Trying to Avoid Bankruptcy?
The title of this article might shock you; after all, you’re avoiding bankruptcy because you want to maintain good financial behavior. Everyone has been telling you that bankruptcy will ruin your credit for life, and you’re not ready to give up the good fight yet. So you keep chipping away at those debts and letting your money worries keep you up at night, hoping that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
If you’re avoiding bankruptcy, then you might be consigning yourself to a life sentence of debt, anxiety and money woes. When the debt pile gets to be too big to handle, then you’ll need to contact a bankruptcy lawyer immediately before you spend another penny on your debts. Besides avoiding bankruptcy, here are a few other moves that can keep you in debt for life.
If you recognize yourself among any of these moves, get on the phone with a bankruptcy attorney immediately:
- You make impulsive purchases. No matter how diligent you may be in paying down your debts, making impulsive purchases is a surefire sign that you’ll never get out of the cycle of debt. Impulsive purchases are usually made with credit cards, as many people don’t budget these last-minute shopping sprees. The more purchases you make on your credit card, the more it stands to reason that you’ll be paying them off for years on end.
- You always use balance transfers to pay your credit cards. Normally, this is a move that’s often recommended by financial experts to pay down debt. However, if you’re doing this to buy yourself time – or you’re paying off one credit card with the other – then you’re destined to remain in the debt cycle forever.
- You enjoy keeping up with the Jones. While this syndrome at one point or another has afflicted nearly every person on the planet, if you’re spending yourself into a financial hole because you must have the latest gadget, then you’ll be in debt forever. Breaking free of this debt cycle means valuing the feeling of financial freedom more than one-upping your neighbor. If you find it tough to break this cycle, consider seeking counseling to pinpoint why you feel the need to compete in a way that’s so damaging to your family’s future.
If you recognize yourself in any of these steps, then it’s time to get out of the debt cycle and start fresh.