Get rid of your debts now and get a head start to live up to 120!
CLIENT no. 1
Client is 65. She presents her financial problem thus. Both she and her husband were gainfully employed for the last 20 years. They are both professionals. Husband was making $100K a year with a cushy job until last year when employer went bankrupt. Fortunately, despite his advanced age, he is still healthy and landed another job but at 40% of his old pay. So now husband makes $40K a year, instead of $100K. She herself also lost her long-time job 2 years ago. She now collects social security of $2,000@month. Husband also now collects $1400@month from social security, in addition to earning $4,000@month from employment. Although their household lost about $100K of yearly income, they still gross right now about $6K/mo. That’s not bad at all.
They have a first and a second mortgage on their house. And their house has equity of $400K. The problem is that they have not paid their mortgage for seven months. They have a default of about $20K on the first and about $2K on the second. So a total default of $22K on their house. They filed an application for loan modification in March, but that got denied. They filed a second application for loan modification in May, and that got denied too. They then sent two months of payment to the first mortgage holder but the payments were sent back to them. Last week, they received a letter from the first mortgage holder asking them to update the default or foreclosure proceedings will begin. With their backs against the wall, client consults with me to determine if I can help her solve her problem. First, she says that she loves their house and she wants to keep the house at all costs because she’s been living there for 20 years, and that’s where her children grew up. Second, she says that their equity in the house is $400K, and she doesn’t want to lose that equity. Third, she says, but the bank won’t accept her payments, unless it’s a full payment of $20K. Fourth, she says she tried to modify the mortgage payment through government agencies, and twice they got denied. Fifth, she’s getting really worried that they will lose their house because the bank will not accept their partial mortgage payments. Sixth, can I help her keep their house?
Fortunately, I can help her keep her house. Still incredulous, she reiterates to me that the bank won’t accept her payments. So, I advise her that we can force the bank to accept the payments, and legally stop the foreclosure process. This is how Chapter 13 will work in her case: 1. The $22K default on the two mortgages will get “frozen”. 2. She will be given 5 years or 60 equal monthly installments to pay the $22K default. 3. She will resume the current mortgage payments at the first 341A meeting of creditors. 4. The foreclosure will stop at the moment the Chapter 13 case is filed. So, she will pay about $380 a month for 60 months to update the $22K default, and next month she will resume the current mortgage payments. As long as she is making these payments to the court on a timely basis for the next 5 years, the banks cannot resume the foreclosure process. Therefore, Chapter 13 protects her house from foreclosure until hbecoming current again. She will become current again on the mortgages on the 60th month. She will be catching up on the default amount of $22K at the rate of 20% a year. At the end of the 5th year, the $22K default is fully paid. Since she resumed current mortgage payments the month after filing, both of her mortgage loans will be current again at the end of the 5th year! That’s a simple and beautiful plan to allow her to save her house from foreclosure. Lastly, after the court confirms the plan, the bank may take a third look at her loan modification request and she may get a pleasant surprise.
Client no. 2
Client is 74. He owes $25K of credit card debt, which he has kept current for a very, very long time. How long? To start with, it was a slow build up since he arrived in the United States in 1970. He informs me that when he migrated to California, it was so easy to get a job. He decided to work for a construction firm starting 1972. He worked for that construction firm for forty years, until he retired last year! He said that he really enjoyed working for the firm such that he was never late and never absent from work for 40 years, unless he got sick. Since he retired last year, he only gets $1,600 of social security. His wife is also retired, but let’s just say that he takes care of his own bills and she takes care of her own bills. The problem is that the equity in their house is more than $175K, the exemption allowed for seniors who are at least 65. That said, a Chapter 7 will put the house in jeopardy. The trustee can literally sell the house if there is more than enough money over the $175K exemption, and use that money to pay off his $25K credit card debt in exchange for the discharge. This makes no sense at all. Why would client risk his house with a Chapter 7 just to get rid of $25K of credit card debt?
I advise client that Chapter 13 is appropriate in his situation. With a Chapter 13, he will pay about $430 a month over 60 month. At the end of the 60th month, the court will give him a discharge order saying he doesn’t owe the $25K anymore. With a Chapter 13, there is absolutely no risk to client’s house. Client has been paying $800 a month on $25K of credit card debt at least for the last 10 years. He says he has already paid $100K to keep the $25K current in the last 10 years, and today, he still owes the very same $25K, so its about time he got rid of those cards once and for all. He says at 74, he doesn’t care about his credit score anymore. I told him his credit score will be perfect again at 84 and there won’t be any record of his Chapter 7 filing then.
We may be able to live to 120
By that time, he can borrow again from new credit cards to buy stem cells to make him younger! Frankly, seniors in your sixties now, if you don’t get sick, by the time you’re eighty, you can probably take pills to reverse aging 20 years from now (They can reverse aging in rats now, lucky Micky and Minnie – Harvard medical report), and you can easily use your own stem cells to regrow your kidneys, heart and other organs when that biotechnology is ripe. You just have to reach 65. If you reach 65 without getting seriously sick, statistics show that you have an 80% chance of living to 84. Maybe I’ll still be around at that time, looking 45 again. A rising tide lifts all boats. Doesn’t it make sense to get rid of all your credit card debts now that you are in your fifties or sixties so that by the time you hit seventy or eighty, your credit will be very good again, in fact perfect without any evidence of your previous filing after 10 years, so you can you use that perfect credit to buy your much needed stem cells at that time? You want to become young again, don’t you? Don’t forget the Bible says that our God, El Shaddai, made man to live 120 years. And our loving God, Adonai, does not lie. So if you are sixty now, ten years from now, with stem cells, you’ll have another sixty years to live a healthy life with God’s (El Elohim) blessings and as God, Yahweh, intended. “And the Lord said,” My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” (Genesis 6:3). This can only mean that even with stem cells, we will not live more than 120 years. But it does mean, with stem cells, we can live to 120 years. Am I right? God, Jehovah, wants us to live a long and productive life. We’re the ones who want to live like there’s no tomorrow so we burn the candles from both ends. And He said 120 years is how long we will live on this earth. Stem cells will make us live longer, but not more than 120.
If you want to get rid of your debts without losing your hard earned assets and get a head start to live up to 120, call my office to set an appointment. I will analyze your case personally.
“Give your entire attention to what god is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” Mathhew 6:34
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Lawrence Bautista Yang specializes in bankruptcy, business, real estate and civil litigation and has successfully represented more than five thousand clients in California. Please call Angie, Barbara or Jess at (626) 284-1142 for an appointment at 1000 S. Fremont Ave, Mailstop 58, Building A-1 Suite 1125, Alhambra, CA 91803.
