I understand what it means to be a procrastinator. I have been one most of life. My mother will tell you I was late being born. My wife could share with you how we dated for six years before I asked her to marry me. I like to think of myself as a reformed procrastinator. I have spent the last ten years making a conscious effort to not leave until tomorrow what can be done today. But I still have the urge from time to time to procrastinate.
For most situations a little procrastination doesn’t hurt. You wait to the last minute to pay your bills. You buy Christmas gifts the week of Christmas. Usually, a little procrastination does no harm. But when you are in debt, procrastination can cost you a lot. For example, if your car is repossessed, in Texas a bankruptcy attorney can get you your car back if you act quickly. There is a short window of time after a repossession to file bankruptcy and request from the creditor that the car be returned. If you wait too long and your car is sold, then you will be out of luck. The same is true of homes and foreclosure. A bankruptcy attorney can stop a foreclosure up until the minute before the foreclosure sale takes place. But after the auction is completed, it is usually too late.
Procrastination can also affect how much filing bankruptcy will cost you. I don’t mean attorney’s fees. In Chapter 13 cases, you may have to pay back money to your unsecured creditors. Unsecured creditors are credit cards, charge accounts, medical bills, and other debts that aren’t protected by a lien against collateral. The amount you have to pay to these creditors depends on your income. Many debtors end up paying back all of their unsecured debt. So, it makes sense that the more unsecured debt these debtors have, the more they will have to pay in their bankruptcy case. The problem is that debt grows. It accrues interest and fees are applied for late payments. When a bankruptcy case is filed, the fees and interest stop accruing. The debt stops growing. So debtors who file early end up paying less than debtors who procrastinate.
Sometimes people procrastinate because they are afraid of what they don’t know. Talking to a bankruptcy attorney acknowledges that they are in serious financial trouble, so they put it off as long as possible. But eventually debt has a way of catching up with you. Confronting the problem early can save you thousands of dollars, your car, and even your home, so don’t procrastinate!
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