Most people worry about their finances. Even if they are relatively financially secure, they may still have concerns about future expenses or what they will do in the event of an emergency. Of course, your concerns may go far beyond possible future problems because you already feel overwhelmed by substantial debt.
Because of these monetary issues, you may have gone back and forth trying to decide how to best handle your ordeal. You may have considered debt consolidation, payday loans and transfers, but you may have felt the cons outweighed the pros on those options. As a result, you are looking more closely at filing for bankruptcy.
Assessing your situation
Before you even file your bankruptcy petition, you may want to begin assessing your financial affairs, including where your assets and your debts stand. Additionally, starting with this assessment could prove useful as you will need to provide a great deal of information regarding your state of affairs to the bankruptcy court with your petition. To get started you may want to look into your assets and at least estimate what the court may consider exempt property and non-exempt property, such as:
- Assets that will not go through liquidation as a means to pay for your outstanding debts are exempt assets. These assets may include items like your home, personal items, tools or equipment needed for your job, clothing, public benefits, and your car.
- As you may have guessed, assets that could go through liquidation during a Chapter 7 bankruptcy fall into the category of non-exempt assets. These items may include additional real estate, a second or subsequent vehicle, funds in investment accounts, boats, collectibles, and other valuable property.
After looking at your assets, you may then want to look at your debts. Your debt will also fall into one of two categories, including:
- Your secured debts are ones for which you provided some sort of collateral to the lender.
- Your unsecured debts are those not secured by collateral, which may include medical bills, credit card balances and unsecured personal loans.
Certainly, it can be difficult to go through such an assessment, but again, if you want to move forward with bankruptcy, this information will be useful.
Obtaining help
Of course, you do not have to try to guess what information will prove useful to your bankruptcy case. You may want to gain reliable information about the details needed for your petition from a South Carolina bankruptcy attorney, who could also help you with other aspects of your case if you choose to move forward with this option.
