Bankruptcy is Teaching Individuals How to Live Within Their Means

Many American's at all income levels fail to properly live within their means. However, Americans in general are saving more now than at anytime since 1993. This shift in the consumer spending trend will hopefully have a lengthy effect following rescession recovery. The younger adults are part of the generation that, until recently, never truly experienced economic turmoil in this country. Spending habits over the last couple generations have become increasingly risky. Americans had become increasingly leveraged. The recession is teaching people the hard way how to save and prepare for the rainy days/months/years. Many of those people who did not plan for financial security in an economic downturn are seeking bankruptcy for a fresh start. Thankfully, Bankruptcy also teaches people how to save. As we all know, bankruptcy damages credit. The inability to obtain credit forces bankruptcy filers to learn how to live within their means. This is a valuable lesson, and perhap a consequential benefit to bankruptcy. I expect Americans to become increasingly conservative with their spending as the rescession continues and bankruptcy filings continue to increase.