Every person’s bankruptcy case is different. And yet, many bankruptcy cases are typical since people often share circumstances and find themselves in similar financial situations. For example, a common situation is a single person with excessive credit card debt. While this is a common situation, certain factors such as the amount of other debt an individual has, as well as his or her employment status, may differ and have distinct effects. Today’s blog is a bankruptcy case study of a single adult female who found herself in a financial predicament.
Annette was a college graduate who also attended graduate school. She had worked from the time she became a teenager. After getting married, and that’s settled down it had the child a daughter. Sadly, after 10 years of marriage, Annette’s husband passed away. After starting over again, Annette woke up one night to the smell of smoke in her house and found it on fire. Fortunately, Annette and her son survived the fire with no injuries.
Annette suffered considerable losses in the fire. Before the fire, she almost exclusively paid for necessary and luxury items with cash rather than credit. As a result, Annette had an appreciable amount of money saved and she did not have excessive debt. She was able to soldier on. . .for awhile. Eventually, perhaps as the result of losing much of her personal property in the fire, Annette started using credit cards to buy personal items, often which were not things of necessity. She even took a few trips and charged them on her credit cards. Annette also helped two of her siblings who were experiencing financial difficulties because of job layoffs. She was still able to make her monthly credit card payments in a timely fashion. . .for awhile.
Despite making regular credit card payments, Annette found that the balances of her credit card debts hardly decreased in any significant way. For the next few years, while gainfully employed, Annette tried to pay these debts down with no success.
Then, Annette became ill with arthritis in her elbow and hips. Shortly thereafter, she developed a thyroid disorder which caused her to gain significant weight. This, in turn, caused other physical ailments and difficulties, Thus inhibiting her ability to work. Suddenly, Annette had no income but the same substantial amount of living expenses each month. After investigating her options and making her best efforts to repay her debts, Annette found that her best option was to file bankruptcy and get a fresh start.
It is not unreasonable to say that Annette is an honest, conscientious, hard-working person who has always intended to repay her debts. While Annette may have developed some unfortunate, careless spending habits, she is not a bad person. She has contributed to society and helped others less fortunate than her. She made some bad decisions and was unable to solve the effects of these decisions in a timely way to put her back on a manageable financial path.
Bankruptcy gave Annette the fresh start she badly needed. She also learned better how to manage spending and the accumulation of debt. The experience of filing bankruptcy has helped Annette become better prepared for her future financially and provided significant positive long-term effects.
Hiring an experienced, knowledgeable bankruptcy attorney allows you to contact your attorney to ask and discuss any questions that you may have about filing bankruptcy. Theron Morrison cares about protecting and asserting your rights. Call 801.456.9933 today to schedule a FREE consultation. We have locations in Ogden, Logan, Sandy, and St. George to serve the residents of the counties of Weber, Cache, Salt Lake, Utah, Morgan, Davis, Washington, and surrounding areas.
