Mindset – Page 3

February 21, 2019 By Jen Lee

5 Reasons to Know Your Rights and Options Before Saying, “I Do!”

When you hear prenuptial agreement, you probably think about the rich and famous protecting their assets from a future spouse that the family may not approve of (either silently or very loudly). However, there are many reasons that everyday people should understand how their future spouse’s debt and credit can impact their lives, especially in a community property state like California.

Avoid fights about finances in the future.
The number one cause of break-ups and divorce is financial or money issues. So, talking about finances, expectations, and the future is very helpful in avoiding problems down the road. Talk about how bank accounts will work in the relationship, how major purchases will be decided on, what you want to save for, what things are important to you on a regular basis.
Know what you are getting in to when it comes to major milestone purchases.
Understand how your spouse’s credit score may impact buying a house, a car, or qualifying for other major purchases. Contrary to what a lot of people believe, your credit scores are not merged together when you get married. You each have an individual credit score, but some lenders will use both of your scores to determine your interest rate and terms, especially mortgage lenders.
Know what you are liable for (even if the debt is before the marriage).
Paying for your spouse’s debts. Do you think that debts from prior to the marriage aren’t your problem? Not only does it add stress to the relationship, but technically, your wages (community property) can be garnished for your spouse’s premarital debts, including student loans. See #4.
Avoid pitfalls with student loans, repayment, and collection.
Student loans are a huge problem for many couples. If you are on income-based repayment for your student loans, have you figured out what getting married does to that calculation when your spouse’s income is included? This is often a very big issue for our clients and one to think about how to deal with before it becomes a problem.
Good planning for things that may (or may not) go wrong.
Finally, joint debts acquired during the marriage are not just split 50/50. Both of you are liable for the full amount and this often creates problems during a divorce case because the creditors do not have to abide by the family court division of debt. So, we often see one spouse assigned to pay a debt who doesn’t pay it, which then causes problems for the other spouse when the creditor sues him or her.

Remember, the elephant in every room is that people do not like talking about debt and credit problems. When you are joining your life with someone else’s, it is very important to understand your rights and options for the future. Jen Lee Law, Inc. offers a Premarital Debt Strategy Session to help couples figure out potential issues and get the marriage off on the right foot. Click here to schedule your Premarital Debt Strategy Session.

This is just a basic overview and is not legal advice specific to your situation. If you have questions about your rights when it comes to debt and credit, you should speak with an attorney in your area for legal advice. If you live in California or North Dakota and would like to speak with Jen Lee Law regarding your situation, please schedule an appointment.

February 1, 2019 By Jen Lee

Got Debt? Your Employer Should Care

Every night, I get Google Alerts with various key words about bankruptcy, debt, credit scores, etc. I know, sounds exciting, right?

Well, last night, I got an alert about a CNBC article titled, “Got Debt? Your boss wants to help with that.” I got excited because I talk about financial stress in the workplace ALL the time and the fact that it costs employers $7,000 per year per employee in productivity (I even wrote a white paper about it).  I read the article with great hope but ended up feeling that like so many previous articles, that this one too missed the boat.  

The article misses the basic point that many of the employees face current stresses and need quicker solutions to the day-do-day problems they are facing.  Talking about budgeting or 401k options is great but won’t help someone deal with a child’s student loans or the stresses caused by buying a house they can’t afford.   Financial stress is not about budgeting or picking the right 401k options! Financial stress is not about inviting financial advisors into the workplace for a free lunch and learn so that they can get your information and sell you insurance products! Financial stress is figuring out how to deal with a wage garnishment  on your new spouse  or a collections lawsuit or what to do with an IRS tax lien because you are behind on taxes or all three at once. Then, there’s the student loan situation. No amount of budgeting will pay off $200,000 in student loans on a $40,000 salary.

No one talks about options. No one explains the various legal scenarios that may help an employee  find a path  to resolve a difficult situation. No one goes through why taking multiple 401k loans may be a bad idea. It’s all focused on budgeting and basic financial education.  Basic financial education is not helpful when someone is in crisis mode. Basic financial education is helpful BEFORE someone gets in that situation. Statistics show that more than 50% of Americans are  beyond  the point where basic financial education is even helpful to their situation. More importantly, it’s isolating and dismissive of their actual problems. Employees are not going to  be motivated to hear about things they know they should be doing but can’t do until they resolve THEIR BIG ISSUE.   On top of that, since no one else is talking about their  REAL  debt and credit problems, they think they are the only ones with this type of problem. They couldn’t be more wrong.

Instead of addressing the problem, employers are doing everything they can to ignore the elephant in the room. Buzz words like “Financial Wellness” and “Financial Literacy” and “Financial Well-Being” are used instead of talking about the actual problems employees face.

Wake up, Employers.  If you really want to help your employees become more productive, help them find the right tools so they can solve their problems and get back to work.  

Here is the link to the actual article. If your company is looking for a great way to improve the bottom line and help employees, Jen Lee Law, Inc.’s Employees Are Assets™ program gets down to the root of the problem so employees are happy and the company can thrive.

January 25, 2019 By Jen Lee

Meet Bernadebt – the Elephant in the Room!

Hi, my name is Bernadebt.

I am the elephant in every room.

Lots of people have debt and credit problems, but no one wants to talk about it.

When you walk in a room, imagine that half of those people have a debt or credit problem.

What??!!

Other people have debt or credit problems? Yes, over 50% of Americans have some sort of debt or credit problem they are struggling with.

But, that’s not what you see on Facebook? You mean people are not talking about their debt and credit problems on Facebook?? It makes you feel very isolated and that you are alone in dealing with this problem.

My name is Bernadebt and I was created to help you understand that you are not alone.

I am the elephant in every room.

January 10, 2019 By Jen Lee

The Most Important Part of Your New Year’s Resolution

Every year, we all vow to lose weight and pay off debt. We are very predictable creatures. Those are the top two resolutions for people who actually make resolutions. While it’s great to have a goal, many forget the most important part of reaching a goal:

Create a plan!

When it comes to debt, it’s very hard to pay off all of your debt if you don’t know how much you owe, what your options are, what you can do, and when you should do it. I often see people give up on their goals because the goal is so big that it becomes this overwhelming thing that you can’t even imagine.

So, what does a plan look like? Where should you start?

List out everything you owe, including balances and monthly payment amounts. This is the scariest step, but it really helps to figure out where to go next.
If the list looks overwhelming, commit to getting yourself some professional advice on your rights and options (schedule with Jen Lee Law).
Create a budget so you know how much you have to pay towards debt every month.
Decide on the order you want to tackle the accounts.
Develop a few milestone points where you celebrate what you’ve accomplished.

Finally, remember that your plan has to be based on what works for you. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to accomplishing any goal (see last week’s post about more than one way to skin a cat). If you know that you need someone to keep you accountable, find that person. If you know that you have a weakness for online shopping, delete your saved credit card information out of the shopping cart (Amazon, I’m looking at you). If you know that numbers are not your friend, ask for help. You can always schedule an appointment on our website to review your budget and your rights and options.

December 27, 2018 By Jen Lee

There’s More Than One Way to Skin a Cat…and Other Bad Clichés.

We’re often talking about resolutions and fresh starts at this time of year. So, I’m going to go off on a little philosophical side-trip through a problem that I see happening a lot and it has more to do with mindset and misinformation than anything else. And, it doesn’t just happen in the debt and financial world, but I see it with almost every industry out there. The tendency for people to say things like:

“That’s not how things are done.”
“That’s not how we do things.”
“You can’t do that, no one else does it like that.”
“I can’t do anything about it because I don’t have any other choice.”

Many of our blog posts come from recent news or client experiences. This particular blog post comes from my own recent experience and the realization that there are a lot of people out there who do not realize that there is more than one way to do things, including dealing with debt and credit problems.

Have you ever posted something on Facebook that you thought was a great thing and just wanted to share it with your friends? Then, someone comes in and tells you whatever great thing you posted was not the way things should be done and there is nothing you can do to convince him otherwise? At first, I wanted to be annoyed with the comment, but then realized that I deal with this every day. I hear all day, every day, that there are no options, no one to help, and that even if there is an option, it’s the end of the world.

What if there are other ways to do things? What if there are other options? Would you want to know about them? Here are a few tips when your mind tells you something is impossible or can’t be done because blah blah blah:

Stop. Pause for a second. Stop jumping to “this won’t work.” This is one of the hardest things to do. I still catch myself immediately trying to come up with reasons something won’t work and have to stop my brain from running away with reasons.
For each suggestion or idea, try to come up with a way to make it work, even if it feels a little silly. Instead of making excuses for why something won’t work, try to think of any possible way it could work.
Look for others with ideas and solutions. Don’t look for others who are making the same excuses or avoiding trying new things. To be a bit blunter, get out of your bubble. I know it’s comfy there, but the tendency to fall back into the notion that things have to be done a certain way is much higher in the bubble.
Finally, when you do find out your options and realize that there is more than one way to do something, keep moving forward and make decisions. It’s easy to try and hide from difficult situations, but the stress of not doing anything about the problem is way worse than the hope you feel when you start acting on your options.

So, I realize this post has very little to do with the technical aspects of solving debt and credit problems, but what if? What if there is someone out there who can help you? What if thinking about doing something differently would help your business succeed? What if finding others who don’t think things have to be done the way they’ve always been done helps you move forward?

5 Reasons to Know Your Rights and Options Before Saying, “I Do!”

Got Debt? Your Employer Should Care

Meet Bernadebt – the Elephant in the Room!

The Most Important Part of Your New Year’s Resolution

There’s More Than One Way to Skin a Cat…and Other Bad Clichés.

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