If you are reading this right now, it is very likely that you are under – what feels like – severe financial stress. You may be overwhelmed. You may be asking yourself: “How am I going to get out of this, and get on with my life?” “What can I do?” “I can’t afford my mortgage, rent, car payment, credit card bills.” You may even feel defeated. If you are considering bankruptcy, understand that the worst bankruptcy in the world is the person who has lost his enthusiasm. Nothing is worth that!
As an attorney, one of my favorite legal quotes from Supreme Court of the United States in 1934 is this:
“The new opportunity in life and the clear field for future effort, which it is the purpose of the bankruptcy act to afford the emancipated debtor, would be of little value to the wage earner if he were obliged to face the necessity of devoting the whole or a considerable portion of his earnings for an indefinite time in the future to the payment of indebtedness incurred prior to his bankruptcy.” Local Loan Co. v. Hunt, 292 U.S. 234, 244 (1934).
I couldn’t agree more. Bankruptcy is simply this: a way to reorganize and return to victory, to clear the field for future prosperity, and to unhinge you from the past.
Additionally, and first, I want you to know YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Consumer bankruptcy filings in the United States between March of 2015 to March of 2016 (one, single year) account for 808,718 of all bankruptcy filings. That is 808,718 consumers, individuals or married couples, who made the choice to resolve their overwhelming debt and obtain a fresh financial start. In Texas, in the Northern District of Texas, which includes Dallas, Fort Worth, and surrounding areas and counties, there are approximately 1,000 chapter 7 and 13 filings each month. You are not alone.
Second, I want you to know that, indeed, DEBT RELIEF IS AVAILABLE. A Chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy will help you to recover from what has likely been years of financial stress, late payments, and choosing between paying minimum credit card payments or buying your children new clothes for school, between paying car payments on a car that is an absolute lemon or buying more groceries for your family, between sending your child to summer camp or paying those high interest and late fees on credit cards all summer.
Bankruptcy serves to either eliminate most of your unsecured debts, while enabling you to keep your home and your car(s), or to allow you to reorganize so that you are paying back mere pennies on the dollar in credit card debt while – in some cases – finally being able to make a complete mortgage payment every month, and ON TIME!
Finally, if you are living this way, it ISN’T WORTH IT. Stop and ask yourself how much further you believe you can hold on this way. Do not be afraid to address your financial situation head on, as over 800,000 Americans did in simply the last year alone by seeking relief and protection in bankruptcy, or as over 12,000, Texans did in the last year alone. Save your home, save your finances, obtain your fresh start. BECOME ENTHUSED AGAIN!!
