By Mitchell Kesler, Christopher Martinez, Isaac Miller, Dylan Milam and Jade Thompson

South Rowan High School

Editor’s note: The writers are students in Christina McLamb’s personal finance class at South Rowan High School. They were challenged to study bankruptcy and create an informational article for the community. 

In our personal finance class at South Rowan High School, our group has been working on ways to help prevent bankruptcy and provide our county possible solutions to this ever-growing problem. Based on our research, many Rowan County residents have either considered bankruptcy or have filed for it.

Have you ever considered it? If so, how can you avoid it? Here are some tips:

• Always make sure that your bills are paid on time.

• Have good spending habits.

• Start a savings account.

• Make good investments.

• Don’t borrow money unless you need to and focus on needs versus wants.

• The biggest tool is staying organized with your money accounts. Create budgets and spending plans by setting limits on money spent per month, week and day. Categorize your spending habits so you can determine where you spend your money the most.

Wisdom tells us bankruptcy is a bad thing and can cause harm to an individual. When a person files for bankruptcy, it can clear your debt, yes, but it may cause you to lose personal valuables as well. Bankruptcy will also make your credit score extremely low, and you will be looked at as not responsible with your money by potential lenders in the future.

Many people choose bankruptcy because of the loss of income that can cause an individual to struggle and rely on credit cards. If money is managed well, bankruptcy doesn’t have to be the only choice out of debt. The effects of it outweigh the battle to regain stability in money management.

We chose to study bankruptcy because it’s something that we don’t want to go through ourselves. We wanted to find out how we can avoid it and inform others what we found about how to keep from going bankrupt.

If you feel like you are headed in the direction of making the decision to file for bankruptcy, remember there is always a way out of debt. While it may take time, each day is a step to better organizing your money if you choose to make that your goal.