Jeff Zucker and Katie Couric May Form Castaway Coalition [Media Crack]

A New Chapter: Starting Over With Bankruptcy

13 years ago I claimed bankruptcy and the process was easier than my imagination made it out to be. In my imagination I saw myself and my lawyer on one side of the huge courtroom and the mean, impatient credit card lawyers queuing up to give the judge a reason why I should not be allowed bankruptcy. It didn't go like that at all, but the process of chapter 7 was a learning experience.

With the laws that took effect in 2005, they do make it slightly harder and more paperwork is done to essentially find out if you are worthy of the big dinging a bankruptcy would do to your life and finances. What used to be an easy way to file chapter 7 bankruptcy, now is much harder for those who have debts of $50,000 or even $100,000.

In 2005 changes were made to the bankruptcy law and now certain things have to be met, such as a Means Test. The test is supposed to stop those who have too much money for filing for a  chapter 7.
You have to answer "NO" to the following questions
1. Is the family earning above the average income for their state? Look up your state
2. If you answer yes to the above, but you can answer "NO" to having excess monthly income of more than $166.66/month to pay $10,000 of debt over 5 years and you do not have excess income of greater than $100/month to pay over the next 60 months at least 25% of your unsecured debt - Then you can file chapter 7 bankruptcy.

But if you answered "YES" to either of these, above the state average income, excess of 166.66 over 5 years, excess 100.00 to pay over 60 months at least 25% of unsecured debt - then you have to file a chapter 13 and set up payment arrangements.

One of the tests that is used to determine how much excess monthly income you have is the following formula:

Income - Living Expenses = Money to be Applied Towards Debts

And that is the exact same formula you can determine if you can pay down your own debt without having to pay a lawyer to find out for you. But how a lawyer determines what is income and what is living expenses is the complicated part. As of this law, the IRS determines that based on your previous tax return and they decide what is reasonable.

Ok, so you are still going through with the bankruptcy. According to the 2005 law, every person has to go through credit counseling within 6 months before filing bankruptcy and you have to pick from one of the approved counselors for your state. And you have to have your certification before the bankruptcy can be discharged.

Vehicles - The old law said that you only had to pay the value of the car in a certain time to keep the car. The new law says that you have to pay the entire loan off to keep the car. The timetable on payoff is usually 3 years. So if you bought a $4,000 car from a car dealer when you had poor credit and the life of the loan is $15,000, then that is how much you have to pay out with this new law.

Homes - If the property was acquired in the last 1215 days (3.3 years) then their is an equity exemption of up to $125,000. Unless you live in Kansas, Texas, Florida, Iowa, and South Dakota, then you have unlimited exemptions and can keep your 2 million dollar home with $1 million dollars of equity built up in it.

Charity- Up to 15% of your income can be used toward charity and is considered a loophole for some to move from a chapter 13 to a chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Let's say you don't qualify for bankruptcy at all...
1. Use equity in your home to pay debts
2. Use cash savings
3. Use Retirement or 401k

If you can't use any of the above means to pay off your debts when you don't qualify for bankruptcy then your next step would be
Stop paying your credit cards and create your own "bankruptcy". If you do this on your own and don't pay your cards, you are doing so without the hassle of the court system, but also without the protection of the court system.

The Pros and Cons of the two bankruptcies:
With a Bankruptcy Chapter 7:
* You don't have to make payments on your credit cards.
* All of your debts are wiped out, your creditors will not be contacting you.
* Your credit is really ruined for 10 years. You will have a tough time getting an unsecured credit card. It's tough to get a bankruptcy off your credit report.

Not Paying Your Credit Cards
* You don't have to make payments on your credit cards.
* All of your debts are not wiped out, your creditors will hounding you.
* Your credit is ruined for 7 years. Late payments and any corresponding collections only stay on for 7 years from the date of first delinquency. You will have a tough time getting any credit for a while.
* It's possible to fix your credit before the 7 year reporting time is up.

While I don't advocate not paying bills, in rare situations I could see that being justified. But I wouldn't ever consider it worth the phone calls at all hours or the possibility of lawsuits. And if you decide to stop paying your bills:
1. Make sure you set aside the money in a bank account that you would normally pay on bills to cover settlements with collections agencies.
2. Also keep all written correspondence with credit card companies and collection agencies. 3. If you get any mail from a collection agency, make sure you write a debt validation letter.
4. When you do settle a debt, try to settle for 10-25 cents on the dollar - get it all in writing!

There you have it, bankruptcy laid out a bit more clearer if you are thinking of starting over, though you may want to take steps to just avoid bankruptcy all together if you can turn back now.


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/IpRp/~3/F867mToeOOc/new-chapter-starting-over-with.html

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Mindjack Review

When I first saw Mindjack last August, I commented that it had a lot in common with my favorite game of 2009 -- Demon's Souls. The comparison was a natural one, as both make it possible to invade another player's game as either a friend or foe.

Alas, I was being far too generous. In every way that Demon's Souls is engaging and innovative, Mindjack is careless and colorless.

Source: http://www.1up.com/reviews?cId=3183165

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Report: PS3 getting cloud saving in firmware update 3.60

According to a recent report from Kotaku, unnamed sources in the game development community have received notifications from Sony telling of a feature which will be incorporated into PS3 firmware update 3.60: Cloud storage for saved games. According to the report, the feature (called "Online Saving") gives developers the opportunity to let players set up their save files on a remote server, preserving the precious, precious space on their own hard drives, and allowing players to access save data from multiple consoles.

These developers also reportedly explained that the feature will only be made available to PlayStation Plus subscribers, or, as they'll henceforth be called, the "Save File Insured." This report sounds fairly believable -- remote storage was one of the rumored features of PlayStation Plus before its reveal, and there was also that Sony trademark for "PS Cloud" back in 2009. We've contacted Sony for a comment on this report.

JoystiqReport: PS3 getting cloud saving in firmware update 3.60 originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 29 Jan 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2011/01/29/report-ps3-getting-cloud-saving-in-firmware-update-3-60/

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Egypt's President Refuses to Step Down [Video]

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak just addressed his country and was not offering much. He says he has no plans to resign. His only concession to protesters? He'll break up his government and personally appoint a new one tomorrow. Gee, thanks. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gawker/full/~3/epE1uNYEbms/egypts-president-refuses-to-step-down

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Tip: Tweetify the Lead of Your Emails

In this age of information abundance, we all get a little too much email. It's highly likely that - thanks to the message preview function - your recipient will make a decision about what to do with that message before he/she even opens it. This means that the first few characters of your note are essential. You got to hook 'em or they be gone.

Here's a little tip I am going to try - don't bury the lead. Instead, Tweetify it! Here's why...

Most email systems preview the first 50-75 characters of an email. Therefore, to be heard, you increasingly need to write your first sentence like a tweet - or more like half a tweet. Skip openers that start with "my name is" and get some of the meat in your first sentence. It will increase the likelihood that your reader will get further into your note.

Here's a good example. Brett Kelly, whom I have never corresponded with before, sent me a brief note about his new eBook on Evernote called Evernote Essentials. He made the point right up front, which piqued my interest and encouraged me to read on further. 

It doesn't matter if you're trying to reach a CEO or a friend, the model works. To practice, head over to this site and write your first sentence there. Then come back to your email client. Your recipient will thank you.

Disclosure: Brett sent me a free unsolicited copy of his ebook, which is valued at $25.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/steverubel/~3/8UQBRILnkkw/tip-tweetify-the-lead-of-your-emails

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