Avoiding Bankruptcy in the Future
By the time you earn a discharge of your unsecured debt through bankruptcy you will have taken two different mandatory classes that will help you to understand how you came into your financial hardship and how to plan and budget moving forward.
The providers of these classes are not-for-profit organizations dedicated to helping you stay out of financial trouble in the future. Most of these organizations will continue their commitment to assisting you even after your case is closed and your discharge is written in stone. Most of them invite you to log-in, call-in or review the coursework any time you feel the need for a refresher. Do take advantage of these services. In fact, think about the lessons learned each and every time you make a decision involving money.
As we all know, life and our nation's economy is dangerously unpredictable. For many people, financial hard times and financial crisis is not brought about by poor budgeting skills but is brought about by unforeseeable disaster: medical emergency, criminal conduct of others, unscrupulous employers and yes, even Wall Street greed.
What may end up being your greatest tool moving forward is an understanding of our own human foibles and the temptations of credit. If we turn back the clocks just a little bit we will discover that the concept of "easy" credit made available to the average consumer began and grew surrounding the invention and mass production of the automobile. From this simple birth a gigantic cottage industry has evolved and we, all of us, have been suckered in. In today's society financing a car purchase is as American as granting a mortgage on your home. Replacing that car when its odometer reaches 90,000 miles is the norm, and now, we are encouraged to buy "green" cars that cost even more.
For what it is worth, try following this simple sapience when making financial decisions:
- Don't buy things you don't need with money you don't have;
- Don't finance a car purchase - that's right, pay cash;
- If you do finance a car purchase, only do so if:
- You have enough cash available to have paid cash for it in the first place, and
- You are earning more interest on your cash than you are paying interest on the car loan;
- Get as addicted to SAVING as you once were addicted to credit.
Information provided by Derrick B. Hager - Attorney at Law
