What can I expect when filing bankruptcy?
I ran into similar financial circumstances about a decade ago. Here’s how it works: (Note this is not legal advice – get that from your lawyer; I’m just some guy, right?) Basically, you hire a lawyer who helps you assess your total income, your total assets, and your total ability to pay your existing debt. Income is pretty straight forward – how much do you make? Assets are tricky – each state has rules about how many dollars worth of what you can keep. In Colorado, you could keep up to $4500 worth of a car (meaning if your car was worth more than that, you had to sell it, pay the difference to your creditors, and buy yourself a cheaper car). If you are a carpenter or someone who needs tools to earn your living, you get to keep X dollars worth of those. Y dollars worth of clothes, etc. If you are literally broke, there probably isn’t anything for your creditors to take, so they likely won’t argue when you claim bankruptcy. They didn’t in my case, and my credit card debt was wiped away
