Bankruptcy is difficult. Most people filing for bankruptcy have already been fighting financial issues for at least a few years. And experts know that fighting that kind of battle has an effect on people. Constantly fighting a financial battle can create a sense of hopelessness that some experts have described as a psychological unhappiness. Many of the individuals who come to me seem to see their arrival in my office as waving a white flag – they feel defeated. They’re definitely not happy about the fact that they’re visiting me.
If I didn’t know that their world was going to be greatly improved by the time we said goodbye, it might hurt my feelings. Granted, individuals who file for Chapter 13 will often be spending several years on a strict budget. And sticking to a strict budget for some is harder than following the rules of a very low calorie diet for others.
Here’s the good stuff. When you file, you will feel great. It’s a wonderful day. You have a problem (or many) and they’ve been beating you up for a long time – too long. Filing for bankruptcy takes approximately 6 months. In comparison to what was probably a long, drawn out battle against your own finances, that’s nothing.
Somewhere in the midst of your Chapter 13 payment plan, many will hit a wall. Going back to the reference to very low calorie dieting, you could compare it to that moment when you’ve been losing weight consistently and regularly and then suddenly you stop even though you’re still following the rules. You start to question yourself and whether your hard work is worth the results that you are suddenly not seeing. You might feel like you simply can’t do it anymore. At that point, remember what I’m going to say next.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel and right after you hit your “plateau” in the middle where you doubt your own sanity and feel positive that your strict money diet is never going to end, that’s when you’ll see it. And at that point, you won’t just feel great like you did on the day you filed. At that moment, you will feel fantastic.
We’ve all heard it before, but I’ll say it again here because sometimes people don’t realize how much the long drawn out battle that lead to filing for bankruptcy actually drains a person. Time heals. Yes, that bankruptcy is going to sit on your credit report for a decade. But that doesn’t have to hold you back from repairing your credit. The further from your date of discharge you get with positive money management and on time payment history, the less that bankruptcy record is going to matter. You’ll start seeing better deals on auto loans and mortgages, you’ll get offered lower rates and fees on your credit cards. It’s all simply a matter of time.
If you need to talk about the timeline of filing for bankruptcy or repairing your credit post-bankruptcy, we can help you. Get in touch with the Encino, California bankruptcy experts at Westgate Law today.