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Life after a Chapter 7 bankruptcy is not as daunting as many would have you think. In fact, most of the negative information out there is spewed by the credit card companies that lose out when you file for bankruptcy protection.The truth is, life after bankruptcy (BK) can be a rewarding experience. Think about it, you have been given a fresh start – free from debt – to start over. The most important thing to remember is ‘ Don’t screw it up!’ Have a strategy in place and commit to to it. It will take time but it’s not impossible.In fact, there are several lenders that specialize in post-bankruptcy lending, the interest rates, fees, and terms may not be the greatest, but considering you won’t be able to file for bankruptcy again for another 8 years, you’re worth the risk in their eyes. Now it is true that a bankruptcy can stay on your credit for 10 years. However, your credit re-building process should begin immediately after discharge. For example, it typically takes 90 days to be discharged from a Chapter 7 BK, you can and should start rebuilding on day 91.Here are the 10 Steps To Rebuild Your Credit After Bankruptcy!First, take a moment and reflect on how you got here in the first place – namely why you had to file bankruptcy. Could you have saved more? Spent less? Planned for emergencies better? What did you learn? Self reflection is key so that you do not end up here again. I do know ‘things happen’ such as illnesses, job loss, etc but often times I meet with clients who just really over extended themselves and lived above their means. Even if it was a tragic event that led to the bankruptcy; taking a moment to learn from this experience is very significant. In my personal situation, I knew that I needed to invest in better health insurance, have a larger emergency fund, and rely on cash a heck of a lot more than credit.Second, create a budget. This is so important! Now, more than ever, you need to get serious about having and sticking to a budget. This is your personal spending plan that tells your money where to go and how to work for you each and every pay period. This means making an effort to live below your means, not at your means. It is also good at preventing frivolous spending and determining ways to keep more money in your pockets/ bank account. If you have pinpointed your ‘learning lesson’ from step one it should be implemented here, in step two. Thus, your budget should include money set aside for your Emergency Fund/Savings Account that is funded prior to paying any other bills. This is the ‘Paying Yourself First’ practice. Being dedicated to paying yourself first and having a fully funded Emergency Fund for emergencies only will ensure that when ‘life happens’ you’ll be better prepared financially. How much should you set aside? Well, how much can you afford? I typically suggest starting with 10% of your monthly net income or $200, whichever is more feasible, and increasing it from there.Third, Pay ALL of your current bills on time. I cannot stress this enough. The worst thing you can do is to file bankruptcy and have a past due utility bill or cell phone collection pop up on your credit report months or even a year afterwards! Haven’t you learned your lesson? This is what future creditors and your credit score will say when your report is further damaged by the reporting of negative information; in fact your score will be penalized twice as bad by the credit reporting scoring system.If you have done a good job with number two – creating a budget- you should have no problem paying your bills on time – if not early. Probably the easiest way to pay anything on time is to set up automatic payments around your pay day. You set it once, and monitor it from there.Now it’s time to build!The Fourth step is to check your credit report. You want to ensure your bankruptcy is reporting accurately – courthouse information, amount, the type of bankruptcy filed, etc. And if you find an error, legally you can dispute for a deletion.You also want to check the other accounts that were discharged in your bankruptcy. They should state they were discharged in Ch7 bankruptcy, the amount should be $0 owed/due and the all collection activities should stop, which includes any updates on your report about the debt. If you see any errors, dispute for deletion.Fifth; re-enter the world of credit. Namely, apply for a credit card. You may be a little apprehensive, but if you plan on purchasing a home, opening a business, and rebuilding a positive credit profile, this is a MUST! How the credit scoring model works, any positive information that you have posting on your credit report will outweigh the negative information reported in the past. Therefore you have to put some positive information on there to boost your scores and strengthen your credit profile.Where should you begin? Well, they may start to solicit you first. Review all offers carefully, interest rate, repayment terms, fees – all fees because with one particular card (First Premier) there are several so you want to be prepared. Don’t accept just anything! If you have not gotten any offers try your personal bank or your local credit union. If all else fails seek out popular, secured sub-prime credit card providers: Credit One, Capital One to name a couple. You can try obtaining an unsecured credit card but immediately following a bankruptcy I doubt if you’ll be approved. Further, the inquiry and rejection will further damage your report. Make sure you select a secured card that reports to All 3 Credit Bureaus – after all, you are rebuilding right? Reporting to only one or no bureaus at all is not going to help you in any way. You want all of that new positive credit information reporting into your score. If are rejected for a secured credit card, then you can look up ‘No Credit Check’ secured cards that report to all 3 credit bureaus online; First Progress and Opensky are popular ones.Sixth, use your card wisely. Spend less than 10% of your credit limit, 30% maximum. That means if you have a $300 credit limit, do not spend more than $90; for $500 do not spend more than $150; $1000 credit limit do not spend more than $300; get the picture? Low balances, good payment history, more available credit than utilized (spent) credit is key. I don’t advise keeping a balance because of the high interest rates, but I have seen that some companies – Capital One in particular – will give you an increase faster by keeping a balance for 2-3 months. If you do this, please pay on time, keep it under 30% of the credit limit, pay it off no later than 3 months and include it in your monthly budget.And, don’t create an additional bill for yourself. What do I mean by this? The easiest way to factor credit cards into your monthly budget is to set up automatic payments for a utility, cell phone or some other monthly bill that’s already in your written monthly budget; charge it and just pay it off right away the following month. This way you are not creating an additional bill and the expense is already included in your budget, you’ve just changed your method of payment from auto-debited withdrawals from your bank account to automatic credit card payments.Seventh, increase that limit. Most people start off with a $300-500 credit limit, which doesn’t do too much for building your score, so you want to get it to $1000+ as soon as possible. If purchasing a home is on your short term list you want it over $2000. Why is this important? The lower the credit card limit the less it will count towards increasing your score. If you’re with a good secured credit card company, this means increasing the amount of your security deposit. If you’re with a less than stellar secured credit card company that still reports to all 3 credit bureaus but doesn’t offer incentives such as switching to an unsecured credit product in 6-12 months; then you may want to use the less than stellar secured card for 6 months, and then re-apply for another card with a more reputable company. By then you may be eligible for one of Capital One’s or Credit One’s unsecured products.Eighth, get more than one card. Two to three should suffice. Using the above example, let’s say you got a $500 secured card, paid it well for 6 months and applied for an unsecured card and was approved for $500. DO NOT CANCEL THE SECURED CARD. Increase the deposit to $1000, if you can, but do not increase your spending. The increase of available credit will eventually factor into your credit score and give you a nice little boost. After all, 30% of your credit is based on your debt utilization and 35% is based on your payment history. By increasing your credit limit, adding on additional credit card that you will use just as wisely, keeping your balances super low, and paying on time; you are well on your way to good credit again! With six more months of positive payments on both of your cards you can ask for a credit limit increase with the unsecured credit card and apply for one more at that time as well. You’re 12 months in at this point and should have substantially better credit than when you started this journey.To experience an even bigger jump, see if you can have a close friend/family member add you on as an authorized user to their credit card account. This account should have stellar payment history and super low balances and be 3 years or older in age. By becoming an authorized user, all of that good payment history will be placed on your credit report boosting your score even more!Ninth, mix up that credit. This basically means adding an installment loan. This is usually feasible at month 6, 9, 12 and/or 18 depending on your situation. This is easier to obtain when you are an active member of a credit union; if you’re not, another option would be through a company such as Avant, Prosper, or Lending Tree. People with federal student loans that they are paying on a regular monthly basis won’t have to do this right away, but those that only have the credit cards they’ve recently acquired on their credit report will. This can be in the form of a personal loan/line of credit or a car loan. Your interest rate will be less than stellar but make sure the loan is affordable and can be paid off relatively easy. Namely, don’t put a strain on your budget. When I got my first personal loan I didn’t even spend it. I put it in my checking account with my credit union (who I got the loan through) with a few hundred dollars extra for interest and set up auto-payments for 6 months. I did this 3 times; paying the loan off in 6-12 months, until I saw a nice little jump in my score. I never did get a car note after my BK because living below my means with as little debt as possible was my ‘lesson learned’ from the whole experience. If you need a car after a BK, Edmunds.com has some phenomenal tips on purchasing a vehicle after a bankruptcy.The Tenth and final step is to monitor your progress and pinpoint areas of improvement. I personally signed up with a credit monitoring service that monitors all 3 bureaus, however, signing up with a free service, such as CreditKarma.com is fine. It only monitors Transunion and the credit score is far from accurate but the data is usually okay – not great, but okay. Your main objective is to see how you’re doing; is your score moving up or down? Is your credit utilization rate okay? Could you do more to boost your score and strengthen your overall credit profile?Monitor your budget on a bi-weekly or monthly basis. Could you be saving more? Are there ways to cut some more spending from your budget? Do you need to find a way to bring in more income to cover your necessities (food, shelter, transportation, etc)? Make changes/improvements based on your assessment.Following these 10 steps consistently should put you well on your way to an excellent credit score!

INSURED – A person or a corporation who contracts for an insurance policy that indemnifies (protects) him against loss or damage to property or, in the case of a liability policy, defend him against a claim from a third party.NAMED INSURED – Any person, firm or corporation specifically designated by name as an insured(s) in a policy as distinguished from others who, though unnamed, are protected under some circumstances. For example, a common application of this latter principle is in auto liability policies wherein by a definition of “insured”, coverage is extended to other drivers using the car with the permission of the named insured. Other parties can also be afforded protection of an insurance policy by being named an “additional insured” in the policy or endorsement.ADDITIONAL INSURED – An individual or entity that is not automatically included as an insured under the policy of another, but for whom the named insureds policy provides a certain degree of protection. An endorsement is typically required to effect additional insured status. The named insureds impetus for providing additional insured status to others may be a desire to protect the other party because of a close relationship with that party (e.g., employees or members of an insured club) or to comply with a contractual agreement requiring the named insured to do so (e.g., customers or owners of property leased by the named insured).CO-INSURANCE – The sharing of one insurance policy or risk between two or more insurance companies. This usually entails each insurer paying directly to the insured their respective share of the loss. Co-insurance can also be the arrangement by which the insured, in consideration of a reduced rate, agrees to carry an amount of insurance equal to a percentage of the total value of the property insured. An example is if you have guaranteed to carry insurance up to 80% or 90% of the value of your building and/or contents, whatever the case may be. If you don’t, the company pays claims only in proportion to the amount of coverage you do carry.The following equation is used to determine what amount may be collected for partial loss: Amount of Insurance Carried x LossAmount of Insurance that = PaymentShould be CarriedExample A Mr. Right has an 80% co-insurance clause and the following situation:$100,000 building value$ 80,000 insurance carried$ 10,000 building lossBy applying the equation for determining payment for partial loss, the following amount may be collected:$80,000 x $10,000 = $10,000$80,000Mr. Right recovers the full amount of his loss because he carried the coverage specified in his co-insurance clause.Example B Mr. Wrong has an 80% co-insurance clause and the following situation:$100,000 building value$ 70,000 insurance carried$ 10,000 building lossBy applying the equation for determining payment for partial loss, the following amount may be collected:$70,000 x $10,000 = $8,750$80,000Mr. Wrong’s loss of $10,000 is greater than the company’s limit of liability under his co-insurance clause. Therefore, Mr. Wrong becomes a self-insurer for the balance of the loss– $1,250.PREMIUM – The amount of money paid by an insured to an insurer for insurance coverage.DEDUCTIBLE – The first dollar amount of a loss for which the insured is responsible before benefits are paid by the insurer; similar to a self-insured retention (SIR). The insurer’s liability begins when the deductible is exhausted.SELF INSURED RETENTION – Acts the same way as a deductible but the insured is responsible for all legal fees incurred in relation to the amount of the SIR.POLICY LIMIT – The maximum monetary amount an insurance company is responsible for to the insured under its policy of insurance.FIRST PARTY INSURANCE – Insurance that applies to coverage for an insureds own property or a person. Traditionally it covers damage to insureds property from whatever causes are covered in the policy. It is property insurance coverage. An example of first party insurance is BUILDERS RISK INSURANCE which is insurance against loss to the rigs or vessels in the course of their construction. It only involves the insurance company and the owner of the rig and/or the contractor who has a financial interest in the rig.THIRD PARTY INSURANCE – Liability insurance covering the negligent acts of the insured against claims from a third party (i.e., not the insured or the insurance company – a third party to the insurance policy). An example of this insurance would be SHIP REPAIRER’S LEGAL LIABILITY (SRLL) – provides protection for contractors repairing or altering a customer’s vessel at their shipyard, other locations or at sea; also covers the insured while the customer’s property is under the “Care, Custody and Control” of the insured. A Commercial General Liability policy is needed for other coverages, such as slip-and-fall situations.INSURABLE INTEREST – Any interest in something that is the subject of an insurance policy or any legal relationship to that subject that will trigger a certain event causing monetary loss to the insured. Example of insurable interest – ownership of a piece of property or an interest in that piece of property, e.g., a shipyard constructing a rig or vessel. (See BUILDERS RISK above)LIABILITY INSURANCE – Insurance coverage that protects an insured against claims made by third parties for damage to their property or person. These losses usually come about as a result of negligence of the insured. In marine construction this policy is referred to an MGL, marine general liability policy. In non marine circumstances the policy is referred to as a CGL, commercial general liability policy. Insurance policies can be divided into two broad categories:
First party insurance covers the property of the person who purchases the insurance policy. For example, a home owner’s policy promising to pay for fire damage to the home owner’s home is a first party policy. Liability insurance, sometimes called third party insurance, covers the policy holder’s liability to other people. For example, a homeowners’ policy might cover liability if someone trips and falls on the home owner’s property. Sometimes one policy, such as in these examples, may have both first and third party coverage.
Liability insurance provides two separate benefits. First, the policy will cover the damage incurred by the third party. Sometimes this is called providing “indemnity” for the loss. Second, most liability policies provide a duty to defend. The duty to defend requires the insurance company to pay for lawyers, expert witnesses, and court costs to defend the third party’s claim. These costs can sometimes be substantial and should not be ignored when facing a liability claim.
UMBRELLA LIABILITY COVERAGE – This type of liability insurance provides excess liability protection. Your business needs this coverage for the following three reasons:
It provides excess coverage over the “underlying” liability insurance you carry.
It provides coverage for all other liability exposures, excepting a few specifically excluded exposures. This subject to a large deductible of about $10,000 to $25,000.
It provides automatic replacement coverage for underlying policies that have been reduced or exhausted by loss.
NEGLIGENCE – The failure to use reasonable care. The doing of something which a reasonably prudent person would not do, or the failure to do something which a reasonably prudent person would do under like circumstances. Negligence is a ‘legal cause’ of damage if it directly and in natural and continuous sequence produces or contributes substantially to producing such damage, so it can reasonably be said that if not for the negligence, the loss, injury or damage would not have occurred.GROSS NEGLIGENCE – A carelessness and reckless disregard for the safety or lives of others, which is so great it appears to be almost a conscious violation of other people’s rights to safety. It is more than simple negligence, but it is just short of being willful misconduct. If gross negligence is found by the trier of fact (judge or jury), it can result in the award of punitive damages on top of general and special damages, in certain jurisdictions.WILLFUL MISCONDUCT – An intentional action with knowledge of its potential to cause serious injury or with a reckless disregard for the consequences of such act.PRODUCT LIABILITY – Liability which results when a product is negligently manufactured and sent into the stream of commence. A liability that arises from the failure of a manufacturer to properly manufacture, test or warn about a manufactured object.MANUFACTURING DEFECTS – When the product departs from its intended design, even if all possible care was exercised.DESIGN DEFECTS – When the foreseeable risks of harm posed by the product could have been reduced or avoided by the adoption of a reasonable alternative design, and failure to use the alternative design renders the product not reasonably safe.INADEQUATE INSTRUCTIONS OR WARNINGS DEFECTS – When the foreseeable risks of harm posed by the product could have been reduced or avoided by reasonable instructions or warnings, and their omission renders the product not reasonably safe.PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY INSURANCE – Liability insurance to indemnify professionals, (doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers, etc.,) for loss or expense which the insured professional shall become legally obliged to pay as damages arising out of any professional negligent act, error or omission in rendering or failing to render professional services by the insured. Same as malpractice insurance.Professional Liability has expanded over the years to include those occupations in which special knowledge, skills and close client relationships are paramount. More and more occupations are considered professional occupations, as the trend in business continues to grow from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-oriented economy. Coupled with the litigious nature of our society, the companies and staff in the service economy are subject to greater exposure to malpractice claims than ever before.ERRORS AND OMISSIONS – Same as malpractice or professional liability insurance.HOLD HARMLESS AGREEMENT – A contractual arrangement whereby one party assumes the liability inherent in the situation, thereby relieving the other party of responsibility. For example, a lease of premises may provide that the lessee must “hold harmless” the lessor for any liability from accidents arising out of the premises.INDEMNIFY – To restore the victim of a loss, in whole or in part, by payment, repair, or replacement.INDEMNITY AGREEMENTS – Contract clauses that identify who is to be responsible if liabilities arise and often transfer one party’s liability for his or her wrongful acts to the other party.WARRANTY – An agreement between a buyer and a seller of goods or services detailing the conditions under which the seller will make repairs or fix problems without cost to the buyer.Warranties can be either expressed or implied. An EXPRESS WARRANTY is a guarantee made by the seller of the goods which expressly states one of the conditions attached to the sale e.g.,”This item is guaranteed against defects in construction for one year”.An IMPLIED WARRANTY is usual in common law jurisdictions and attached to the sale of goods by operation of law made on behalf of the manufacturer. These warranties are not usually in writing. Common implied warranties are a warranty of fitness for use (implied by law that if a seller knows the particular purpose for which the item is purchased certain guarantees are implied) and a warranty of merchantability (a warranty implied by law that the goods are reasonably fit for the general purpose for which they are sold).DAMAGES OR LOSS – The monetary consequence which results from injury to a thing or a person.CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES – As opposed to direct loss or damage — is indirect loss or damage resulting from loss or damage caused by a covered peril, such as fire or windstorm. In the case of loss caused where windstorm is a covered peril, if a tree is blown down and cuts electricity used to power a freezer and the food in the freezer spoils, if the insurance policy extends coverage for consequential loss or damage then the food spoilage would be a covered loss. Business Interruption insurance, extends consequential loss or damage coverage for such items as extra expenses, rental value, profits and commissions, etc.LIQUIDATED DAMAGES – Are a payment agreed to by the parties of a contract to satisfy portions of the agreement which were not performed. In some cases liquidated damages may be the forfeiture of a deposit or a down payment, or liquidated damages may be a percentage of the value of the contract, based on the percentage of work uncompleted. Liquidated damages are often paid in lieu of a lawsuit, although court action may be required in many cases where liquidated damages are sought. Liquidated damages, as opposed to a penalty, are sometimes paid when there is uncertainty as to the actual monetary loss involved. The payment of liquidated damages relieves the party in breech of a contract of the obligation to perform the balance of the contract.SUBROGATION – “To stand in the place of” Usually found in property policies (first party) when an insurance company pays a loss to an insured or damaged to the insureds property, the insurer stands in the shoes of the insured and may pursue any third party who might be responsible for the loss. For example, if a defective component is sold to a manufacturer to be used in his product and that product is damaged due to the defective component. The insurance company who pays the loss to the manufacturer of the product may sue the manufacturer of the defective component.Subrogation has a number of sub-principles namely:
The insurer cannot be subrogated to the insureds right of action until it has paid the insured and made good the loss.
The insurer can be subrogated only to actions which the insured would have brought himself.
The insured must not prejudice the insurer’s right of subrogation. Thus, the insured may not compromise or renounce any right of action he has against the third party if by doing so he could diminish the insurer’s right of recovery.
Subrogation against the insurer. Just as the insured cannot profit from his loss the insurer may not make a profit from the subrogation rights. The insurer is only entitled to recover the exact amount they paid as indemnity, and nothing more. If they recover more, the balance should be given to the insured.
Subrogation gives the insurer the right of salvage.

A report has been released on the overall healthiness of Americans and it ranks each state on physical health, job satisfaction and other quality of life characteristics. While Hawaii, Colorado, Utah, Minnesota and Vermont came in ranked 1 to 5 as being the healthiest, many others are also healthy. Those ranked lowest need to feel bad since the report polled a sampling of people from each state. It is no coincidence that people who reported they were content with their jobs smoked less, had lower risks of heart disease and diabetes. People who are not content in their jobs will smoke more, eat more and be less inclined to exercise. While this is not surprising, the statistics for how people rate their lives is: 53 percent they felt they were thriving, 43 percent said they were struggling and 3 and half percent they were suffering. What constitutes “thriving” was not mentioned. Onward to more fun health news.Kids: The Tooth Fairy Adjusts for Inflation
The tooth fairy has adjusted his or her rewards left under bed pillows for inflation. It seems that in 2012, he or she paid a whopping $3.49 for the first tooth lost and on average, subsequent teeth lost cost the mythical one $2.49. A long time ago, the writer got a quarter for the big front teeth, ten cents per molar and a nickel for the rest. Times have change. Inflation is risen. Today is National Tooth Fairy Day. Maybe somebody bought him or her a winning Powerball ticket.Seniors: Are You Happy with Your Medical Coverage?
We know that medical insurers can be a real nuisance to work with. Sometimes it takes an incredible amount of calling on the phone to get the answer to one question. A recent survey found that 94 percent were happy with the quality of the care, 90 percent are happy with the benefits and 81 percent are happy with their out-of-pocket expenses. This is pretty good news even when there are health care cuts soon to be felt across the country.Now They Tell Me!
Today’s Nintendo lovers can tell their parents that playing the game all day and night long leads to better surgical skills later in life. There. Told you. A recent study learned that surgical students who used a Wii controller had far better skills across 16 different skill sets than those who did not. Researchers noted that Laparoscopic simulators are expensive and hard to get for students, while video games, consoles and controllers are less expensive and readily available. Any game which comes with 3D graphics and requires extensive hand-eye coordination is good for the future surgeons of America. I wonder if the joysticks I used years ago are as good as a Wii controller?Blame It on the Roomba
The more technology we have to do housework, the more sedentary we become and therefore the more overweight we become. Well, it is true to some degree. We do have more technology in the home which allows women who do housework to have an easier time of it. Think of the Roomba, and dishwashers that just about do everything except put them away when done (and why don’t they do that) and laundry systems which allows us to clean and dry clothes in less time. All of this leads us to relax and not get any exercise. It is true that we do not have as hard a time housecleaning as those in the 1960′s and 70′s. Many working women have weekly cleaning ladies or housekeepers. Those who do not have this luxury can still flip the switch on a Roomba and then lay down to watch TV as it vacuums the carpet. What is so bad about that?