Bankruptcy comes with lots of negative outcomes. Therefore, it is very important for you to understand, whether filing bankruptcy is the right option for you. You must note that bankruptcy must not be chosen as an easy solution to bring the desired debt relief. Bankruptcy should always be the last option. You must be knowledgeable enough to judge the possible alternatives to bankruptcy, before you go ahead and file a court petition for bankruptcy. Follow the following steps and it will make the task much easier for you to analyze your financial situation, and decide whether it is the right time to file for bankruptcy.
Analyze Your Income
Before you go ahead and hire a bankruptcy attorney for you, it is always recommended to analyze the things yourself. To start with, you must see what are your available sources of income. Check out the entire regular and irregular sources of income and try to ascertain the overall amount, you are capable to earn each month.
Review Your Expenses
The next step is to review your expenses. The best way to do this is to make a list. Prepare this list on a priority basis, keeping the essential expenses at the top. Your task is to calculate the total amount of essential expenses per month. The essential expenses are the ones that you cannot live without.
The Money You Can Save
Now, after you have a clear idea regarding your income and expenses, the next thing you have to do is to deduct your expenses from your total income. You want to see how much money you can save, on a per month basis. Now, see if this money is sufficient to pay off the monthly installments of all your debts that you owe to your various creditors.
Credit Counseling
If you have lost control of your finances and you are not in a position to judge your income and expenses, it is always better to avail a credit counseling service before filing bankruptcy. The credit counselor is an expert professional who knows the ins and outs of managing finances. They may show you the path to avoid bankruptcy and pay off the debts by some alternate methods. Here, you should also note that the new bankruptcy laws have now made it mandatory for you to go through a credit counseling service, before filing bankruptcy. The bankruptcy court takes further action depending upon the reports provided by the credit-counseling agency.
Overall, bankruptcy must be avoided as far as possible and before you go and file for bankruptcy, make sure that you analyze your financial situation as discussed above. It will help you make informed decision.
Filing bankruptcy in a bankruptcy court is a serious step. Therefore, before you hire a bankruptcy attorney and go ahead to defend your bankruptcy court, make sure that filing bankruptcy is the right step for you. To know more about filing bankruptcy online, role of bankruptcy lawyers, filing bankruptcy process and other related issues visit Filing bankruptcy.
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