Are you drowning in debt? Do you recoil at the idea of declaring personal bankruptcy? Many of us were raised in another era of American life, when credit card offers didn’t arrive in our mailboxes everyday. We (or our) parents may have had credit at the local grocery store. But those days really were simpler times…they didn’t even make wallets with spaces for two dozen credit cards!
Remember, people had different approaches to careers. In those days, jobs tended to be stable over decades instead of over months or individual years. Now, the economy is more unstable. People are regularly laid off. Remember too, that the cost of living has increased. In the past, a family could live from one income. Now, many families struggle to break into the middle class with two incomes. Furthermore, we don’t always develop the necessary skills to manage a budget. We don’t need studies to tell us this; we are living this and we see it in the economy and in the news everyday.
If you feel that you are being smothered by bills which you cannot pay, do not be ashamed if you are considering bankruptcy.
Who files Bankruptcy?
Ninety Percent of the people who file bankruptcy qualify as middle class. Elizabeth Warren, Financial Collapse and Class Status: Who Goes Bankrupt?, 41 Osgoode Hall L.J. 115, 116 (2003). In a symposium addressing the lack of social safety for the middle class, Harvard Law Professor, Elizabeth Warren stated:
Before Congress chopped away at access to the bankruptcy courts in 2005, the bankruptcy filing rate was on a steep climb, showing little let up. By the early 2000s more people filed for bankruptcy each year than suffered a heart attack. More people filed bankruptcy than were diagnosed with cancer. More filed bankruptcy than graduated from college. And, in an era when traditionalists decry the demise of the institution of marriage, Americans filed more petitions for bankruptcy than for divorce. Elizabeth Warren, Symposium Introduction, A New Conversation about the Middle Class, 44 Harv. J. on Legis. 119 (2007) (citations omitted).
What do these studies show us? Contrary to pervasive public opinion, bankruptcy is not uncommon, and bankruptcy is not wrong. Bankruptcy was built into our laws by our Founding Fathers as a protection for citizens from life-destroying creditors. Early Americans eliminated the debtors’ prisons which existed in England. Let’s not resurrect them for ourselves by assuming that bankruptcy is not an option.
Credit counselors
You may have tried or considered a consumer credit counselor. However, these agencies can make your problems worse. Some claim that they are ”non-profit,” but don’t assume this means an agency does not intend to charge you for its services. A credit counseling agency is a business, and must survive by making money. Consider this: You have enough debt payment without adding their fees to the pile.
Get a fresh start
What you need is a fresh start and a chance to handle your financial life differently. Bankruptcy offers this. Perhaps you owe back taxes; perhaps your mortgage company is threatening to foreclose on your home; perhaps your paycheck doesn’t come soon enough each week or two weeks, and you apply for payday loans.
You can make life better by letting go of bankruptcy qualms. Who do you think will judge you for your financial difficulties? It is likely the people whose opinions your fear are having their own money troubles. Think about the giant corporations which have declared bankruptcy: MCI, Enron Corporation and United Airlines. These corporations have several financial experts at their disposal! Think of bankruptcy as it really is: Bankruptcy is a way to reorganize your financial life so that you can make affordable payments on some of your debts, and get rid of the rest.
So be kind to yourself, and look to your future. Throw away old ideas of “being ruined,” and allow yourself to have a new start. Contact us today for a free bankruptcy consultation. We can help you through this difficult time.
