Bank finance articles and tips

The period surrounding a job hunt can seem frustrating and stressful. The bills keep piling up but your savings are running out and unemployment is just not enough to pay the bills.

Job hunting is about determination and positive energy. There are a lot ways that you can blow your hunt and get off track. Being able to identify the ways in which you can derail your job search is the first step in being able to keep your employment hunt on track....

In 2005 Congress reformed the Bankruptcy Code and created what is called the Means Test. One of the key components of the Means Test is the calculation of current monthly income to determination if someone has monthly disposable income. Disposable income is theoretically the amount of money someone can afford to pay back their debts each month. If there is disposable income, then that income should be paid to creditors in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case and a Chapter 7 bankruptcy should not be filed. So what is income when filling out the Means Test?

Generally all income earned or received during the six-month period prior to a bankruptcy case being filed must be included in the Means Test, or "All figures must reflect average monthly income received from all sources, derived during the six calendar months prior to filing the bankruptcy case, ending on the last day of the month before the filing. If the amount of monthly earnings varied during the six months, you must divide the six-month total by six, and enter the result on the appropriate line." The earnings listed is therefore a six-month average. The result of the six-month average can vary widely depending upon whether income is received from self-employment, or someone is employed and receives a salary that stays the same each month.