Written by San Francisco bankruptcy attorney, Jeena Cho
If there was one message I could send to every person who is contemplating bankruptcy, it would be - you are not alone. When you are struggling with debt, it can feel as though the walls are closing in on you and no one can possibly understand what you are going through. If you feel this way, take heart. You are in good company.
I come across people struggling with overwhelming debt on a daily basis so it probably should not have been a shock, but I was personally surprised to see the new bankruptcy numbers reported by the Wall Street Journal. According to the article, roughly one in 175 Americans filed for personal bankruptcy this year, as of October. In California, for every million, 7,740 filed for bankruptcy.
That works out to about 1 out of 100 Californians that has filed for bankruptcy - this year alone. According to the article, more than a fifth of the filers have college degrees, a 4.1-percentage-point increase from 2006. 9.1% of debtors earned more than $60,000 compared with 5.5% of them three years earlier. In cities like San Francisco, these numbers are likely to be much higher.
So, if you are considering bankruptcy and feel as though you are completely alone, please know that you are not. There is at least 1.6 million Americans that went through it, this year alone.
Image Credit: stuckincustoms
