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In the corners of the Internet dedicated to the debt-free lifestyle, people will tell you that you should never borrow money under any circumstances. People who manage to do this are relying in part on good luck. Who can own a house without taking out a mortgage loan?  Only people who inherited houses from relatives…

Reading the news can fill you with dread, and most Internet content is designed to play on your insecurities, even if they are of a personal nature, but you can also count on the Internet to find evidence that there are other people out there who are even more hopeless than you are. According to…

It is infuriating when old people give you outdated financial advice that makes it sound like your financial problems are all your fault. They tell you that you are wasting money by paying rent instead of a mortgage, but they do not have a plan for how you can qualify for a mortgage and get…

If you have accessed the Internet at any time in the past decade, you have probably found content about how people your age do not understand the financial struggles that young people are facing, and that you and your peers are unfairly blaming the young generation for their dismal financial situation. Now think about the…

Making your debts go away quickly comes at a cost. The best-case scenario is that you win the lottery, inherit money from a relative, or land your dream job; if that happens, you will gain money but lose friends, either because they are jealous of you or because your newfound fortune brings out your worst…

You have the right to file for bankruptcy protection a theoretically unlimited number of times, provided that you are immortal, but there are waiting periods for how soon you can file after your previous bankruptcy filing. It is possible that you can start borrowing again, and your credit card debt can pile up before you are…

If the retailers of the world had their way, everyone would spend their tax refunds on cars, furniture, and other fun stuff that they had kept their eyes on all year but had never been able to afford while living paycheck to paycheck. You have a better idea, though. You have spent your tax refunds on splurges…

Walking away from homeownership and surrendering your house to the bank to avoid foreclosure is a heart-wrenching decision because there is no telling whether the financial stability you once enjoyed in your house will ever return. If at all possible, the best long-term solution is to buy time with your mortgage lender, hold onto your…

You have gotten as far in your plans to file for bankruptcy as reading the bankruptcy FAQ page of the website of your county’s court system; therefore, you know that, at least in theory, no one is too rich or too poor to file for bankruptcy. Of course, you are probably reading this website on the…

Before your financial situation got as bad as it is, you used to read long-form articles on news websites about the horrible abuses that consumers suffer at the hands of debt collectors, whether those debt collectors represent credit card companies or healthcare providers that provided services with the full knowledge that the patient could never…

One of the more tone-deaf pieces of advice people can give you when you are trying to get out of debt is that you should take up a hobby that does not cost money, such as reading. Canceling your Netflix subscription and spending your last hour before sleep reading books you borrowed from the public library…

You do not have much money to spend, or else you would not have decided to file for bankruptcy protection. In fact, you might even be waiting until your tax refund arrives in the spring before you can afford to file. Hiring a bankruptcy lawyer sounds like a luxury. The thought might have even crossed your mind…

The reason that bankruptcy protection exists is to stop you from losing all your property when you apply for debt relief. Bankruptcy protection is what happens when you file a case in bankruptcy court; the court discharges your eligible debts in exchange for you paying a settlement amount, which is what happens in a Chapter…

Filing for bankruptcy protection is an option for everyone, at least in theory. You might not consider it a viable option for you, though, at least not now. The federal Bankruptcy Code sets minimum intervals between bankruptcy filings, so maybe it is not legally possible for you to file this year because you are still making payments…

It may not always be true that with age comes wisdom, but older people tend to spend money more thoughtfully than their younger selves did. If you splurged on a pair of shoes or a steak dinner just because it caught your eye, you probably did this when you were younger than 30. The so-called…