Learning More About Financial Well-Being

How can you avoid personal bankruptcy? While filing for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy can provide enormous relief to Chicago debtors, it’s important to think carefully about your financial well-being before you reach the point of requiring bankruptcy protection. Or, if you’ve recently declared bankruptcy, learning more about financial well-being can help you to have a rewarding future.
Personal Financial Well-Being, According to Consumers
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently released a report concerning financial well-being throughout the country. It created a research team that spoke with consumers of many different income levels. By and large, it turns out that, regardless of income, consumers tend to associate similar things with financial health:
  • Having current financial security, which often means feeling in control over day-to-day and month-to month finances;
  • Having future financial security, or the ability to “absorb a financial shock,” such as unexpected medical payments;
  • Having the freedom to make choices about how to spend your money and to enjoy life; and
  • Having the feeling that you’re on track to meet the financial goals you’ve set for yourself.
What are some of the factors that go into each of these categories? Based on data from consumer surveys, as well as up-to-date studies on financial literacy and psychology, the CFPB research team emphasized that a consumer’s social and economic environment creates the basis for determining financial well-being. For instance, what kinds of options does your social and economic environment give you? And how do members of your family and community make you feel about your knowledge, skills, and certain financial decisions? Then, of course, financial well-being depends largely on your behavior and the decisions you actually make when it comes to economic health.
Improving Consumers’ Financial Fitness
After you’ve been through a personal bankruptcy, financial health and economic well-being is more important than ever. If you filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you’ve been given a clean slate and can start again to ensure that you’re on the road to better financial fitness. If the guide to financial well-being starts with your social and economic environment and ultimately results from the choices you make within that environment, what can you do to help yourself and your economic situation? The CFPB research report provides some tips that may be beneficial to Oak Park consumers:
  • Do everything you can to live within your means. By creating better spending habits in your day-to-day life, you’ll find yourself in better financial health down the road. What does this mean in practical terms? Do your best to avoid unnecessary spending, and only use your credit card responsibly. You’ll need to balance your ability to spend with your desire for financial freedom, and it’s important that you avoid getting yourself into debt.
  • Set future goals for yourself. It’s important to make sure that they’re realistic. At the same time, however, everyone can take a look at their income and spending levels, and they can set goals for savings down the road.
  • Financial practitioners and consumer protection attorneys can help you to identify areas where you’re in need of financial assistance, and they can help you to find the appropriate ways to meet your economic goals.
If you have questions about managing debt or personal bankruptcy, you should speak with an experienced Chicago bankruptcy lawyer. An advocate at the Emerson Law Firm can speak with you today.
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