investments that can drive you bankrupt

Bankruptcy is not a fast process, especially if you don't have all of the financial information that you need in order to file. You need to take your time and gather all of the right information to ensure you include all of your creditors in your bankruptcy and are not responsible for something you forgot to include. Read on for what you need to have before you file for bankruptcy.

A Credit Report

Pulling a credit report on yourself and your spouse will show everything you have outstanding that you owe. There may be things on the credit report that you weren't even aware of. Things like medical bills that you may have forgotten about or old bills you may have thought you paid off. You can go online to print off your credit report from all three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You want to pull a report from all three, as they may all have different inquiries listed on them.

All Financial Information

You are going to need up-to-date financial information such as bank statements, pay stubs, and other financial information such as 401K and other retirement information or savings account statements. All of this financial information is going to be necessary to be sure you are using all means you can to pay your debts back. If you have other means such as money in a savings account or money in a retirement account, you may be asked to use some of that money to pay your debts back.

Creditor Information

You're going to not only need a list of what you owe to your creditors, you're also going to need your creditor information and possibly list what the debt is for, such as loans you owe and credit card debt. You'll need the names of the creditors as well as an address and phone number for each of them. This is very important, as your bankruptcy paperwork is going to be sent to your creditors so they are notified and will have to stop sending bills to you and will also have to stop calling you about the debts. Once the bankruptcy is discharged (depending on the type of bankruptcy—chapter 13 bankruptcy requires you to pay some of you debts back), you will no longer be responsible for those debts. and they are no longer able to contact you about the debts owed. 

You will need quite a bit of information to file your bankruptcy. Be diligent and do your research so you are sure that all of your creditors are included in your bankruptcy. For more information, contact local professionals like those found at O'Connor Mikita & Davidson LLC.