Your attitude to bankruptcy

Your attitude to your bankruptcy will determine how you come out of it the other side.  You can either wear it as sackcloth and ashes, carry it around with you on your back and think of yourself as a failure, or you can look at it as a necessary short-term period of ‘pain’ that leads to a more certain, better controllable future on which you can rebuild your and your family’s lives.  You have the choice.  Why beat yourself up unncessarily?

Think about it this way:

1. If you have £100k of personal unsecured loan and credit card debt, going into bankruptcy is like buying £700 of lottery tickets (the cost of going bankrupt) to win a certain £100k.  This is because (a) your creditors cannot stop you making yourself bankrupt; (b) your unsecured debts (with very few exceptions) are written off once you are discharged from bankruptcy;
2. Bankruptcy lasts just one year as long as you have done nothing illegal and work with rather than against the Official Receiver/trustee.  That time will pass very, very, quickly indeed;
3. People generally go into bankruptcy for two reasons: (a) the normal life experiences we all suffer which are largely outside of our control, such as divorce/relationship beak down, illness, loss of job; or (b) greed or stupidity.  You cannot do much, if anything, about the former.  As regards the latter, who’s not made mistakes in their lives?  Isn’t the only mistake anyone can ever make be to fail to learn from your life experiences and change how you live and what you do going forward?
4. Sometimes it makes sense for you to go bankrupt to best protect your family, ‘to take a fall for their benefit’.  This can be, say, to reduce family outgoings to a manageable level or best protect future family inheritances.  It’s a stark choice – keep your pride and continue to struggle on or lose your pride and best protect your family.  Who do you put first – your self  pride and your creditors’ financial interests or your family’s wellbeing?;
5. Bankruptcy can happen to anyone.  You have no control over how people will think of you, whether or not you go bankrupt.  The news of your bankruptcy is ‘tomorrow’s chip paper’.  Those who look down on you because you go into bankruptcy are not your real friends, so why worry about what they think?  And anyway, these things are not publicised so much nowadays.

Most people who come to us for bankruptcy advice have already had a really tough time.  Why beat yourself up more?  Why not give yourself a chance to rebuild?

If you’d like truly impartial advice on whether bankruptcy is the right option for you, give Paul a call on 01902 672323.