Financial frequency fence USA

I've started doing my research and the link I provided is possibly a scam, looks so professional! They are only a secretarial service that fills out the forms only, if ligit. Filing on ones own can be done but apparently very chancy as far as getting it right. Trying to find a pro bono attorney in my area has been advised. Also SS application should be done after filing is complete, so as not to have that income garnished.
 
SummerLite said:
Thanks hlat, good advise here. I'm considering bankruptcy. 7 years ago I lost a good paying job unexpectedly and I had student loan dept and a large cc dept. I immediately started paying only the minimum amount on the cc cards and the student loan was lowered for me based on income. My income fluctuates and isn't dependable at times, leaving me to scramble and "down grade" wherever I can which is where I'm at presently. I know a friend who filed bankruptcy but it coast her $1500 for a lawyer and this is a stumbling block for me. Is there another way to do this or is this fee it? Another factor is I have $5000 in back taxes which I make a monthly payment on. I'm considering filing for early Social Security to help, but they will take out 15% monthly until this bill is paid. Maybe that would be worth it. I've 3 years to go for full benefits. Any suggestions? I actually have had a good credit score all this time and have tried to protect that. But so it goes.

edit: I'm searching on line and this company looks good. Cost $229, can you have a look? -http://bestonlinebankruptcy.com/ It also appears the requirements for Chapter 7 are different for each state.

SummerLite said:
I've started doing my research and the link I provided is possibly a scam, looks so professional! They are only a secretarial service that fills out the forms only, if ligit. Filing on ones own can be done but apparently very chancy as far as getting it right. Trying to find a pro bono attorney in my area has been advised. Also SS application should be done after filing is complete, so as not to have that income garnished.

For now, let's focus on not filing bankruptcy and try to get your financial situation clear. So I think it is better that you do not have consultations or visits with bankruptcy attorneys for now. I want to confirm that you haven't talked to any attorneys yet?

Let's get a list of the debts. There's $5,000 in back taxes, student loan debt, and credit card debt.

Any there any other debts?

Are the back taxes to the US federal government or a state government?

How much is the student loan debt?
Do you know what kind of student loans they are? (Federal or private?) (Stafford, Perkins, Direct?)
Do you know the name of the student loan repayment plan that you are on? (Income-Based Repayment Plan (IBR Plan)?) (Revised Pay As You Earn Repayment Plan (REPAYE Plan)?)

How much is the credit card debt?
For each credit card, how much is the debt, the credit limit, and the interest rate?

Do you have a 401k or IRA or other retirement account?

Roughly how much is your annual or monthly income?

You mention that you have a good credit score. What is your score now, and what is your source for the score? We should never pay for scores.

Have you had any late payments for any bills in the last 7 years?

I agree that the online secretarial service is not a good idea for bankruptcy. But again, let's not focus on bankruptcy for now.
 
For US tax filers who did not have medical insurance in 2016 and do not want to pay the penalty tax. On the tax form that asks whether you have insurance, you can skip the question and not provide an answer. On form 1040 it is line 61.
 
hlat said:
For US tax filers who did not have medical insurance in 2016 and do not want to pay the penalty tax. On the tax form that asks whether you have insurance, you can skip the question and not provide an answer. On form 1040 it is line 61.

If you file using TurboTax, you can just say you couldn't afford health insurance. The penalty will be waived. It was waived last year for me, and the same this year.
 
Hello hlat, I'm just seeing that you replied to my post now!!!! I don't know how I missed that. Thank you so much! The day I wrote that, I spent a lot of time finding all I could about filing bankruptcy and decided to put that off for awhile. The main reason was, I'm not usually working a 30 to 40 hour week but what is considered part time. I understood this could mean my application would be denied on these grounds. Like, get more work they'd say! So, I didn't contact a lawyer. From what your saying here, there is much more to consider it seems and I would thoroughly appreciate your help if your able to do that. It will take a little time to put this information together as its not all handy plus I'm a bit sick with a cold at the moment. I am reluctant to put my financial details out here for the whole world to see as well. But I'll get it together and get back to you.

Thank you!
 
SummerLite said:
Hello hlat, I'm just seeing that you replied to my post now!!!! I don't know how I missed that. Thank you so much! The day I wrote that, I spent a lot of time finding all I could about filing bankruptcy and decided to put that off for awhile. The main reason was, I'm not usually working a 30 to 40 hour week but what is considered part time. I understood this could mean my application would be denied on these grounds. Like, get more work they'd say! So, I didn't contact a lawyer. From what your saying here, there is much more to consider it seems and I would thoroughly appreciate your help if your able to do that. It will take a little time to put this information together as its not all handy plus I'm a bit sick with a cold at the moment. I am reluctant to put my financial details out here for the whole world to see as well. But I'll get it together and get back to you.

Thank you!

I understand that you are reluctant to put your information here. I am reluctant to put my personal identifying information here too. So it's ok if you choose not to. I certainly will do my best to analyze your situation and say what I would do if I were in your situation.
 
SummerLite, this is just me, but I wouldn't put any financial information on a public site.
 
I have permission to share the following piece.

--

The culture of disposability

I wanted to take a jag tonight and present an essay I have written on the culture of disposability. I have done this partly for my son as he moves from a young adult into adulthood. It’s just an attempt to disseminate some accumulated knowledge.

The status quo frowns upon this sort of knowledge dissemination, because it’s really bad for profits. Threatening even. Please feel free to share it, I think it can improve the lives of many matrix dwellers. If it causes one eye to open or one brain spark to fly for anyone, then I’m happy and I feel like my time was well spent.

We live in a culture of disposability.

What do I mean by that?

For the past several generations the foremost culture fomenting component of American society has been the television and it’s power has been enormous. It has literally defined and guided our culture according to the wishes of it’s owners go figure.

One of the protocols being used against us on that TV encourages a disposable society, which happens to be very good for business and very bad for you.

Now let me give a few examples because this is not an ivory tower sort of analysis it is intended to be practical knowledge you can use, and ideas to make you think.

When I graduated from college with a car, a stack of vinyl LP’s and a waterbed to my name some nearly 40 years ago now, getting on my feet as an adult I needed a kitchen table. It seems like only yesterday I was looking in the classified ads [no internet or craigslist at the time that’s how old I am], and I found a used solid oak pub table and 4 oak chairs already 80 or so years old for $200.

I’m staring at the table right now looks just like it did when I bought it 40 years ago. I’m sure I could get more than I paid for it and it has been a really good table in the meantime. So that was very good for me, very bad for the furniture mills and the rest of the parasitic beings who surround us. So far that table has cost me about one cent a day to own. Work that out versus the rooms to go calculator.

The theorem from this example is buy high quality used items that will last a lifetime and keep them for a lifetime duh. Seriously, I am not preaching rocket science here I am preaching independent thinking and common sense nothing else.

So although I had my super nice pub table sitting in a slumlord duplex I bought out of college, I was living for free as a slumlord duplex owner. The railroad tracks were so close it felt like the train was coming through your living room. whatever. My slumlord tenants who were actually very nice people footed the housing bill for me for 5 years out of college thank you very much.

All it takes is a little bit of common sense and ambition to succeed. I read a few books on real estate, bought a duplex and lived for free with tremendous tax writeoffs. I was 21.

In general you will be able to enjoy these high quality items and if you ever get tired of it sell it for as much or more than you originally paid. The key here is to buy top shelf really nice items with a track record of financial endurance.

The one exception is technology items which are all constantly depreciating assets due mostly to moores law. For this sort of purchase, you want to hit the right part of the technology curve. If you have to have the latest and greatest you are going to get soaked. If you can get by with a proven item that is a few years into the production cycle, or better yet manufacturer refurbished, and use it until it is woefully obsolete, you are going to save a fortune.

One quick note on manufacturer refurbished items. In general half the price and better than new. That has been my experience. I have never had a single manufacturer refurbished item fail, and it’s basically because it’s double tested thus reducing to half the chance of failure when you own it….something like that.

We watch movies on a 52 inch display I bought manufacturer refurbished on ebay for $209 dollars which limits the depth of the bath I could possibly take vs a 2k samsung that spies on me, but go figure it has an amazing picture, very nice for my HD photography even. I could have spent 5 times that much for the same kind of picture and built in self surveillance system, but I’d rather not.

When I put my shop together here I bought everything used. I had a guy deliver a bandsaw to me and he told me he a story I’ll share here because it fits perfectly. He had gone to home depot to price kitchen cabinets and they told him 14k. He told them to f off, bought a bandsaw, a few tools which he then sold after he built his cabinets and figured he saved around 12k something like that and showed me pics of some pretty darn nice cabinets. He wasn’t a genius but he was very wise, and motivated. That’s all it takes.

Buying high quality items does not mean buying the hype. There is a big difference between quality and marketing hype. You’re gonna get soaked on the prada bag in Neimann but you can get an equally high quality knockoff for 1/10 the price while Prada does all the marketing. Maybe I’m jaded, maybe been around the block. Maybe waiting in a line around the block for an empty club. Hype. Marketing. Learn it. Understand it. Only then do you gain the upper hand on the dark arts practitioners.

Being able to differentiate between the quality and hype is crucial and we have been bombarded with obfuscationatory material by our friendly dark arts propaganda masters and marketing mindf*ckers. It’s a science…and they have really smart people working on ways to make you willingly do yourself in and they’ve been at it since before goebbels so they are pretty good at it now.

When I hired on at IBM I was still driving my paid for car from high school. I already had a wife but felt I needed better wheels as a young republican idiot. Thought I knew how the world worked then. Haha. So a friend of mine was a used car dealer. I had already saved a bunch of money because my wife and I were both employed at IBM, living like paupers living for free as slumlords and saving a ton of money which I was investing and hitting a few home runs.

So I told him I needed decent wheels and he found me a six month old corvette, distress sale, still under warranty every option possible still with the 76k sticker and I was out the door for 26k cash tag title. My friends all thought I was dealing drugs or something and all came out to marvel at it in the parking lot one day. I wasn’t dealing drugs I was just being smart that’s what I told them. When I told them I was going to drive it for 2 years and make money on the deal there was a line behind me into my office. At the time I was like “look man you are all a bunch of certified geniuses how come you aren’t very smart?” Following that I was dispensing a lot of free financial advise from my office while trading futures [shhhh don’t tell anyone I was trading futures on the job].

So being committed to not wasting my hard earned dollars to the machine. 2 yrs later sold that car for 28k, making 2k on the deal and driving an amazing fun attention getting car for 2 years. I bought another corvette, this one much older for 16k and that vehicle is still in the family today as my son’s car waiting for a full restoration to it’s original kickass grandeur.

At the age of almost 60 I have only owned 5 cars in my entire lifetime ;6 counting the 1953 chevy investment] including only one that was a bust which I bought new on some really bad advice. I drove a “vintage” mercedes for several years and sold it for what I bought it for. It had 330k miles on it when I sold it and ran like a top. It always looked great.

Save for the one dodge durango mishap that I took a bath on, I have mostly driven for free or nearly for free for my entire lifetime that’s what I’m getting at here.

Buy a slightly used car, get a good deal, take care of it and it will take care of you. At the moment we are driving a 2005 KIA with 150,000 miles that we have taken very good care of and it runs today as good as when it left the dealership 12 years ago. I did buy that vehicle new but only because the car was a great car, excellent price and they were willing to give me good money for a durango that could barely make it into the lot with 60k miles on it. I was out the door for 16k on that kia which after 12 years already makes our cost of ownership very low [$111/mo] and it’s good for at least another 12 maybe more. Then what will our cost of ownership be? $25-30/month less than a cable TEEVEE subscription.

As any qualified option trader will tell you, things always work out best when you put time on your side.

Automobile expenses are one of the highest lifetime expenses for most people, and it really doesn’t have to be that way, unless you want to play sucker to the matrix that programmed you to be a sucker which is the idiocracy cop out. All my IBM friends were driving slightly used cars after I shaped their heads properly, and loving me for the advice including some guys so old I felt like calling them “dad”. It’s never too late to save someone from themselves, and old dogs do learn new tricks like titanium straws.

Huh? Two years ago my donkey brain said, man I am making ZWO icon warren buffet way too happy buying all of these disposable straws. I bought 4 titanium straws on amazon which are awesome will last literally forever are biologically inert and will never buy another disposable straw in my lifetime. Limited savings but it all adds up and I am enjoying a far superior product that keeps liquids ice cold or hot right into your mouth due to high thermal conductivity vs the toxic plastic.

So these are a few examples of avoiding the disposability trap which runs from consumer items to housing to everything else including relationships.

Lets take housing. Did you know there was a time in America when people lived in brick houses that lasted for hundreds of years and were passed on generationally free and clear? How does that stack up to living like a third world refugee in a glorified tin box with an estimated lifespan of 20 years and a 30 year mortgage? Haha donkey you are being played for a fool, or a serf, a sucker or all of the above.

It’s time for everyone to get wise, seriously. I had a leg up because I have always been a rebel, a fiercely independent thinker in the same spirit as Feynman and I am both gifted and cursed in the cranial dept in a unique way. So my gift back is to get wise. If you can be a genius and not very smart you can also be very smart and not be a genius. Something to think about.

I bought a brick house at the age of 24. On the water. The owner was also a [well known] engineer. I practically had to beg the realtor to take him my paltry offers one of which he accepted with owner financing to boot because he was willing to take a chance on a mensch lite [a mutter as they say the Khazar genes are somewhere on my mothers side] he believed in who gave him three separate well thought out offers. He died shortly thereafter and I then paid off the very kind Mrs Lipstein early from some killer options “investments” as I was getting into futures trading. Bada boom. Future 2x profit before I was 30 while occupying a house on the intercoastal in my 20s [the kid had to be dealing drugs] No. Now I’m living in a house I built, is paid for, will last at least 1000 years, and is readily available to be passed down generationally. The upkeep cost for me is zero. My taxes are less than $1000/yr which is all I have to cough up to be a 10 acre estate owner. This is horrible for business if everyone did this there would be no mc hombuilders or parasitic infrastructure surrounding them.

The average american lives in a home for less than 5 years which is just about enough time to get properly screwed. Funny how that works. Stay for 7 or 10 and you’re in the green, 5 or less a red ink scene.

Did I say disposable relationships?

Yes I did. The culture of disposability now extends to your spouse thanks to the evil bastards running the protocols on the matrix dwellers for nearly the past century now. Things not perfect? no problemo you can get an easy replacement. the salient point here being that things are never perfect and the matrix runs this faux expectation of it for the exclusive benefit of the people who are going to screw you over when your marriage fails.

Hows that you say? Didn’t you know that your spouse is now disposable for future upgrades? Forget about monogamy and matrimony,what you want to do is to pour all your hard earned money into the crooked marital lawyers coffers thank you very much. The point being that a strong family unit is the bane of the existence for the status quo that rules over us today. Strong family units are synergistic and powerful. They generally raise very good kids. No baby daddy has no real hope contrast to the dope they sell you on TV in donkeystan.

So my first spouse disposed of me at 30 and at the time everything was paid for, I had money in the bank, I had done my 10 years at IBM for vesting so then I left to start Harris Capital Management and make some real money trading futures. The point I am making here is that the more quickly you get ahead, the more time works in your favor, because face it, your time is really very limited in duration in the whole scheme of things.

Make no mistake, strong family units generally with the husband working and the wife taking care of the kids are what made america what it is, or was I should say. America today is a paper tiger shadow of it’s former self.

This is an extremely important point that is lost on today’s generations. Successful people own land and assets. They therefore threaten the system which exists to fleece you and would rather see you as a pliable penniless serf in debt to them.

The point here being, do some reflection. The vast majority of marriages now fail in the US, which is horrible for the donkeys and super for the evil sobs running our programming. They would like nothing better than a society of detached, penniless, in debt up to their eyeballs, ignorant serfs who will do whatever they say because they have no power and no choice to do anything else and are so busy working 2 or 3 jobs to pay the evil bastards they will never, ever get ahead. Perfect….according to your overlords.

-never under any circumstances run a credit card balance if you do you are an idiot and a fool destined for indentured servitude for the rest of your natural born life

-debt for anything that does not appreciate is bad, it puts you on the losing end of the stick and someone else on the winning end.

Money is power. Money is freedom. Money is independence. Money is strength. Money can’t buy love but it can be a good start. You don’t worship money but you do not deny it’s importance.

Where would an evil son of a bitch like George Soros be without money? Haha he would be an evil son of a bitch with no money who can do no harm. So add social economic political and military weapon to the list of what money is.

After all, the money is the fruit of your labor, so how can it not be important? That said your opinion of your vocation also matters as much or more than the fruit, but without the fruit, the unfortunate reality is that you will be living on the street being treated like a dog by our satanic overlords.

They want us all in debt up to our eyeballs never forget that. If you are going into debt for consumer disposable items, like a couch or a TV, then you are way off track my friend. Save your money. Don’t buy disposable items. Be smart. Avoid the culture of disposability and enjoy a much higher quality of life in the long run.

In the “old days” and I’m now talking mid century, it was seen as reckless and irresponsible not to have savings in government bonds that were paying a real positive rate of return [does not exist today], a fee simple title to a house on your own land with low taxes [low cost of carry] that was paid for and would last a lifetime, by the time you retired. If you had not at least achieved that you were seen as some sort of loser, moron or failure. Now look at the place. Nothing but losers morons and failures go figure. They like it just fine this way. It is that way because they programmed it to be that way to wit it didn’t use to be that way.

Excuse me now I’m going to play a Fender Stratocaster guitar I bought from my friends sister when I was 13 for $125 dollars. I have enjoyed playing that instrument immensely for the past 40 years and as a bonus it’s now worth almost $3 thousand dollars. The machine hates me. If everyone was like me, the whole entire thing would collapse on it’s face.

Donkey power. Preach it. Live it.
 
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