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In Bankruptcy, As In Life, It's Better to be Lucky than Smart; Smart Doesn't Hurt, Either

By Joseph McDaniel, Esq.

Let's suppose you have your identity stolen.

That sounds pretty scary, right? And let's suppose that while you're trying to get the bank to fix things for you, all of the rates on your credit cards go through the roof.

And they won't go back down.

And how long will it take the bank to decide that it should reverse out the bad transactions so that you can pay your mortgage?

You know, there are some situations where being persuasive is a good thing; like persuading the bank that you really didn't order five hundred cases of beer. In Venezuela. Fifteen minutes ago.

But in some cases, persuasion just won't work.

Or suppose you did something silly, like picking up a stapler off your desk at the office.

And your back goes out and you're out of work for six months. And ultimately, you need emergency surgery to fix whatever went wrong with your spine, or hip, or any of those pesky parts!

Or what if that totally hot babe you married after a whirlwind courtship transmogrified into the world's most tenacious divorce litigant, and demands sole custody of the kids after the six month marriage, and suppose she's not very nice to 'em? Or flip it: you married a guy who is a gold miner. In your purse.

See, life is full of interesting possibilities, and a few of them lead to a beautiful retirement on a white, sandy beach, and many of them lead to my office.

I'm a bankruptcy attorney in Arizona.

On the other hand, there is no situation that a bad decision can't make worse.

Suppose you have a million bucks in your retirement account, and you already hear the call of sandy beaches, retirement, steel drums, and Margaritas?

And suppose all of the dough in your retirement account is in stock, in the best and biggest and safest business in the United States?

That is, ALL of your stock in the retirement account is in ONE business. 

And then that business goes south for the winter, forever?

Or how about you find out about your partner's drinking/gambling/drug issues after he's cleaned out the account and you can't make payroll?

Is there anything at all that will get you through life's little problems?

Well, the very best all-purpose tool I know of is being too stupid to know you can't do it; that is, I have a bunch of long-term friends and acquaintances and clients, and the most successful are those who keep plodding forward through the earthquakes, tornadoes and volcanoes that life throws at 'em.

They seem to figure that life doesn't owe 'em anything, and that if they're gonna make it, they have to make it work.

And all of 'em have had cute little issues like those above; and they just kept plodding forward.

Every now and then, one of the most successful businessmen (includes women) on the planet will drop into my bankruptcy office, for a bankruptcy filing of some sort or another.

It's kinda like hitting the "do-over" button in a video game.

p.s. note that it's also better to be lucky once the bankruptcy is filed. Two identical cases may get very different treatment, because of different bankruptcy trustees, different bankruptcy trustee attorneys, and different U.S. Bankruptcy Judges for the District of Arizona.

Or two cases may get different treatment because a trustee is in a good mood Monday and a bad mood Tuesday. Seriously.

Full post as published by Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney Blog on December 10, 2010 (boomark / email).