Why try and fix it alone?

I had a friend call me today. Her sister-in-law's car was repossessed last week, and she missed 6 months of mortgage payments. A quick online search revealed that her home was in foreclosure. She has not come to my friend for help yet. She is not seeking out help from any professionals. Her head is spinning.

My friend's instinct was to offer to gift her the money to catch up on the mortgage. After all, her sister-in-law has three young children. However, that might not be the best way to help her sister-in-law.

Her sister-in-law is facing some sort of budgeting crisis. Just throwing money for the quick fix will not help in the end, because whatever is causing her and her husband to miss payments on both their car and house is serious, and it needs to be reviewed with someone like me.

Maybe there is too much credit card debt? Payments are going there instead of to the car and house. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy may be possible to eliminate that debt. If that debt is eliminated, maybe she can then make her mortgage and car payments.

Maybe a Chapter 13 is a better option. She would be able to make payments over three to five years toward some of her credit card debt, and make catch up payments on her mortgage as a way to save her house from foreclosure.

But burrying her head in the sand will not do anything. If you had chest pains, you would go to a doctor. If you hand a leak in your roof, you would hire a roofer to get on the roof to fix the leak. Going to an attorney like me to help diagnose the problem, and to find a solution is the best way to try and save the house and hopefully stop the financial crisis.