WHERE WOULD WE BE without our toothbrushes?! Today personal dental hygiene is easy with convenient tools like toothbrushes and floss. But have you ever wondered what people did before modern toothbrushes? Twigs and branches The earliest toothbrushes were actually “chewing sticks.” That may sound rudimentary, but they were surprisingly effective. In ancient Babylon people chewed on…
CHAPTER 13 is the section of the US Bankruptcy Code that allows individuals in the United States to reorganize their finances. If you are having difficulty paying your debts (credit cards, medical bills, personal loans, taxes, late mortgage payments and property taxes- all kinds of debts) due to insufficient income, don’t despair. Chapter 13 may…
(Part 3) We ended last week with God, my God, the God of Moses and Israel, who sent His only Son, Jesus Christ to this world, and through the Blessed Virgin Mary, He became man and willingly died on the cross for our sins, to redeem us from the consequences of sin, so that we…
A short sale occurs when you sell your property for a price that is short of the balance owed to avoid a foreclosure – with the consent of your lender. Let’s define recourse and non-recourse loans and discuss variations when the property is outside California or if you move into or out of California. Here…
FOR the past year or so there has been real signs of the inventory of houses for sale to be really low, in fact all time lows. Usually an average city hold about a three month inventory of homes for sale, that means, if within that three month period all of the existing houses were…
Pay stub case settles for $8.25 million We have previously written about the issue of confusing pay stubs and the employees’ remedies should they have trouble figuring out what they’re paid based on their pay stubs. How serious is the law regarding pay stubs? In the case of McKenzie v. FedEx, FedEx was sued for…
You need to be aware that if foreclosing proceedings have begun and your application has been denied, you may not have enough time to submit a new application andre-apply especially if a trustee sale date has been scheduled. According to a recent government report, nearly 50 percent of loan modifications approved under HAMP are back in…
MOST people have heard of Noah and his ark. But why did God, the God of Moses and Israel, my God, whose only Son Jesus Christ, willingly became incarnate through the Blessed Virgin Mary, and died on the cross to redeem man from the consequences of sin, so that we may have eternal life with…
THE IRS is back. In full force. Leaner. Stronger. After reeling from congressional hearings and keeping a low profile for many years, the IRS reorganized and is back. Their mission then was to protect taxpayers. The mission now: go raise revenues. It is time to prepare for audits again. Let’s learn how agents evaluate evidence…
“ An employer shall not require the employee to sign a release of the employee’s right to any wages that are due and earned by the employee, unless those wages have been paid. Some employers hold their employee’s final paycheck “hostage” until the employee signs a release or some type of termination form. This conduct…
GETTING a home mortgage now is a challenge; the gray area qualifying method of lenders and broker back in the mid 2000s’ to help qualify homebuyers has diminished. Therefore the lending have gotten to a point of easily approving or disapproving a borrower based on debt to income ratios, credit, fund reserves, employment history etc. …
2nd Case Report of California Certified PA (Public Insurance Adjuster) Jae Park In order to make readers understand the work of a PA (Public Insurance Adjuster), which may be an unfamiliar insurance related field to you, I’d like to show you an example of a recently handled case. In the middle of January 2012, a…
(Part 2 of 2) The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced a major expansion of its “Fresh Start” initiative to help struggling taxpayers by providing: Offer in Compromise (OIC) – more flexible guidelines for collection potential. Payment plans – more taxpayers can apply without financial statements. We discussed OIC in a prior article. Let’s now discuss…
DO you dream of simplifying your life, reducing your stress and regaining control of your financial future? Everyone dreams of living a debt-free life and yet we know that today, so many people are drowning in debt that they don’t even sleep well at night. If you are one of these people, perhaps you are…
LAST week, we talked about the destruction of the cities of Sodom & Gomorrah by burning sulfur that rained from the heavens. If you go to Israel today, it is said that these two cities were located at the south western tip of the Dead Sea which is now a limestone and salt hill because…
THE IRS issued new guidance requiring individuals with an interest in a “specified foreign financial asset” to attach a disclosure statement to their income tax return for any year in which the aggregate value of all such assets exceeds $50,000. Use new form Form 8938 (Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets) starting in 2011. Q….
THE good news is that tax relief has been enacted for homeowners doing Short Sales. The Federal Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 HR 3648 and Federal Bailout Legislation HR1424 extended until December 31,2013 tax relief for recourse debt forgiveness on principal residence indebtedness is excluded from taxable income. Qualified principal residence indebtedness is acquisition…
ALL workers are protected by California’s laws regulating wages and working conditions. The protection applies undocumented workers who are entitled to the following rights: – The prevailing minimum wage (currently $8.00 per hour) – Overtime pay for working more than 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week – Meal breaks and rest breaks…
BECAUSE it usually happens spontaneously, we don’t often think about smiling or laughing. However, they both really do make us feel better—and, studies continue to reveal more of their many benefits. 1. Smiling evokes trust A recent study published in the Journal of Economic Psychology suggests that people may be as much as 10 percent more willing to trust…
ACCORDING to a recent study, a majority of people in this country are living way beyond their means. In keeping up with the Jones’s, these people have resorted to using credit cards to buy things that they normally can’t afford with their income. They buy everything with the plastic cards they keep in their wallets. …
It is alarming to hear that the IRS has proposed a plan to Congress that will take away our independence as tax filers and instead force us to rely on the IRS to do it for us. The IRS claims that it can handle the enormous task of preparing tax returns for every single American…
CLIENTS think that their debt problems are so serious. But debt problems can be solved with a bankruptcy fresh start Chapter 7 discharge of all debts while debtor is allowed to keep most if not all of his assets, or reorganization of debt with Chapter 13 where a portion of debt is repaid, or a…
NEW Foreign bank account rules were designed to combat money laundering, terrorism, and tax evasion. Unfortunately, folks like you and me get snared in the process. We get penalized if we don’t follow the new rules. I have written a series of simplified articles on this subject to help you understand the new rules and…
KNOWING your rights upon the end of an employment relationship may help you weather the transition of being in between jobs. The following provides some helpful guidelines: First: Make sure that the employment relationship has ended and there is no misunderstanding about this. Employment can end by resignation or lay-offs. An employee can also be…
I AM tossed between my usual practical beliefs and a survival situation that is very common with retired homeowners. A lot of homeowners rent out rooms to make their mortgage payments, these homeowners usually are retired couples or a retired individual living on their own. The particular homeowner owns a house that has 2-4 extra…
IT IS not difficult to get into credit card debt. If you are used to buying things on credit, perhaps you don’t even realize how much your borrowing is really costing you. Unless you can pay the bill in full when you get it, in most cases you are paying a lot more than the…
In February 2012, a flood occurred in the luxury house (with an estimated value of at least 1 million dollars) located in Tustin Valley, L.A. County. The homeowner, a male in his fifties, had forgotten about the water running in the kitchen’s island sink while he spent an hour washing his car on the driveway…
“ The LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the LORD.” IF YOU are troubled by debt, think of Hosea. Hosea was a prophet of the one true God, my God, the God of Moses and Israel, whose…
YES. Some are. Let’s discuss taxes, penalties, and interest that are not dischargeable in a Chapter 13 filing. The Chief Counsel of the IRS examined which tax claims are nondischargeable in Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases filed on or after Oct. 17, 2005 (the effective date of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of…
The story of a Saudi Princess and her 5 maids THE Los Angeles Times, NBC, CNN and other major news outlets report that on July 10, a woman identified as a Saudi princess, was arrested on suspicion of human trafficking and keeping slaves in her home in Orange County. Meshael Alayban, 42, reported to be one…
