Where do you stand?

You wake up at three in the morning and it's already there. You think about it driving home from work, standing in line at the grocery store, in the middle of a conversation you're supposed to be paying attention to. That isn't worry. Worry comes and goes. This is a weight you never get to set down, and it takes something out of you every single day.

You know roughly what it adds up to, and you've probably stopped saying that number out loud, even to the people closest to you. The question underneath it, the one you've been asking over and over in your head, is: Do I even qualify? Is bankruptcy the right choice for me? Or is this meant for people in worse shape than I'm in?

Maybe a servicer told you your student loans can't be touched. Maybe somebody told you you earn too much for a Chapter 7. In twenty-five years I've found both of those wrong far more often than right, and every year you spend believing one of them is a year you don't get back.

If you called me today, these are the questions I'd ask. Nine at the most, fewer if this is about credit cards and medical bills. I won't ask for your name or your email, and nothing you tell me here's saved or sent anywhere. At the end you'll have a straight answer: that your situation looks like the cases I take, that I want to talk to you before you decide anything, or that this isn't your moment yet, and why.