One of the keys to entering a profession such as law is to go to a city where you have decent chances. I graduated from one of the most elite universities in the world ( I do not intend arrogance) and then moved to Orlando, FL. because my wife was there. After much wrangling, I managed to teach some courses in the university, but have been told directly that I will never be hired, etc. I did not want that anyways. I tried to find other positions somewhat related to my area of study to no avail.

I am saving money to move back to a metropolitan area. It should not be a problem to find something there.

Do the arithmetic and see if you can pay the unsecured debts in five to ten years. If not, then follow the plan I noted. Make your kids earn their way through university if that is on the horizon. If it takes them five or six years instead of three or four because they have to work, then so be it. Actually, most higher education is a waste of time and money. However, I understand the role of status in the U.S.

It is not impossible, I am doing it. I have a credit card, but I don’t use it. I got rid of all the other ones.

Think strategically about bankruptcy. There is nothing immoral about it, if your calculations show that it is not possible to pay off unsecured debt within five to ten years.

You have to know a little about judges and trustees perspectives on bankruptcy. The judge and trustee have a lot of power (minus modifying mortgage payments)and act completely on experience; i.e. a subjective assessment. If you have run up debts for frivolous outings (casinos, cruises, etc.)you won’t get off easy. The truth is people do run into spats of really bad luck at some point in their life and judges know that.

If you are in a really bad situation, take out a refi on your home and pay as much as you can off with it, provided you have equity. After that wait one to two years or right before the refi resets if it is an ARM, etc. Do not run up frivolous debts in the meantime. I would prioritize the equity towards students loans first, your kids if that is the case, because these can never be discharged. I would also try to pay the secured loans (auto) first. An auto is indispensable. After one or two years or if the ARM is about to reset, forclose the house and enter a Chapter 7. Prior to the filing of the chapter 7 reduce your income to the extent possible. The C-7 will be predicated on the last six months average of your income. Yep, that is primarily what matters. If you make too much, then you are forced into a C-13. A C-13 is hellish but better than being in perpetual debt. A

My advice is don’t rush it, plan it.

Times are going to get hard, you do not want to be in debt over your head.

The most egregious example of this problem right now is in the legal profession where law schools have been producing two or three times as many new lawyers as what the nation’s economy can absorb for decades. (Today the number is probably closer to 10x.) Today, law school can easily cost $120,000-185,000 after adding $15,000/year for living expense onto the cost of tuition (which can be as high as $46,000/year at some places). Since the vast majority of new lawyers will not find work in their profession but will be overqualified and unemployable in other fields (where hiring personnel will regard them as losers for not choosing to be rich lawyers), most of these graduates will be saddled with this huge amount of debt for decades.

If I don’t have the money to purchase something I need, then I save. I never found I needed something so bad that I had to take out a loan. It really is that simple.

Debt is slavery.

I have been aghast at how the banks drummed it into our heads we needed to live in debt. That everyone had to have a credit score.

The way I feel about banks and credit cards can not be printed here, but those words do start with F and S.

Two key items that impact the borrower are interest rates vs. inflation. The borrower does not want to hold debt with escalating interest rates BUT debt is better to hold than money during times of escalating inflation.

Question is which will take precedence? Which will have the greater impact? What would be like death to the borrower is increased interest rates and deflation – not totally unrealistic in the current conditions.

The governments are no better than the average consumer. They are racking up debt at unprecedented rates.

The problem is they are really less and less able to use monetary and fiscal policy to control the economic conditions (other than printing fiat $ ~ except for Euro nations who do not have their own currency which is why Greece was so screwed).

So what is the result of printing more money? The postponment of inflationary pressures and/or interest rate hikes. Lenders come knocking at some point and the borrower has to come up with the money somehow – whether printing it from thin air or attracting new lenders by increasing interest rates.

Tricky to call what will happen b/c inflationary pressures are offset by deflationary pressures (foreclosures, joblessness). IMO interest rates will go up but will it be coupled with inflation or deflation???

As the article indicates, best to stay as liquid and debt free as possible. The future ain’t so bright for shades.

There are times in everyones lives when debt is essential, whether in be to buy a business, home, tools, work clothing, etc. In these instances debt is calculated risk that what you have borrowed to purchase will lead to a net gain in the longer run.

We live in times where far to many people have come to see access to debt as a right that requires no responsible action on there part. For them I feel no pity for the reckoning to come.

I personally believe in paying debt off as fast as possible because I don’t want to waste my hard earned readies on interest payments.

But howabout promoting some personal responsibility – credit lenders do a job that needs doing – and if some moron wants to buy a (insert consumer object here) on credit because they can’t wait until they have saved for it – well a fool and their money are soon parted.

If you do not understand this, then read a chapter from Jesse Ventura ‘American Conspiracies’

http://www.scribd.com/doc/31999842/Wall-Street-Conspiracy