Bankruptcy is an enormous financial decision, and before you take that leap you need to examine your finances to try and cut as many expenses from your budget as possible.
You may discover that your debt is more manageable and that bankruptcy may not be necessary.
Here are several types of expenses you need to examine thoroughly when bringing your budget down to size: Daily doodads Robert Kiyosaki introduced the term doodads.
I don't know if he invented the term, but I had not heard it before.
It refers to all of the little toys and impulse purchases that drain money from your bank account without any financial return whatsoever.
This can be anything from an expensive boat in your garage to a daily stop at the local coffee shop.
Now we're not saying that you can never enjoy a cup of coffee, but have you seen the prices of a latte nowadays? you could easily spend several dollars a day buying snacks like a gourmet coffee or a bagel or doughnuts.
These expenses add up very quickly, and before you know it you have spent or owe a great deal of money over nothing.
Again, we're not saying you can never enjoy a doughnut on the way to work (although it may not be the healthiest thing on the menu), but you need to seriously examine your daily expenses because they do add up very quickly.
Gifts Do you like to give expensive gifts that you can't afford in order to impress your friends? This is a practice you need to stop if you want to get handle on your debt.
New car payments If your situation is bad enough, you may be better off selling your new car to get out from underneath the financial burden and simply replacing it with an older but reliable car.
Impulse purchases This is related to doodads, but we would encourage you to look around the house and count up the number of things that you have purchased over the years.
You'll be amazed at how many things were not needed and may have not even been used very much.
Credit card purchases This should go without saying.
If you want to stop the financial bleeding, you have to stop spending money that you can't afford to spend.
You certainly have to stop charging things on credit cards.
If you already owe a substantial amount and are barely able to make the minimum payments, then you may need to consider professional help like bankruptcy.
You should at least discuss this with a professional like a bankruptcy attorney because you could easily spend years simply paying the interest on your current credit card bills.