward to meeting with you soon.

In my opinion, this is a bad idea.  If you are able to make your mortgage payments, do so.  I recently spoke with a person who quit making mortgage payments so that his mortgage company would consider him for a loan modification.  They filled out all the papers as requested by the bank for the modification.  After about four months of not receiving any payments, the bank started foreclosure proceedings.  The debtors never opened their mail from the foreclosure attorney and ignored a certified letter that was sent to their residence.  As a result, there house was foreclosed and there is nothing they can do to get it back.  Chapter 13 /a> does not lower your future mortgage payment but it can wipe out credit card debt to make is easier to pay the mortgage.

The answer to “when will the house be foreclosed on in Georgia” is that it depends on your mortgage company. Some companies move really fast. Other take up a year before they get around to finally conducting the foreclosure sale in Georgia.

Here is what the mortgage company must do in Georgia to foreclose on your house.  First, they must advertise your house for four weeks prior to the foreclosure date.  In all likelihood, you will receive a flood of advertisements once your house is being advertised. Pay attention to the mail you receive. A few months ago, I met with a man that lived in Hiram Georgia whose wife was hiding the mail from him. She was so stressed out that she did not open the mail. As a result, their house got foreclosed and they didn’t even know it! Read your mail!

Normally, foreclosures are conducted the first Tuesday of each month.  Holidays can mess up this general rule.  If you are in the middle of the month and your house is not being advertised in the legal organ of your county, you have at least forty days before the foreclosure can take place because the mortgage company will have to wait until next month to begin to advertise your house.

Second, the mortgage company is required to send you notification of the foreclosure   You should have at least four weeks notice of the foreclosure date.  Notice to you is generally accomplished by sending you a certified letter. When the mailman shows up to your house and leaves that green sticky thing on your door, don’t ignore it. Drive to your local Georgia Post Office and get that letter so that you know what is coming down the pipe.

Chapter 13 can stop the foreclosure and save your house. Take advantage of a free consultation and meet with a bankruptcy attorney.

Other Posts:

1. What is Chapter 13?

2. What is Chapter 7?

3. How much does it cost to file?

4.  Stop Garnishment

5.  Stop Foreclosure

If you have fallen behind on your mortgage payments, Chapter 13 can save your house.  Here is how it works.  We take all of the past due mortgage payments and put them into your Chapter 13 plan.  Most Chapter 13 plans run for three to five years.  If we need to, we can wipe out credit card debt and medical debt in your Chapter 13 plan.  Making your mortgage payments will be much easier once we remove the burden of credit card and medical debt. 

The answer to this question is maybe.  If you have a foreclosure scheduled against you, you should file Chapter 13 to stop the foreclosure and save your home.  I have had so many clients where someone from the mortgage company called and told the homeowner that they would try to work something out to stop the foreclosure   Nothing got worked out, and they lost their home.  Ask yourself this question, “If the mortgage is willing to work with me, why did they file the foreclosure action against me in the first place?”  If your mortgage company says they are going to call off the foreclosure, GET IT IN WRITING before the foreclosure date.  If you are considering Chapter 13 to the stop the foreclosure, call me today at 888-832-8249 for your free consultation.  We need time to get your paperwork prepared.  Don’t wait until the last second.