Starting over from Bankruptcy or Foreclosure
March 28, 2010 by admin
Filed under Christian Wives Money Management
When finances get out of control, couples have had to either file bankruptcy and start over. Even though it can be devastating, you do get to start over. So how do you. When starting over, take the necessary steps:
1) Evaluate your lives and be honest with yourselves about why the bankruptcy or foreclosure happened. What was happening in your lives with the finances and the choices you made that ended up causing your situation to spiral out of control?
2) Now that you have a chance to start over, what will you do differently? Who will manage the money? How will the bills be paid?
3) How do you rebuild your credit? Let me say do not run out and get a lot of credit cards. Personally I would only have one and nothing else. Because credit is built by a good payment history over a period of time. It is not built by having a lot of cards that you can not pay – that damages your credit. So if the way to rebuild your credit is getting one credit card that you use only for emergencies or small purchases that you pay off at the end of every month, then so be it. Do not fall into the trap of buying furniture or large ticket items with no money down, no interest for two or three years.
4) Whatever you utilize in order to rebuild your credit, make sure that they are reporting to all three credit bureaus.
These are only the beginning steps. In order to move forward and not repeat the pattern, know what happened to cause the the bankruptcy or foreclosure, what your thoughts were that caused you to make the decisions that led to the finances getting out of control and much more.
When finances are difficult, there are times when a husband and a wife might feel as if they cannot turn to anyone and they do not want to bring stress or pressure to the other spouse. However, each spouse needs to be aware of what is happening with the finances because the consequences affect everyone, not just the one making the decision.
Caution: I don’t necessarily recommend waiting on a government bailout program, you must create your own.