Declaring bankruptcy is a choice. You could have tapped out all your credit cards, took the money and flown the coup to another country where the living was not so expensive. I had a friend who had a friend who bought ocean property, a nice house with all the trimmings on the coast of Morocco right on the Mediterranean – for peanuts. You can wile your life away, fishing, running on the beach, sleeping, going to town and yucking it up with the locals for pennies on the dollar that you would have spent in this country. But here you are, being an upright citizen, taking your lumps, and filing for bankruptcy. So be proud of yourself. Hold your head high. Know that you are doing your very best with very scarce material. And think, concentrate, create a plan in your mind and stick to it come hell or high water to resurrect yourself and your finances and somehow get out of this crater you have unquestionably gotten yourself into. Hole the vision of sipping beer on a Moroccan beach in your mind’s eye. Feel the sand under your feet, smell the salt air, hear the lapping of the waves. You are here!

Filing for bankruptcy must be a very traumatic move. However, how lucky that people who are having extreme difficulty paying their bills have the option of filing bankruptcy. I have a sister with ten children. Can you imagine having ten children? But let me tell you if two people were going to have ten children these two people were the right ones because they created the happiest family and all ten children are not only beautiful and smart but also loving and lovely. There’s been so much greed, money in the air for so many years; the scent of money has been palpable. We all hoped to be in on the feeding frenzy. Isn’t that right? Even though I’m a professional artist, I could catch the whiff and wanted to be included. So it was no surprise that the dad jumped on what seemed like a money making house buying deal. Buy a piece of property, build a house and sell it for a wild profit! Sound familiar? Well, if the property has not been in a ravine and the partner had not ripped him off, this would have been a great deal! But in the end, the father was forced to go into bankruptcy. Fortunately the father had a good job so he was able to continue paying his bills and supporting his family while dealing with the bankruptcy. At first it was very scary but great lessons were learned. All ended well.

Filing bankruptcy is just that. It’s filing. It does not mean you are bankrupt. It only means that you are ‘filing bankruptcy’ with the courts. Plus ‘bankruptcy’ does not mean that you are bankrupt either. Probably you enjoy abundance in many things. Numero uno, you are breathing ! Which means you are alive! Which is a good thing! Yes! Which means that there are possibilities available. New ways to look at everything. A new perspective, new approaches, new attitudes. Being open to life, to the miraculous unfolding is what we are here for. Allowing ourselves to become attuned to the messages emanating from the Universe. If you were fortunate enough to approach the life changing precipice of filing bankruptcy then you are in the process of receiving a very clear and dear message from the Universe. Whatever you were doing was not working! That’s obvious is it not? So you are now one of the fortunate to receive a clear, not gobbled or subtle message and can do something pro-active and life changing that will bring you closer to the results that you would like to have in your life. Now how good a deal is that? Be grateful for all of it.

I grew up naive of all the hardships my mother went through. I didn’t even see it coming the day she was filing bankruptcy. Every night after school I would run off the bus, down the dusty street, and throw open the front door. Then I would kick off my dirty mountain boots onto the already stained wooden floor. Always I would hear my mother’s voice coming from the kitchen, warning me, “Jonny dear, I don’t want to see those muddy boots on my floor…” I remember like it was yesterday running into the house, but hearing nothing after I trooped in. I was scared, I tell you, even more so than being spanked on my behind by my mother. So I tiptoed nice and quietly to the kitchen, just like my old man did when we had a stray pit-bull on my bed. I interlaced all my fingers but my thumbs and fore-fingers, locked my arms in a face forward position, and when I turned the kitchen corner I yelled “Hands up, nobody move!” But there was no dog in my house. All I saw was my mom sitting in her usual spot near the fireplace. One hand held up her head—the other held papers that meant squat to me. It was only after I came over to her that I noticed how puffy and red her eyes were. She must’ve been crying for a long time—I felt bad for her, I really did, but I just didn’t understand her talk of how we aren’t going to have a real home for a long time. She held up the papers like they meant something, and finally when I couldn’t take it anymore I banged my fists against her chest and screamed “I hate you, I want to see daddy!” She quietly replied, Daddy’s gone, love, but I promise I will always be here for you.

If I were contemplating bankruptcy then questions regarding bankruptcy would be cascading through my mind, pouring like a waterfall in the mountains, a spring snow melt. How do I go about it? Will I be able to keep my home? How do I survive, would be a few of the questions to begin with. I am a self-employed artist and cannot figure out how going bankrupt could help me in any way. If I had a job with a reliable income then I could understand that that income would be {spin]divied up|parsed out[/spin] by the courts and that I would be left enough to be able to pay my mortgage and eat and drive to make a living but without a reliable income what could I do? There is nothing reliable in terms of an income to be parsed out by the courts. If my credit cards were taken away then I really would not know how to live! Now that is a scary thought I know but that is the cycle of living, the reality of my financial life and I do not really know how to change it. It is said that an artist was asked what she would do if she won the lottery and her answer was that she would keep on doing art shows until the money ran out.

I don’t know what to do with my wife anymore. I can’t handle her obsession with clothing and jewelry. For the past thirty years Julie has been buying clothes, giving me receipts, and looking beautiful. But recently I haven’t been getting any receipts. I knew something was wrong when I saw Julie in her new fabulous clothes, and not knowing where they came from made me suspicious. I checked her drawers and found a slip of paper with a bankruptcy inquiry heading. I was definitely onto something. When Julie came home from her daily spa appointment I confronted her. First I made her a cup of my famous lemon zinger iced tea, sat down at the table with her, and the moment I handed her that paper her smile instantly dropped from her face. She was busted. When she admitted that we are about $20,000 in debt, I wasn’t sure if I was surprised or not. After all, Julie is the most predictable person I know. And as usual, I was the one that was comforting her when she ended up hysterically crying. Even with all of her histrionics and idiosyncrasies, I still love my wife.

As we get on in years, aging is an inescapable eventuality. Many of us find ourselves losing some of that old drive and ambition at that stage of life. Our families move on, many friends move away, and eventually we do the same.

Meanwhile, though, while we are alive and kicking, there is increased vulnerability to debt. It may be tempting for an older person to consider living in debt until the end, but that only passes financial headaches along to loved ones afterward.

No one wants to be aggravated and feel helpless because of debt. And if you’re young and the primary caregiver of someone who is elderly, you will need to prepare yourself for their possible financial hassles.

Debt as a Monster for the Elderly

When living in retirement on a fixed income, debt for the elderly can become financially consuming. At least at an earlier phase of life, younger people typically have more time and flexibility (and marketability) to address indebtedness.

However for elderly individuals who may have not accumulated and sustained much wealth through the years, this could be a deep problem area.

Significant debt can be pretty traumatizing to one’s mental health, especially when age and physical limitations reduce options. Despite this, getting out of debt should still be a high priority.

Serving as the Financial Care Giver

If you are a caretaker for an elderly person, their debt has probably built up over time, perhaps over a lengthy period of time. The financial “wreckage” may be extensive, and that person will need all the assistance you can offer.

As with any type of debt, one of the first steps you will need to do is map out the elderly person’s current financial structure. That is, locate and record existing bills, which have fixed and variable interest rates, and obtain a copy of their credit report. This will provide you a good high level starting point.

Where to Start

Whatever concerns may be outstanding on the credit report should be addressed as quickly as possible. Contact creditors to discuss options that you can make on the elderly person’s behalf. You may be able to influence a reduction in payments or even a halt to interest altogether.

Create an asset list. Investigate whether the person has any checking or savings accounts, real estate, or other investments with which to offset some or all their debts.

When the Need is Overwhelming

If the financial hole is simply too overwhelming, then contacting each creditor to request a one-time payment to settle each debt could be feasible. If at all possible, do what is necessary to avoid a bankruptcy situation.

Or alternatively, you can connect with a debt consolidation company to provide a possible means of relief. Such a company can combine all debts into one, resulting in a reduced monthly - and overall - payment.

The experience of debt can be fairly devastating. As an elderly person’s primary caregiver, try to do whatever you can to alleviate their stressful circumstances.

Three quarters of parents have debts in the form of loans, credit card debts and overdrafts, according to ‘Families and the credit crunch 2008′, a report released in November by the Family and Parenting Institute, based on a YouGov survey of more than 5,000 parents.

The average debt, apparently, is

I imagine filing bankruptcy must be an incredibly distressing experience. To not be able to pay the food, electric and medical bills, to face the terror of whatever that means whether it be losing your home, not being able to fix your car, afford gas or (too terrible to contemplate) , not being able to feed yourself and your family, must be staggering, The worst thing I could possibly imagine about filing bankruptcy is not being able to pay my bills, to be threatened with losing my home which would not only deprive me of a place to live but also my means of making a living since I work at home. Having children that you’re still supporting at home would compound the pain of the experience exponentially. Millions of families today are in the process of filing bankruptcy or they’re beginning to contemplate it. In this very country right now, the so-called richest country in the world, thirty million people live below the poverty line. Millions more are quickly following with this disastrous economy. We all need to be involved politically, to make our voices heard, so that the runaway greed that has brought on these dire economic circumstances will be halted.

There is really no question when it comes to whether or not you should go for a foreclosure home listing if you have the chance. After all, with a bank foreclosure home or other foreclosure property listing, this means that the home has been foreclosed and that you are therefore going to be getting it at a great price.

If finding a foreclosure property listing is something that interests you, then perhaps the simplest method would be for you to instruct your real estate agent who would then do the work for you. If however you do not work with a real estate agent or would prefer to spend some of your time doing this yourself, well there are some companies that you can safely use to get the information that you will need.

Russ Whitney

One of the companies that you should put on your list to consider whenever your interests on finding a foreclosure property listing is tweaked is Russ Whitney. Russ Whitney have a system which incorporates an acclaimed training program that will teach you all the basic and advanced fundamentals of the real estate business, for example how real estate purchases are negotiated with seller, and also about the rehabilitation of distress properties and about the leasing of rental units.

They offer you information on how to find foreclosed properties, and about all the different advantages that you will be offered by these homes. Obviously the greatest and most obvious benefit is that you will be saving a great deal of money, but as well there are various other benefits that you are going to want to be aware of as well.

Foreclosed Home Listing

This is another company that you can feel safe going through if you are looking to find a foreclosure property listing. They are always updating their selection and so you really want to check out what they have to offer and see if you find a home that is to your liking. They offer literally thousands of different homes at any one particular time and so you will surely be able to find one that you love.

It is certainly not an easy task by any means to find a home, and more so with so many different homes available to choose from with a variety of different features. When you are looking through a list of homes that have been foreclosed however, you will know that you will be buying a new home with a great price tag and for many the price is what really matters in the end.

In conclusion, although it is unfortunate for the many homeowners of foreclosed homes it is a misfortune that can indeed be very beneficial for you.