The North Carolina Bankruptcy Information Blog

Facing everything from medical markups, to investment issues, to mortgage meltdowns to cash-strapped kids, it’s clearer than ever that our country’s oldest citizens represent one of the hardest hit demographics in the country’s lingering economic malaise. As a result, more and more mature Americans have been relying on high interest credit cards to scrape by, leading some to subsequently seek the financial safe havens a bankruptcy can provide. In fact, the Consumer Bankruptcy Project found that some 66 percent of senior citizens filing for bankruptcy said credit card debt was the cause for their recent financial issues.

Add to the aforementioned reasons that older Americans are getting “scrooged” this holiday season, the fact that medical expenses, cost of living and taxes continue to rise, while the amount of Social Security payments remain stagnant as early retirement plans mean huge losses.…

Facing everything from retirement woes to cash-strapped kids, it has been well-reported that older Americans are some of the hardest hit by a lingering recession and rising health care costs.
And now, according The Huffington Post’s Laura Bassett, things just got a little worse for mature Americans looking for work. The reporter blogged in her article “Older Jobseekers Face An Uphill Climb” about the staggering 2 million unemployed people in the U.S. who are over the age of 55.

The “Uphill Climb” of Unemployment

“Although the unemployment rate for people 55 and older dropped from 7.1 to 6.9 percent in March, the AARP Public Policy Institute reported that the average duration of unemployment for older jobseekers was almost three weeks longer in March than it had been in February, and was substantially higher than the 31.1 weeks for the unemployed under age 55,” reported Bassett.…

Even the briefest of hospital stays can result in bills just big enough to tilt a person already precariously balancing their finances over the edge and into a long-term financial abyss. The problem with being able to afford medical care is enough to make many Americans wait until circumstances become dire before heading to the emergency room. Even the well-insured become cautious about co-pays and premium increases.

For college student Samantha Palmer, a one-day lapse in insurance coverage led to a medical debt hassle requiring legal assistance. In the midst of switching medical insurance providers, Palmer found herself suddenly in pain on the one day she was without insurance.…

So you’re drowning in debt and desperate for a way out. A friend or relative asks if you’ve considered a 401k loan. “They’re quick, simple to qualify for, and here’s the best part: you’re paying the interest to yourself.” Sounds like a brilliant solution, right? Why pay 25% interest to a credit card company when you could be paying 6% interest to yourself?

Stop. You want to think long and hard before you take out a 401k loan, especially if you’re already in debt.
Fayetteville debt relief,
The most important thing to know is that, in bankruptcy, your retirement savings – 401k accounts, pensions, 403b accounts, traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs and even plans for small business owners and the self employed – are protected from your creditors.…

Creditors around the country probably still secretly wish that Debtor’s Prison still existed so that they could send all the people that do not pay their bills there. Thankfully, the founding fathers had the foresight to do away with such an antiquated notion back when the country was formed and even provide the foundation for the bankruptcy laws that we now have today.

Little do most people know but the founding fathers were not the best at managing their own finances as they were in managing a war for independence. After all, these people did dump thousands upon thousands of dollars in tea into Boston Harbor!…

The Associated Press is reporting that the foreclosure crisis will persist well into next year as high unemployment “pushes more people out of homes, pulls down housing prices and raises concerns about the broader economic recovery.”

The latest evidence comes this week in a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association identifying that a rising tide of fixed-rate home loans made to people with good credit are now facing foreclosure, marking a surprising shift from assumptions that only riskier subprime loans are driving the current housing crisis. The report also stated that 14 percent of homeowners with a mortgage were either late on payments or in foreclosure at the end of September 2009, marking another record-high for the ninth straight quarter.…