Making it through divorce is challenging enough, but did you realize that divorce is also a leading cause of bankruptcy? As a person getting divorces, if you aren’t careful, the divorce can consume your assets and leave you in the whole.

This is especially true during today’s troubling economic times that have couples divorcing amid foreclosures and out of control credit card debt. If not handled properly, a divorce can equal bankruptcy in just a few short months. Without that second income from a spouse, or the need to pay child or spousal support, money priorities quickly shift making it harder if not impossible to pay the bills on time or at all.

Take for example a divorcing dad who, prior to his divorce, brought home more than a million dollars a year. A little later down the road following his spendy divorce, this father also found himself facing bankruptcy.

There is help during divorce and after that assists individuals in paying off their debt without running to the courts for a bankruptcy when all else fails. The father could have used a debt guide that teachers its readers how to pay off debt without the help of the court system.

Think the bankruptcy syndrome does not apply to you? Don’t be so sure. According to Joseph Pomykala’s article “Wrestling with Bankruptcy,” the odds are stacked against you:

• In 1998, one of every sixty-eight families in the U.S. requested bankruptcy protection. That figure has grown consistently over the years.
• In fact, bankruptcy claims have increased in number each year in the United States and now are more than twice the number of claims filed during the entire Great Depression.
• The average home is accountable for around fifty-eight thousand dollars in debt.
• Credit card debt and other unsecured debt have increased on average by fourteen percent each year since 1978.
• About nine percent of those who file bankruptcy have filed for protection before.

Of course the most relevant statistic of all states that forty percent of all bankruptcies are a direct result of divorce, unemployment and medical crisis. The truth of the matter is divorce has a way of changing an individual’s life in ways he or she may not have originally imagined. By utilizing a consumer debt guide, you can ward off any chance of bankruptcy by ensuring your debts are handled appropriately.