Released! 🎉 I've got some audio issues, to be sure, but I think it should (hopefully) be easy enough to listen to. It's episode one!! In today's first issue, I'm talking about a few things. First, three cases from the pages of Reddit (so it's all public information), and then a short rank on why bankruptcy matters to your success.

The first case I talk about is a great case to introduce the podcast because it encapsulates so much of what I talk about in the bankruptcy system. A poster on Reddit said he or she was "planning to file, [but] terrified of being treated like a criminal." Specifically, the debtor said:

Reading and reading and reading and from what I am able to discern is that filing for Chapter 7 is akin to some sort of criminal proceeding. That the few folks that are trying to abuse the system have basically made it a nightmare for folks that are honest and want to file. I am terrified the trustee will find something I missed (I have gone over my petition info to the point I am not sleeping trying to recall any and everything I can think of...

I commented on the thread, but in retrospect, I wish I had done a lot more to acknowledge the emotions in the post. This person, I think, is putting all their emotions about the bankruptcy, how they got here, some of the morality or guilt in the process, and, since the trustee is really the first (likely the only) official in the bankruptcy process they'll ever talk to, is putting all that emotion into that one meeting.

I did say the following, but I wish I had said more:

What I do sense (could be wrong) is that you're mixing all the stress, anxiety, and confusion about your debts, the morality of it all, what people are saying to you, what you're reading on the internet, and, most importantly, your uncertainty about the process and what happens on the other side.

The point is not to focus on the past and how you got here. I hope the poster will walk into the trustee meeting and proudly look forward to the future and how he or she is going to be more successful than ever. Guilt and pride don't coexist happily together.

The next case involves something called a 2004 examination. The debtor in this case said that years ago...

When I got married, we bought a small house from a family member of mine. I got divorced in 2017 and we sold the house back to the same family member together after the divorce. Neither of us could come to the conclusion of who wanted it and it isn't exactly worth anything so that was the easiest and quickest option.

So in this case, the creditor is looking for some more information. That's what a 2004 examination is all about. But no decisions get made during that process, and it's a super unusual one for the vast majority of people in bankruptcy. Given what he said about the nature of the transfer, I wouldn't be too concerned right now.

The third case was someone who finished a bankruptcy case and was looking for some ideas about how long it would take for a credit report to get updated. I was curious why he or she was so interested in getting it updated so quickly (as in, I really was curious and not judgmental at all) and got some interesting responses. One person said they got really interested in monitoring their credit

stared out just being curious about how easy/hard the rebuilding process would be, then after a few positive jumps in points I researched more and became more proactive. I ended up with about a 200 point jump before our discharge was complete, which was very surprising. It's been pretty steady since our discharge in January, but we've been able to obtain unsecured credit, get increases in that credit and start to show immediate positive behavior on our reports beginning from the day after discharge, which hopefully will help getting back to 750-800 sooner.

Finally, I end with a rant about why bankruptcy is so important to success, but you'll have to listen to the episode, which you can do here: