You generally take care not to spend more than you earn. You understand the value of some debt, like taking out a mortgage. However, you never make excess purchases on credit cards or rack up more debt than you can afford.
Could you still wind up involved in bankruptcy? If you are married, there is a risk.
The problem is that your spouse may end up spending money and hiding it from you. This slowly depletes your assets and could even add to your joint debt if he or she uses joint credit cards or lines of credit for those purchases. When you then cannot pay off the debt or even pay your monthly bills, you may find yourself swamped in debt you knew nothing about.
Do you think that sounds unlikely? If you don’t have a good relationship with your spouse or you don’t talk about money, scenarios like this can happen. In one survey, 30 percent of adults said they engaged in deceitful financial practices. One of the most common issues was hiding purchases from a spouse. Some 55 percent of adults said they did not consistently sit down with a spouse to talk about the family finances.
If you and your spouse never have that talk and he or she is hiding financial issues from you, by the time you find out what is going on, it could be far worse than you ever realized. When this happens, it is very important that you understand all of your legal options. These could include filing bankruptcy to discharge the debt so that you can move forward.
