Author Archives: Jay Butchko
What Happens to the Money in Your Bank Account If You File for Bankruptcy?
A bankruptcy case is an agreement between you and the court. The court agrees to make eligible creditors go away and stop trying to collect debts that you cannot repay. In exchange, you must be transparent with the court about your financial situation so that you pay an amount toward your debts that, according… Read More »
Filing for Bankruptcy After Your Small Business Plans Don’t Pan Out
Opening a small business involves a major investment of hope. The investment of capital that you put into opening your business might seem like a drop in the bucket for corporate giants, but it represents a substantial part of everything you have ever owned. You enter the business venture with the goal that, even… Read More »
The Florida Bankruptcy Means Test
Yes, everyone has the right to file for bankruptcy protection, but that is not the whole story. Most people who have seriously considered filing for bankruptcy have heard the terms chapter 7 and chapter 13. If someone you know has filed for bankruptcy, you might even know how the chapter 7 or chapter 13… Read More »
How Do Bankruptcy Cases End?
You might remember from high school English literature class that the end of a story or stage play is called the denouement, but that the category of the denouement is further subdivided. If the story is a comedy or otherwise has a happy ending, then the denouement of the story is called the resolution,… Read More »
Consumer Debt Is Manageable, but By Whose Standards?
In May 2026, Ted Rossman of Yahoo Finance wrote that, in the second quarter of 2026, consumer debt is still manageable. While the author deserves credit for not catastrophizing, and the website deserves credit for a headline that qualifies as benign clickbait, the article’s premise, namely that American consumers’ financial situation is not so… Read More »
The Downsides of Debt Settlement
Deciding to settle your debt directly with a creditor is an easy choice if your other option is filing for bankruptcy protection. A bankruptcy case is a legal dispute where you are a litigant; you only get the financial relief that the court awards you, and you must pay the filing fee without knowing… Read More »
Confronting the Financial Fallout of an Unanticipated Retirement
You can usually avoid the mantra, “You have a limited number of hours of your life to trade for dollars” by refraining from clicking on passive income bro content, but the thought that you will eventually be too old and sick to continuing chasing paychecks is disconcerting if the only way you will be… Read More »
Now Used Cars Are Unaffordable, Too
Seven-year car loans are nothing new. It is a seller’s market for new cars, and it has been since the days of the COVID lockdowns. The average sticker price for a new car in 2025 was $49,000, and most consumers paid the sticker price, because the demand for new cars exceeded the supply. Buying… Read More »
The Multigenerational Financial Crisis
In the 1990s, newspaper columnists used to knit their brows about the popularity of trash TV. Everyone from retirees to teens home for summer vacation to the unemployable would sit at home and watch daytime talk shows where people complained about their sordid problems, from co-parenting conflicts to disputes over children’s paternity, and they… Read More »
Beyond the 30 Percent Rule for Housing
Handy numerical benchmarks can help us get our bearings, but financial decisions are more individual than our favorite personal finance proverbs would have us believe. Yes, if you want to save for retirement, you should put five percent of your income into savings every month. Thanks, Uncle Moneybags, but I don’t make enough money… Read More »