Is Bankruptcy Right For Me?
No Fear – No Condemnation – Take Charge
Every day you read in the paper or see on TV that some company has filed bankruptcy. And they explain how they saved the business and how the decision was heroic. They will eliminate sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars in debt so the company can go forward with a fresh start. And years later, when the company is going well, no one looks back and says filing the bankruptcy was a mistake or a “wrong thing”. It wasn’t.
Yet, if a person or a couple who finds themselves in unpayable debt files bankruptcy, they feel guilt, shame and embarrassment. This is wrong thinking.
A Fresh Start
The very text of the bankruptcy code says the purpose of bankruptcy is to give an “oppressed debtor a fresh start”. Our country’s founders watched in horror as their former countries imprisoned debtors and even shipped them too far off colonies. Therefore, our founders said it would be morally and economically better to erase a debt and have a person be able to be productive again, be able to work and pay taxes and even be able to make new debts.
A Better Way
Economically, it makes sense to build into every loan portfolio a small percentage to allow for those loans that will not perform for whatever reason, including health, divorce, loss of work, and even bad borrowing decisions. Modern lenders take this into account. For a long time now, the lending arm is the major profit center of most businesses. GMAC, the lending arm of GM, was worth more than GM itself.
Morally, we find more support for the forgiveness of debt than we do Punishment. The early Jews were ordered to have a recurring year of jubilee, when all debts were forgiven. Forgiveness is the very foundation of Christianity. We are not to judge others and being too hard on ourselves doesn’t help.
Give up the Blame Game – Stop Beating Yourself Up
At Bob Brown and Associates we have a saying, “Bankruptcy doesn’t make you a failure unless you’re only money,” and you’re not only money. You are good people, good fathers and good mothers, hard workers and people deserving respect. Bankruptcy doesn’t say anything about who you are the same way getting sick or needing a medical procedure doesn’t say who you are. If you have a medical problem and a medical procedure can fix it, then doing it is a smart choice, not a bad choice. It is problem solving. If you adjust your financial position with bankruptcy, you are taking control of a bad situation and making it better. Stop beating yourself up!
Priorities Matter
At Bob Brown and Associates we’ve seen the benefits of bankruptcy. The killing stress of debt that destroys mental and physical heath goes away. People begin to feel hope again. They become productive and feel energy again. The stress of debt can destroy relationships. Bankruptcy can save marriages and families. When you stop blaming yourself you stop blaming your spouse.
Don’t be Afraid.
Most of the stigma associated with bankruptcy is imagined. Financial problems come to people in all professions, all income ranges, all education levels. It’s not the failure but how you approach the failure that defines you.
I heard that J.C. Penny said, “You can’t trust someone who hasn’t been broke once.” And I’m told he went broke several times before he found the right mixture for his retail stores that went on to become a household name. Going broke is not the sin, staying in it, accepting it, not moving on from it is. Give us the fear of failure, accept it, embrace it, resolve it, move on from it. Great days lay ahead.