Bankruptcy
Tips On How To Keep Your Home and Stop Home Foreclosures
Millions of homeowners in the United States are currently looking for ways on how to stop home foreclosures, most likely because they themselves are at risk of losing their homes in the near future due to inability to make mortgage payments on time. Of course, the best way to stop home foreclosures is to make these payments every month, but in case this is really not possible, you will have to look for other ways.
Stop Home Foreclosures and Bankruptcy
One way to stop home foreclosures is to communicate with your lending agency. So many homeowners make the mistake of hiding from their lenders during these tough times, but that will only make your situation worse. What you should do in case you find yourself unable to make payments is to get in touch with the mortgage company as soon as possible and ask for a grace period during which you can pay your unpaid balances gradually. Most lenders are actually willing to cut a reasonable deal especially if the homeowner seems sincere and responsible.
Another popular way to stop home foreclosures is to file bankruptcy. This will instantly top foreclosure proceedings, and freeze your other debts as well. If your bankruptcy claim is approved, you will be given up to 5 years to make payments on all your past unpaid bills, including mortgage payments. While this seems like an attractive option, it also means that your credit record will be permanently marred, your credit score will plummet, and you will probably have a very hard time getting good interest rates on future loan and credit card applications.
Paying Your Mortgage Under Bankruptcy
As soon as your bankruptcy has been approved, you will still have to continue making payments on your mortgage. This time, you will have to submit the payments to the court trustee. If you are able to do this every month, there is no longer any reason why you should be at risk of losing your home. But if you miss any further payments, there is nothing more that even the courts can do to stop home foreclosures in your case.
In an effort to stop home foreclosures, many homeowners find themselves taking out loans that they can’t really afford paying back. This is something that you should avoid because it will only give you much bigger problems in the future.
What’s even worse is that there are companies that purposely grant these types of unrepayable loans so that the homeowner will lose their home to foreclosure, earning the lender a lot of money in the process.
Bankruptcy
After Filing Bankruptcy – Your Marriage and Financial Problems
Sometimes financial problems can lead to the decision to file bankruptcy. After filing bankruptcy, life goes on but a new strain has been added to the marriage. Bankruptcy relieves financial old financial pressures, but it is not a cure all for financial problems. After the bankruptcy has been filed, the marriage must absorb the consequences of the decision.
It may sound odd at first to say that bankruptcy can create new but different problems. This is true only if the financial lessons were absorbed through the process. Bankruptcy can be the end result of financial problems both of your own making and of unforeseen circumstances. These circumstances include hospital bills or unemployment. But many times bankruptcy is necessary because household finances were allowed to get out of control.
It can be miserable when your payments exceed your income. You face a constant barrage of collection calls and past due statements. Your car or house may be subject to repossession. Severe financial problems place a lot of stress on a family, and it’s an unrelenting stress. You worry all the time about what the mailbox holds or whether you are going to be able to make your house payment.
Moving On With Life After Filing Bankruptcy
Some couples go into a state of denial until it’s too late. They know there are financial problems, but they refuse to discuss them until bankruptcy is the only option. It could be beneficial to talk to a credit counselor before letting the state of your financial affairs get so dire. Unfortunately, many people wait too late or are too embarrassed to even consider the option. In other cases, bankruptcy is truly the only answer in order to get a real opportunity to start over again.
Filing bankruptcy is a big decision. It is something you will live with for 10 years. Yet it is also a chance to start over again financially. During a bankruptcy you may or may not lose your home or other assets. This means the family might have to move into a rental house or a married couple into a an apartment. If the car is taken during the bankruptcy, you will have to find a way to afford substitute transportation.
These are the kinds of details you will have to face after bankruptcy. The financial problems leading up to bankruptcy can place immense strain on a marriage leading to constant arguing and blame laying. But even after bankruptcy, the ability to recover financially and move on with living depends on attitude. Just because you have filed bankruptcy does not mean the problems have ended as just discussed. But what you have is a great opportunity to re-establish common financial goals and then move forward with an effective plan for recovery.
Marital Problems Over Financial Issues
The lessons of bankruptcy must be learned in order to prevent continued arguing and marital problems over money. In other words, if you continue to spend and manage money like you did before the bankruptcy, bankruptcy is just a temporary solution. You and your spouse will find yourselves facing financial problems once again in the near future. The exception to this statement is when the bankruptcy was due to those circumstances mentioned earlier that were out of your total control.
As a couple it is important to share full responsibility for household finances.
- Establish common goals
- Agree on spending habits
- Share major purchase decisions
- Develop a budget
- Review finances together at least once a month
- Establish discretionary spending funds
- Agree on how money will be maintained and accessed
A marital argument can start quickly when one spouse picks up the checkbook and finds a check has been written for a large amount without discussion.
In order to prevent a re-occurrence of the financial problems which occurred prior to the bankruptcy, you and your spouse should review how bad habits resulted in financial problems. Then you and your spouse can establish new rules that keep the household finances on course. Bankruptcy should be viewed as a new leaf on life.
If you don’t make sure you have established agreement on how to handle marital finances after filing bankruptcy, you are at risk of history repeating itself. As you adjust your lifestyle to fit your debt free life, the financial peace of mind you experience is rewarding in itself. As a couple, you have to create a workable spending and saving plan that works for each of you and not just one
