Series: Bankruptcy Series Part 2: Understanding Bankruptcy Types

Not all bankruptcies are the same. Join us as we break down the different bankruptcy types, what they mean, who they may apply to, and clear up common myths along the way.

Come learn, ask questions, and gain knowledge that can help you make informed financial decisions.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Money Variable Podcast. I am so excited to be with you guys today because we are consider can continuing our bankruptcy series, and this episode is entitled Episode 2: Understanding Bankruptcy Types. You know, my name is Marjorie E. Roberts. I am the owner of Robert's Mango and Bennett Consulting, but also the founder and the host of the Money Variable Nonprofit, and I am the host of the Money Variable Podcast. So I'm excited to be here today. Um, I am a senior accounting at Roberts Mango and Bennett Consulting, which is an accounting firm in Ridgeland, located in Ridgeland, Mississippi. Um, we I'll give you my contact information after, but we do have an amazing expert with us today, and her name is attorney Kimberly Sweeney. But before we get started, this information is for educational purposes only. We are not giving you any advice, even though we do operate in professional capacities. I'm an attorney. I mean, not she's an attorney, I'm an accountant, you know, them two A's, you know. Um, but we are not giving you any um advice. But this is just for informational purpose only, educational purposes only. Now, if you are interested in anything that has is be going to be mentioned today, then go ahead and reach out to us and we will give that information to you at the end of the podcast. But right now, I'm going to let our amazing guest, our amazing expert, okay, attorney Kimberly Sweeney, tell you a little bit about herself.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Hi there. I'm attorney Kimberly Sweeney, your favorite bankruptcy attorney here in Jackson, Mississippi. But I service the entire state of Mississippi and also the Western District of Tennessee. I'm licensed in Texas and Iowa as well. I just do not practice in those states. And uh I'm glad you called me an expert. Oh wow, I still think I'm a little young in the bankruptcy game, but I have been exposed to a lot. I have a lot of experience in consumer bankruptcies, which are individual bankruptcies, primarily chapter 7 and chapter 13. Um, I encourage people to get educated. That is the platform of my firm. I know I only don't just put people in bankruptcy. I don't always suggest it, but I want to educate people on how it really works because a lot of people have misconceptions about bankruptcy, that it means that you're broke, that you it means you can't get anything after file. It means that you're gonna lose everything while you're in it. So I am here to clear the air, to give you the foundational information about bankruptcy, and it all really comes down to um knowing what you're what you want the result to be on the other side and picking a professional and attorney, then it's gonna help you get to the other side because you can pick an attorney that the the primary goal is to get bankruptcies, get the money, and keep people pushing them in and out. But if you have a situation which you're really concerned about, you need to hire somebody that is going to talk to you and really educate you about the process, and you'll be surprised at the positives, you know, it's it's really 90 positive to maybe a two percent negative when it comes to the area of bankruptcy.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Yes, see that what that was wasn't that good, everybody. That was good. Okay, so um, so since our topic for today is understanding bankruptcy types, you know, um, you know, we were discussing on our last podcast concerning, you know, the stigma, you know, um tied to bankruptcy, but I want our guests to understand what the different types of bankruptcy mean and what they are. Okay, okay. So, and we're gonna focus on um the personal and individual side of things. Um, but you know, I think it's important for them to know what their the chapters are and what those chapters mean, you know, what you can do, what you can't do. Um, so the first question is can you break down chapter seven and chapter 13?

SPEAKER_02 5:03

Okay, very, very good question. And I would tell you this: chapter seven, when when people consider bankruptcy, chapter seven is the princess. Everybody wants the princess, but you have to really understand what a chapter seven is. So we're gonna start there. A chapter seven, by definition, is actually a liquidation. This means that they take, they can potentially take your assets, sell them, liquidate them to pay off your creditors by definition. However, the chapter seven that I foul is usually a no asset chapter seven. What does that mean? That means that you do not have assets that the trustee or the court can take or want to take to liquidate the payoff your creditors. Those are the type of cases that I have to investigate to make sure that I'm able to protect what you already have, and also to make sure that if it's something that you have that you don't want to keep, we'll be able to get rid of it. So, what does that mean? So when we say liquidation, again, it means taking things and selling it to pay off your creditors. Most people think, okay, if I have a house, I can't file a seven because I'm gonna lose it. Not true. In Mississippi and each state, but we're particularly talking about Mississippi, we have certain exemptions. That is a magic word that means protections in bankruptcy. We're able to protect your assets in bankruptcy if they fall in certain categories, if they fall under certain guidelines. So automatically filing a chapter 7 doesn't mean that you're giving anything up. When it comes to homes, we can protect up to $75,000 in homestead equity. So that means, say, if you have a home and you have a mortgage on that home, if you have equity in that home, if it's $75,000 or less, then they're not going to take your house. If you have other real estate, land, lot, um, some people have uh rental homes, but let's focus on land and lots. And this is where it really is very important on the attorney that you talk to. In our community, we often have elders that have gone on to glory, and now we have land that's left over. We have air property. Sometimes we do not properly probate, you know, land that is left behind, you know, by parents or whatnot. And there may be a situation where you are entitled to land, land may have passed to you, you may have even been deeded land, but you don't know anything about it. I encourage you to look into your affairs because when it comes to additional land, additional real estate, anything outside the homestead, typically at chapter seven, cannot protect it. So you have to be aware of your assets, especially when it comes to real estate. Same thing with vehicles. Nine times out of ten, the court don't want your car, they don't want your car, it ain't worth what you're paying for it. You're usually upside down underwater in the anyway, right? Right, it has significant value to you. It it tugs at your heart strings, and it may be you know your favorite car, your dream car, or whatever. At the end of the day, we're looking at the numbers. If you have a big body BMW and you're paying $80,000 for it and it's only worth $40,000, guess what? They don't want it. Because in order to liquidate that, they're not gonna get any money. If you owe $80 and it's worth $40, that means when they liquidate it, it's still gonna be a balance that's not taken care of. It is it's no gain out of that. So when it comes to vehicles, you have to be careful about that. I'm a car girly. I have some clients that actually have some classic cars, and when it comes to those cars, I have to be very careful to see you know what the condition of it is, if if they have restored it, you know, um, if it's a uh limited edition, because I I used to own uh 99 Mustang myself, the 35th anniversary edition with the ponies on the seat. It was a convertible, so I am a car girly. That is a thing, okay. I love cars, and and I often, you know, long-winded on consultations with my clients because if they got a clean car, I'm you know, I'm asking questions about it, you know, see if they're putting it in car shows or is it just sitting up, you know, getting rusted or whatever. Um, got into cars with my dad. My dad is into cars, so when it comes to vehicles, we a personal property exemption in chapter seven, which means I can protect up to ten thousand dollars of your personal property. But personal property is a big umbrella. We're talking about furniture, appliances, dogs, pets, any type of look, you have to when when I say bankruptcy get in your business, it gets in your business, it makes um telephones, uh, exercise equipment. If you have collectible items, wedding rings. I mean, it's a plethora. If you have designer purses, so you really have to know and have an accounting of what you have because we only have that $10,000 to work in, you know, that ten thousand dollars we gotta stretch it sometimes. Some people may own five or six cars, but depending on the value of the cars, just because you own five or six cars, they don't even mean they're worth five thousand dollars collectively. It depends on the mileage, you know. We have to do the blue book value, you know, what condition is the car in. If it's not running, we're just looking at parts at this point, versus you know, you may have a um, I have a vintage 2,000 Aston Martin, got less than 40,000 miles on it. This that's the car that um what's his name? Um 007, what was the uh James Bond? That the car that James Bond, yeah. I got one of James Bund's cars, one of the top 10 fast. So if I was to file, uh I'm I'm be like, they probably gonna want to touch me because they probably worth some money, you know. So, and and and people, you know, uh be concerned about dogs and stuff, and you have to think about it. Each person, you it's so important to have somebody, an attorney, that gets in your business that you can be open with, because each person has their own thing, has their own lane. So I don't like it when folks say, Well, I know somebody that filed and they had to do this, I know somebody that filed and they lost it. You do not know what situation or what circumstances that person was involved in that bankruptcy, if and why they lost anything. If you do not tell us what you have in fear of losing it, and we do not protect it because you don't tell us, the trustees they're gonna do their due diligence and they're gonna find it. And if they find it and it's not protected, they're gonna take it and sell it. So it's not the bankruptcy that took it, it's right you that did not tell us about it, so we can protect it. Yeah, um, in certain situations, you may have a dog that you love with all your heart, and he's a mud, not AKC registered or anything, but then you have some people that breed pedigree dogs that's inventory to them, that's business, that's dollars to them versus a pet. Yeah, so yeah, there's a difference, totally different values, yeah. But we need to know that we need to know that. So, back with the chapter seven, there are protections for that liquidation, so it does not mean that you lose everything, it is a matter of what you have, come forth with it, and let's see what category we can put it in to protect it. Right. Seven is very short, you're only in it for three to six months. That's what people love about it. Very short bankruptcy, you can get rid of a lot of debt. Um, things that people are often are played with repossessions, cards that have been taken, and you still owe the balance on credit cards, um, medical bills, loans. Um, you can even get rid of taxes, best primarily in the 13, but it's under special provisions. Typically, taxes are not dischargeable, but there is a set an exception to it. Right now, I'm getting rid of student loans, and that is something people were saying, oh, you can't do nothing with student loans. Student loans, you can't get rid of them. It ain't no point in it is different now. I can tell whether or not you qualify for a discharge of your student loans, and if you meet the requirements, I have about three lawsuits in circulation right now with the Department of Education to get rid of student loans because, according to my research and my due diligence, these people qualify for a student loan discharge, so it's not impossible. Yeah, not impossible. So there's so much that you can do with a chapter seven, and by it being so short, it instantly boosts your credit and it lowers your debt-to-income ratio at the same time. Yeah, your credit because it doesn't, and let me make this clear bankruptcy does not erase your credit report, your credit report does not need to be erased. So when it comes to credit repair and all that type of stuff, all this deleting and hiding and all of that is not necessary, right? When lenders look at your credit report, they look at primarily your accounts and whether or not you are obligated to pay those accounts. Bankruptcy tells lenders, hey, this person is no longer obligated to pay these accounts. Yeah, you see all these different loans, credit cards this person has, but if you look at this category, they're no longer obligated legally to pay for them. So you cannot hold these balances against them. That's how the debt-to-income ratio is lowered because now your debt is lowered, it's something that you no longer are obligated to pay, and now your income is freed up. Same thing with your credit score, they cannot any longer report that you have negative balances, that you are in default, or that you're behind. That's when you get into another subsection of federal law, the fair credit reporting act. You know, people love to send these letters talking about you don't have the right to put on a credit report because you're not the original creditor. Remove this. No, bankruptcy is even more powerful than that. What it does is once you file bankruptcy, they the creditors can no longer report that you owe this amount, that you are behind on this amount, that you have anything to do with this balance. And if they do report it, that is a violation of your discharge order. If you have received a discharge order, or if you're still actively in a bankruptcy, that is a violation of the automatic state, and you can get money for that all day long. I do it all day long. So, yeah, it's a flex like bankruptcy is a financial strategy. This is not for the broke. That's why a lot of rich people, millionaires, file bankruptcy all the time, all the time, and and before we get to you know, explaining the difference, um, the continued difference with the chapter seven verses uh 13. I also want to encourage you to open your mind and really think about how our community we're so focused on receiving from the government, you know, we want to get these stimulus checks, we want to, you know, PPP loans, you know, blew up. We're so focused, hyper-focused on receiving funding from the government. But here we have a government tool that this is federal law that tells us we don't have to pay this stuff, it's another way out, yeah. But we don't look at it that way, we look at it as a failure, but we're here to you know have our hands out when the government is passing out money. No, the government is passing out a solution to you getting out of debt. You don't need more money to pay all folks, you need a way to get you know to get rid of the folks that don't have to be paid, yeah, actually easier. So, um, again, with a chapter seven, it's very quick, it's very smooth. Um, the the one thing about the chapter seven is you have to qualify, you don't pick which that you want to file. Oh, yeah, yeah. You just don't. I have a lot of folks. I want to file chapter seven. Well, you might want to do that, but we got to see what these numbers say. We have to see what your circumstances say. There's the called the means test within the the chapter seven. We have to look at your household income, and we have to look at uh how many people are in the household. We hold it up to the standard, which is the median income for the number of people in your household and the income that is allowed by that jurisdiction, which is Mississippi, that determines whether or not you can file. So, for instance, if it's a one-person household, it's only you, you stay by yourself, you don't have any dependents. I believe the median income for qualifying for a chapter seven is you cannot make no more than fifty-three thousand five hundred, and I believe it's like twenty-two dollars. Oh wow, so if you make fifty-five thousand, guess what? You don't qualify unless you have some type of deductions that we can take off that will bring you under that threshold. And when I say these people are to the penny, I have had people that work themselves a second job. I'm talking about you're working yourself to death trying to pay off you know debt that you can get rid of, and because you picked up that second job, you then qualify for a chapter seven by a couple of hundred dollars.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

So, in in cases like that, again, depending on the professional that you're you know in front of, I know how to tell people, hey, this is what we need to do to get you in there, because it's ways that you can help people if you are open and and you know, you're listening to them and and they can understand what you're trying to, you know, put down or whatever. Um, and I mean I tell people it's very hard for a single person to qualify because I mean you you really don't. Have too many deductions that you can grab on versus you know if you have other people in the household and if you have dependents, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

So um talk to me a little bit about chapters 13. So, what is going on there?

SPEAKER_02 22:20

So if a person doesn't qualify for chapter um seven, would that with 13 automatically they can, and I will say another thing that can discount will keep you from qualifying for a chapter seven, which will often have me to file people um in a chapter 13. I've had several of these these things to happen, and I'm gonna tell you the reason why. If your house has too much equity, you can have everything perfect, like your income, you meet the uh the means test, um, your current on your cars, and that's another thing. You have to be current on your car note to follow chapter seven to keep them, you have to be current on your mortgage or to keep your house, everything can be in alignment. Then I run the comps on your home, and it shows that you have too much equity, more than that $75,000 that I can protect. If your house has too much equity, if you were to move forward in a chapter seven, which one on the um how the equity in your house can affect you um qualifying for chapter seven?

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Well, the um well, what happened was the signal kind of went out, so I went off screen, and then you kind of froze.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

Oh, oh no, oh no. Okay, well, I was like, it might be uh it might be my internet. No look, no telling, no telling. I'm gonna start over then. So one of the things, remember when I was speaking on the equity in your home and how I can protect it. Now you can have everything in line. You can have the income where it needs to be, where you meet the means test for a chapter seven. You can be current on your car, you have to be current on your car in order to keep it in the chapter seven, you can have that going. You can be current on your mortgage, which you have to be in order to keep your home in to follow chapter seven, all of that that can be good until I run the comps on your home, which is getting the valuation of your home. If it comes back that you have equity in your home that is more than $75,000, if you were to move forward with a chapter seven, you would lose your house. Because I can only protect up to $75,000 in equity. So, with that being said, you need to go to a 13. Chapter 13 is the only true debt consolidation. Listen to me again, because I know there's a lot of commercials, a lot of Facebook ads, a lot of people that are advertising debt consolidation, and that is just a coin phrase outside of the bankruptcy world because the true debt consolidation is a chapter 13. Okay, it is a planned payment in which we take all of your debt and we put it together in this chapter 13. You can be in it for three years or five years, it's consolidated, and you pay a planned payment to the trustee, and the trustee turns around and pay your creditors for you. One thing people hate about a chapter 13 is the fact that it is three or five years. People hate time, they hate making payments. So why are you okay with paying net and you're not okay with paying a chapter 13? Which by the way, would will lower your car note depending on your interest, because the interest rate can be capped in the it will it is capped in a chapter 13. And depending on how long you have that vehicle, you can actually pay value versus your contract rate for the vehicle, which will save you more money. So all these people that's selling these cars overpriced, the car is only worth 10,000, but you go to the lot and they sell it to you for 25,000. Yeah, if you have had that car long enough, there is a rule in bankruptcy. It says, Okay, if you have had this car so many days, you don't have to pay them their 25,000 at 20 interest, they unsold it to you. Uh-uh. You're gonna pay 10,000, which is the value of the car, and the interest rate right now is 8.5 percent. So just have imagine how much that you're car note. I have chopped car notes from over a thousand dollars to like 500 and some dollars in bankruptcy because chapter 13 is the true debt consolidation. Um so in putting all of your debts together, it controls the narrative. So when you hear these other companies that do debt consolidation, first of all, they only do unsecured debt, that is debt that is not tied to anything, credit cards, loans, they can't help you with your house, they can't help you with your vehicle. Chapter 13 will help you save your house. If your house is up for foreclosure, you can't pay that big lump sum that they want you to pay to bring your house current, or if they may want to call the whole loan due and say, Okay, we want the whole the entire mortgage amount. You know, you have violated the agreement. Now we are calling the whole loan due, you can't pay it. Follow chapter 13. And the court says, uh-uh, they're gonna pay it over time, and they're gonna pay their monthly mortgage rate. How we put it in this plan when it comes to credit card debt, if they get paid, if they get paid, yeah, yeah. So just imagine you got a credit card, you owe ten thousand dollars on it. It tells you right there on the credit card statement, usually in the upper right-hand corner, if you're making minimum payments, it's gonna take you 15 or 20 years to pay this ten thousand dollars off because they want their 34 interest rate on top of that. So by the time you're finished paying, you have paid these folks triple what you have borrowed in credit. Take that same credit card and put it in bankruptcy, they get nothing. Bottom of the totem pole, bottom of the totem pole, and they can't come out, and they cannot come out. That is the beauty of bankruptcy. Once you file it puts up this automatic state, that's the the legal term for it. And the court tells these folks, this is what you're gonna get paid. I don't care what your contract told you, whatever your contract is, this is what you're gonna get now, and there is nothing you can do about it because this is their plan payment. As long as they put pay this plan payment, this is how you're gonna eat from now on. We block all of that. If they send you a text message, a letter, anything asking for money about an account that is in your bankruptcy, baby, all day long. I go after and I get checks for that automatic violation, automatic violation. So if you are under pressure, under stress from folks calling you, sending you letters, you know, telling you that you owe this, that, and the other. Once you file bankruptcy with my firm, you pray that they call you. You want them to call you at that point. You you want them to bother you because I have a clear method of when they bother you when you're not supposed to be bothered, yeah. Oh, we're all about to get paid, might as well, you know what I'm saying? You gotta say it's your money, we're gonna make you come up off of yours. That's right, that's right. That's what you're supposed to do. So, the chapter 13, you can literally put everything, you can put your taxes in there. Um, do owe taxes, and that's and that's one of the biggest things that hinders us from exercising the power of bankruptcy. When people owe taxes, they stop filing their taxes, and that is one of the documents have to turn over. And I want you to talk about that because that is one of the biggest obstacles that I'm finding now that people they wake up, their car is repossessed. And by the way, if your car is repossessed, I can get it back for you in a chapter 13. You have 10 days to get it back, and you don't have to pay them that crazy money, they asking you for it. They tell, oh, well, we need five thousand dollars for you to get your car back. No, you don't. All I have to do is just push this button right here, send you over this paper. And I don't care if y'all have taken it to Tennessee or Alabama because they love to transport them cars, you go and bring it on back. That's why they have this 10-day rule that they cannot sell a car, you know, uh, within 10 days of uh repossessing that vehicle, it gives you an opportunity to get your vehicle back. And it happens to you, you can easily file a chapter 13, put their car note in there, likely gonna lower your car note, and you get your vehicle back, and you don't have to worry about all those crazy exorbitant fees or whatnot. But you have to have your taxes filed. We have to turn on turn over those financial documents to the court, and a lot of people, because they owe taxes, they may owe one year and they literally don't file their taxes, like the IRS is gonna forget they exist.

SPEAKER_00 33:03

You know, um, I'm like, they will put that can put you on a payment plan, you know what I'm saying? So there are options available, they will work with you. Okay, they'll work with you, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:17

But also, go ahead. Uh and and and and look, and one thing about the RS, I do tax resolution as well, and you don't have to be in bankruptcy to do that now. The IRS they operate on getting the most money out of you in the shortest amount of time. That's right. But if you can show them, which I know how to show them, hey, I understand I owe this, but I can't pay that because this is what the situation is, and this is the payment plan that I qualify for. Because here's here's the thing the irs is the government, too. Just like bankruptcy courts are the government, those are cousins, they are cousins. So when you file a bankruptcy, the IRS know, and here they come filing their proof of claims because you owe them too. Right. So you can use if you are in bankruptcy, you can use the fact that you're in bankruptcy to get a smaller payment plan with the IRS, or if you're not in bankruptcy, you can use your personal information to get a smaller payment plan with the IRS because don't let them tell you what they will accept. No, you show them what you can pay, and it's a way to do that.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

See, and that's why you need to hire a good attorney who specializes in these areas, okay. So, the let me talk about the taxes a little bit, okay. Um, I see so much, and it's like a fear, you know. I don't know what it is, but there's this great fear when it comes to the IRS. I get it, you know, but you know it's the law, you're supposed to pay the taxes, okay? But a lot of people don't realize that if you don't pay your taxes, you have to pay penalty and interest daily, so you are being penalized for not filing, and so it is now there's you can still be have the um penalty. Let's say you file, but you can't afford to pay pay the um amount in full. Now you're still gonna be charged the interest, you know, that you have to be because it there's still a penalty, you have to pay that, but you filed, so that means you don't get two penalties. Exactly, exactly. So, but but I would say that first of all, file, don't be afraid to file, and even if you are behind, get with me, get with me so I can help you um get ahead, and it's sometimes it might seem overwhelming. You are three years behind on your taxes. This is what you need to do. One thing I want you to understand is not uh buy one, get too free when you file your taxes. You have to pay for each year, you have to pay for each year to be filed. So, for an example, now this is not my fee, okay. But for an example, if you have three years, but I charge $300, you can't come to me thinking that you're gonna get all three of those done for $300. No, it's three hundred dollars per tax year, okay. So, and a lot of people don't understand that, and so in the event that you cannot afford to pay that fee, just take one at a time. Don't say I need to go ahead and get all of these filed because what's gonna happen, you're gonna have to pay me for all of the ones that I'm filing for you. So, for it to be easier for you financially, if you're in a uh a tight, just take one at a time. Say, I need you to I need you to um file this one for me, I need you to file this one a month later, so do it like that. But you know, and I I I run into that a lot, and people think that's why a lot of uh tax prepayers don't want to do back taxes, a lot of them don't want to do that because you know the mentality of a lot of people think, well, you know, you know, I I oh that's expensive. No, it's not expensive. You just think three years, okay?

SPEAKER_02 37:42

Because at the look, my daddy told me now look, if you're gonna do wrong, you need to put some right money aside to correct better. You surely better, you surely better to pick it back off of what you said, depending on your situation. You may just need to uh pay all that money and get them filed at once because again, if you come to me, they they done repossess your your four F 150 or your F350, and now you only got 10 days to get it back, and you you talk to me and you tell me that you haven't filed your tax returns for the past three years. I'm not going to take your case. I could file an emergency, I sure can. You give me extra money, I can file an emergency to uh tell the court that hey, this is the 13 that we're filing, this is just a skeleton filing. We need this car back now, and we're gonna give you the rest of the documents that are due to y'all later. I can definitely do that, but the reason why I do not do that often is because you get comfortable. And when I ask for the rest of those documents, now here you're saying, Well, I don't have those tax returns, I don't have this, I don't have that. But guess what? The court gave you 10 days to turn it over. And if you do not, that money that you paid me to file the emergency to get your car back, you don't get that back. And they about to dismiss your case, and now you're gonna be back at square one. So that's why when it comes to booking a consultation with me, financial documents I require up front, yeah, your pay stubs or proof of income for the past six months and your tax returns for the past two years, because that's what the trustee is gonna ask for off the top. And if we can't produce those, then your case is going to be dismissed. And I don't like misunderstandings because if you don't mean to do my job, which I have, but because you didn't handle your business, you know, your court your case is gonna be dismissed, and you used to may have an understanding like it was something I did, no, yeah. Oh, yeah, you have gotten done already, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:10

Yeah, so you know, um I agree, you know, with everything that you're saying, you know. Um don't be afraid to spend the money, you know, especially when you got yourself into a little pickle or situation. Um, you have to understand that you have to pay the professionals to help resolve whatever issue that it is that you have. So if you need to get three uh returns prepared immediately, so that's immediately that's gonna be an additional fee on top of whatever other fee because you need me to get all this stuff done within the next 24 hours. Is that that's that's a lot of work, that's so you know, you have to be willing to invest, it's still an investment, you're investing in yourself to help free up some of the burden that is on you from making you know certain decisions, and it's not always about making poor financial decisions, you know. Life can happen, exactly, things can happen beyond your control. Um, but it is good to get with the professionals so they can help you get through whatever situation it is, but remember you still have to pay us, okay?

SPEAKER_02 41:36

Exactly, exactly, and and sometimes the payment is not especially with me. Sometimes the payment is not up front. I don't charge for my consultations if you are in Mississippi, because obviously, if I talk to you and I lay out the game plan, you're gonna make the right decision and hire me anyway. But sometimes when I talk to you and I see your situation, even though you are scared, even though you know you're in a panic or whatnot, once I assess the situation from you know the bigger perspective, I may even tell you now is not the time to file, bank. Now is not the time. Yeah, you can just hold out three months from now. I know you know you ain't got this piece of paper, and we so scared of paper. We may get something from the court, we you know, we may get a phone call, and we're so scared of you know the inevitable, but it takes time for stuff to happen. And if you tell me what you have, I can give you an estimated time frame of when you need to make a move, and sometimes that delay is not a deny, right? That's gonna put you in a better situation, so yeah. You know, you have to um gauge you you can't take everybody um and put them in the same category, you know. I'm saying, even though I might take two people and file both of them as a chapter 13, we're trying to accomplish two different things with the same mechanism. This 13 right here, we're trying to stop a foreclosure, yeah. You know, houses about to be sold or whatever. We need to file this one to stop the sale and literally to regroup. And I have that before because you may not have the money, right? Pay the plan the payment plan, you're trying to figure it out. You had a death in your family, you know. Imagine you know, losing you know, a loved one, a mother, and a father, and the world sort of stops for you, but the real world keeps on going, yeah, and just have to you know snap out of it at some point. But once you snap out of it, everything is you know tumbling out of control, right? You don't have time in situations like that. Okay, you ain't got this notice. They about to sell your house in two days. I'm not about to sit up here. Well, I need you to get me and then they about to sell your house in two days. Let's go and push this button to give us some breathing room. Right. So we can figure out what your next step is going to be. Do you want to keep the house? Okay, if you want to keep the house, we already in the mechanism for you to keep the house. Do you want to sell the house because you can't afford it? Okay, at least we have stop time, so you have time to talk to a realtor to see you know if you can get this bad boy on the market, you know, what the deal is or whatnot. Sometimes it's just used to freeze time leave, yeah, versus it may be somebody that just you know fell behind on bills for whatever they got the money. A lot of times we have the money to do what we need to do, but we won't that's right, don't want to do it.

SPEAKER_00 45:00

We just don't want to do it, even even though you need to do it, yeah. You need to do it, you know. And I'm gonna say this, you know, even with the accounting side of things, you know, I I talk to um business owners, and I'm like, you know, you really need to go ahead and and get your your stuff in order. I'm like, you own a business, you got people employed with you, you hadn't filed your taxes in three years and your books amen, too. But I'm like, you don't, I'm like, I want you to understand as a business owner, first of all, we are in the state of Mississippi.

SPEAKER_02 45:43

Okay, hello, the Mississippi Department of Revenue, they do not play, they don't play, they don't bend, they don't talk, they don't, you know, they mm-mm, they they not friendly, they ain't your friend, they is your PayPal, and when I say PayPal, a hundred percent they have there is law, there is law that they can take a hundred percent of what you owe them out of your bank account. I have a hundred percent of your wages, y'all talking about wage garnishment. I have seen they they can they can take the 25 and then and leave you a little bit something left over the part of revenue, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:35

I've seen it, yeah. I've seen this, and I'm in and you know it's unfortunate, you know, because when you um consulting them, like hey, you know, I need you to go ahead and take care of this. Okay, so I'm gonna have to go ahead and wrap it up. Hello. Okay, let me go ahead and do this. Thank you so much, you guys. Um, Atari Sweeney, tell everybody how they can reach out to you.

SPEAKER_02 47:03

Uh okay, you can reach me on my website site at www.sweeney lawoffice.net, s-we-e-n-e-y, lawoffice.net. You can text me at 769-823-3733. If you are a fan of social media, I cut up online. So find me on Facebook under Attorney Kimberly Sweeney or TikTok as attorney debt relief or debt free, attorney debt free on TikTok. So any platform you can reach out to me.

SPEAKER_00 47:35

Awesome, awesome. Thank you so very much for this wonderful conversation. Again, my name is Marjorie E. Roberts. I am the owner of Roberts Mangum and Bennett Consultant. You can contact me at seven six nine two four seven four four zero zero. You can also go to my website www.robertsmangumbennett.com. Thank you guys so much for joining us, and we will see you next episode.