With spring around the corner, many individuals are looking forward to going on vacations or doing extra projects to fix up the house in Maryland. Others, however, are looking at empty savings accounts and meager paychecks, wondering how they could ever get to the point where they can live normally again. They feel restrained due to their overwhelming debt, in which case a Chapter 13 discharge might help them to become free from the grip of their financial obligations.
People who are in debt may first try to claim victory over their debts by paying off ones with the largest interest rates first. They can do this by first making minimum payments on all debts and loans. Then, they can apply all extra money each month to the debt with the highest interest rate.
People might choose to instead focus their extra dollars each month on the smaller debt balance first. After quickly paying off this balance, he or she can move on to the next highest one. Slowly but surely, the person may be able to eventually wipe out all of his or her debt and feel a sense of accomplishment.
Sometimes, taking steps to chip away at a large amount of debt seems to be fruitless, particularly when people are underemployed and don’t have much extra money to put toward their financial obligations. Filing for bankruptcy can be helpful in this situation. A Chapter 13 discharge, in particular, allows a person to create a plan to pay creditors back over three to five years and then have all of the rest of the debt removed. The benefit of Chapter 13 in Maryland is that he or she may keep all property and assets as part of this type of bankruptcy filing.
Source: USA Today, How to reduce your debt, Eric Hutchinson, March 9, 2014
