You could be in severe financial distress but don’t know it yet. For example, your household incomes of $100K a year is good but look at your monthly household expenses, to determine if you actually have disposable income left at the end of the month.

Although your gross monthly income is $9K, after deducting withholding taxes and social security, your net take home pay is about $6.5K. Mortgage payment including real estate taxes is $3K. Now you only have $3.5K left. You have 2 car payments total $1K and gasoline, car insurance and maintenance is also $1K. Now you only have $1.5K left. For a family of 4, food expense is at least $1.5K. At this point, you have used up your entire net take home pay of $6.5K. But what about allowances for your 2 kids who are in high school? Soon they will be in college and a new set of expenses will have to be added. You still have to pay utilities of at least $500 a month, that’s for electricity, gas and water. You still have to pay co-pay on medicines not covered by insurance. Easily, that’s another $300 a month for medicine, and just one night of having dinner in a restaurant in a month.

Let’s just add the fact that you owe $30K of credit cards. You need $1K a month that you don’t have for minimum credit card payments, just so you don’t get on default, just to keep MasterCard and visa happy at the end of the month.

In this case, you have severe financial distress but you don’t know it. Why? Because even with $100K of gross annual income, at the end of each month, you are still short of about $1,500 to service credit card debt and miscellaneous monthly expenses.

Or, you may be six months behind on your mortgage payments and have not paid your credit cards either for the last six months. In this example, you may owe $18K of unpaid mortgage payments and $6K of minimum credit card payments. The first mortgage holder has send you a notice of intent to accelerate your loan if you don’t pay the $18K immediately, or you may have already received an NOD, a Notice of Default with recording date which is the start of the foreclosure process. If you don’t pay the $18K plus the next 3 months of mortgage payments, you will then be facing a notice of auction sale of your house. This means your house will be foreclosed in about 4 months. 

Nobody wants to lose a house to foreclosure at this time because the market value of houses are high and therefore there’s a lot of equity to be lost if you lose your house.

Chapter 7 can help in the first example by wiping out the $30K while allowing you to keep most if not all of your assets. Caveat: not all cases are the same. In this example, if you own a house with at least $600K of equity, market value minus outstanding mortgage, instead of going for Chapter 7, you should go for Chapter 13 so there’s no risk of losing your house to the Chapter 7 trustee.

In the second example, a Chapter 13 will freeze the $18K default for 5 years and immediately stop the foreclosure process, while the plan provides for a full payment of the $18K over 5 years. Current mortgage payments must resume, and there may be zero payment to unsecured credit cards of $30K, or perhaps a portion of the $30K must be paid over 5 years depending on applicable factors. Caveat: not all cases are the same.

PRAYING ALWAYS HELPS

It also helps to pray to our God, His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and the Blessed Mother Mary for divine protection against the virus, and financial problems, because we have a God who loves us and His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, showers us with infinite mercy. All we have to do is humble ourselves and pray to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for a drop of his infinite mercy. Jesus has revealed in 1930’s to Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska of Poland that all sinners which we all are and those who do not believe in God and those who do not yet know Jesus, should all be brought to His sacred heart and be submerged in the ocean of His infinite mercy, for the sake of His Sorrowful Passion.

What is the current proof that God and Jesus are divine and all powerful? I refer you to exhibit A, the incorruptible body of Carlo Acutis!

CURRENT ONGOING PHYSICAL PROOF GOD IS ALMIGHTY 

INCORRUPTIBLE BODY OF CARLO ACUTIS DIED 2007 AT AGE OF 15

Look at the incorruptible body of the blessed Carlo Acutis who died at 15 in 2007. You can look at his body in Rome, Italy, now 14 years after his death. He looks like he’s just asleep in his jogging suit and rubber shoes!  That is a perfect example of an ongoing sign on earth that the God of Moses, our God, my God, is almighty and all-powerful that He even suspends the natural laws of biology and physics without any effort. He resurrected His one and only beloved son from death on the cross. Indeed, He has power over death.

I have actually thought, “What would the other religions believe if they actually saw the incorruptible body of the blessed Carlo Acutis? I think even Buddha, if he were alive today, would truly believe that Yahweh is the one True God.” No need to think about reincarnation and nirvana because his incorruptible body is available for all to see in Rome, Italy. We won’t need any kind of explanation on the efficacy of modern day mummification. Come on, man, that’s all bull. The truth is in plain sight. Believe your own eyes, that the one true God is all-powerful and His name is Yahweh, “I am who am.” He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.

Seven of my high school classmates passed away in 2021. They have all gone to meet their creator. I would like to mention their names here: Ricardo A, Victor Y, Jerry L, George C, Jimmy G, Edward N and Ricardo D. Three died of co-vid, one slipped and fell in the bathroom, one of heart attack, two of cancer. I pray all of them are in heaven with our Lord enjoying eternity with their loved ones as they must have all relied on the infinite mercy overflowing from the Sacred Heart of Jesus who died for us to redeem us, for the sake of his sorrowful passion.

Disclaimer: None of the foregoing is considered legal advise for anyone. There is absolutely no attorney client relationship established by reading this article.

“ETERNAL FATHER, WE OFFER YOU THE BODY, BLOOD, SOUL AND DIVINITY OF YOUR BELOVED SON, JESUS CHRIST, IN ATONEMENT FOR OUR SINS AND THOSE OF THE WHOLE WORLD, FOR THE SAKE OF HIS MOST SORROWFUL PASSION.”

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 20274 Carrey Road, Walnut, CA 91789 or1000 S. Fremont Ave., Mailstop 58, Building A-10 South Suite 10042, Alhambra, CA 91803.