The Freedom Provided by Bankruptcy

4 min read

If you are reading this, there is a good chance you have lived through the nightmare of being harassed by creditors, fielding constant phone calls, and feeling afraid of what comes next. Or perhaps you have always been proactive — always paid your bills, always in control of your finances — but, due to circumstances beyond your control such as the loss of a job or a downturn in the real estate market, you now face the possibility of falling behind on your payments and want to learn whether bankruptcy can help you through a difficult time. No one ever puts filing for bankruptcy on their bucket list. Yet every year, millions of Americans seek the protections of the Bankruptcy Code in order to get a fresh start on a new life.

A fresh start by design

Congress enacted the Bankruptcy Code to give individuals who have faced an unexpected hardship, or whose business has failed, the chance to move forward with their lives without being a slave to their creditors forever. Bankruptcy is vital to our economic system. Without it, many entrepreneurs and individuals who made mistakes would never have been able to recover and go on to great success. Well-known figures — including P.T. Barnum, Walt Disney, and Wally Amos — filed for bankruptcy, as have many prominent business owners and their companies. The Bankruptcy Code allowed them to learn from their mistakes and succeed, not only for themselves but for the benefit of society, through the many jobs they went on to create.

What relief can mean for you

While you may not be the next Walt Disney, the result of filing bankruptcy can be just as significant for you. Imagine the burden of seemingly insurmountable bills lifted off your back. If you are significantly underwater on your home and do not foresee being able to break even on it in your lifetime, you may be able to be relieved of that obligation as well. If you have children, freeing yourself from these debts can let you regroup and plan ahead — including saving for their education — to give them the best start possible.

A financial and emotional rebirth

In the end, the discharge you receive through bankruptcy can benefit both your mental and physical well-being, and ultimately your happiness, by relieving the financial stress that fuels so many other problems in family life and relationships. By putting these burdens behind you, being discharged from your obligations, and building a new life based on your current income — living within your means, and ideally below them so you can save — you begin a new chapter with new opportunities for you and your loved ones. For these reasons, we encourage clients not to think of bankruptcy as a negative event, but as a positive step toward a financial and emotional rebirth, and the first step on the road to the rest of their successful lives.