楊清泉律師專欄：SENIORS SEEK RELIEF FROM $80K AND $28K CREDIT CARDS.

Clients are young seniors at 60. Husband has a stable middle management job that pays $5K a month. Wife is not employed. They don’t own a house. They rent for $1200 a month and pay for a 2016 Lexus SUV 3.0. They enjoy travelling by SUV. This is the little luxury that they indulge in. On weekends, they drive to the border of Las Vegas and try their luck at the slot machines. This is their routine almost every weekend. On some weekends, they may drive to the beach at Santa Monica or Dana point and just relax, soaking in the sun and enjoying the sea breeze. This is their life in Southern California since they moved to Los Angeles thirty years ago. Kids are all adults, on their own and have their own lives and families. They have been empty nesters for the last fifteen years. 

The problem is that in the last twenty years, they accumulated $80K of credit card debt. Minimum payment to keep them current is $2,400 a month. This is half their gross income and double their rent. Believe it or not, they are still current on the $80K. None of the $80K credit card debt is on past due status. I guess wife takes care of sending out the $2,400 to fifteen credit card companies every month. That alone is a full time job. No wonder she doesn’t work. Clients have been working for the credit card companies, paying them $2,400 a month, $28K a year. And how much have they paid in the last twenty years to keep their cards current? $576K, more than half a million dollars! And how much do they still owe today after paying $576K? They still owe the very same $80K! If they had just set aside the $576K in savings, instead of paying credit cards, think of what clients can do with half a million dollars today, now that they are 60? Well, for one, instead of renting, they can fully pay for a house. Or, they can invest that in a wealth portfolio that will give them at least $2,500 a month in additional income even at a 5% annual return. Or, they can pay for the 2016 Lexus in cash. Think about all the productive things they can do with half a million dollars in cash. They can travel and enjoy all the beautiful sights and cultures that the world has to offer. 

When you’re younger you don’t think about these things until it is too late. You think you will live forever and you will be young forever. But reality sets in when you turn 60. I don’t know why that’s the magic number. People are not faced with the prospect of mortality in their forties or fifties. But the sixties are different. I believe it is because the next decade after the sixties is the seventies. While one can still be “young” at 60 and do practically anything that one can do in their thirties, except at a slower pace, at 70 the whole range of possibilities changes. At 70, the signs of physical aging are obvious, unless one has managed to delay these signs by exceptionally healthy eating, living and exercise. Unfortunately, despite all the advances in stem cell technology and cancer cures, mankind has not yet been able to defeat the number one cause of death of humans, old age. The oldest person today is 116. How many of us can even reach 90? Most of us will kick the bucket and either be with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in paradise, or locked in a 10 x 10 feet cell guarded by monsters who will eat our flesh in hell in our eighties. If you are 60 now, that’s just another 20 to 25 years from now. The choice is life eternal with total joy and bliss with our Lord and Savior in his Father’s house in heaven, or an eternity of pain and suffering in hell with Lucifer, the choice, my friend, is yours.

Clients can start a new life with a Chapter 7 petition to wipe out $80K of credit card debt and start saving $2,400 a month as they enter retirement. Just in the nick of time. But if you go to hell, sorry, you can’t file a Chapter 7 petition to get out of hell and enter heaven. Make your choice now, while you still can. The devil is always on the prowl, ever deceiving you with false promises to bring you to hell.

Next client is a widow at 65. Her husband died last month. Husband passed away unexpectedly. She still works and makes $2K a month as an assembler. Husband was making $3,400 a month as an LVN but fell ill and died in five months. He went into a coma on the fourth month and never recovered. He left credit cards of $28K. His creditors are threatening to sue her and garnish her wages because the credit cards were community property debts. Surviving spouse is liable for community property debts. Client decides to start fresh at 65 with a Chapter 7 fresh start to wipe out husband’s $28K of credit card debt. She needs to do this because if she continues to pay minimum on $28K, that’s $900 a month. She now lives with her son so she doesn’t pay rent. But why pay $900 a month for credit cards when she can save that $900 every month for her own use and security? $900 a month of savings is $10,800 a year. In three years, client should have saved up $32,400 in the bank. Who wants to have $28K of credit card debt at 65 sucking up $900 of social security or pension? Even a bimbo can figure this out. 

 “TRUST IN THE LORD FOREVER, FOR THE LORD, THE LORD, IS THE ROCK ETERNAL.” Isaiah 26:4

Lawrence B. Yang is a graduate of Georgetown University with a Master’s Degree in Law and specializes in Bankruptcy, Business, Real Estate and Civil Litigation.  He speaks English, Mandarin and Fujian and has successfully represented thousands of clients in California, including companies overseas.  Please call Angie, Barbara or Jess at (626) 284-1142 for an appointment at 1000 S. Fremont Ave., MAILSTOP 58 BUILDING A-1 SUITE 1125, Alhambra, CA OR at 20274 Carrey Road, Walnut, CA 91789.