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Do You Mean Now? The Answer Du Jour on Income and Home Value.

By Joseph McDaniel, Esq.

No, I mean in the paleolithic period.

There are two questions for which the normal response is always a little surprising to me.

One is the question, "How much is your house worth?"

The other is the question, "What is your total yearly gross income?"

And the correct answer, apparently, is "Do you mean now?"

Normally, it's the hubbies who answer the question with a question when I ask 'em about their income.

And I can understand it, because a guy bases a lot of his feeling of self-worth on his ability to bring home the bacon. And if he's only bringing home one-half of a thin slice, he wants to make sure that everybody knows that previously, he was bringing home several hogs, two sows and a cute little piggie every two weeks.

Just not now.

Which I get.

Women answer the question with a question when I ask about the issue of house value, and I think that's because they're amazed and bemused that their five-hundred thousand dollar home of yesterday is now worth eighty-five thousand. Or whatever it is.

If it sounds like I'm making fun, I'm not.

There are some things that are less fun than you might think.

As it happens, people, according to surveys, are more likely to talk about their sex lives and exploits than about their incomes. And coming into an Arizona bankruptcy lawyer's office to dump all their economic baggage in front of a stranger cannot possibly be any fun.

Which I also get.

And I also know where that specific question comes from: it's the question you ask when you really don't want to answer or move forward, and you know you gotta, but you want to wait for the moment of truth for as long as you possibly can, without appearing to be stalling.

Kinda like when my yearly visit to the doc, when he puts on that rubber glove and pulls out the sterile lubricant, and says "bend over".

And you know what I say?

Wait for it. 

"Do you mean now?"

Full post as published by Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney Blog on September 10, 2010 (boomark / email).