If you have reached financial “rock bottom” and you have determined that you don’t have any other alternatives to your current financial crisis, perhaps you are considering filing for bankruptcy. If you are, don’t panic. You are not alone. Let’s take a look at who is filing for bankruptcy, what it means to file for bankruptcy, how it happens and how to survive it.

In 2003 alone, a whopping 2,144,000 people filed for bankruptcy. The number of personal bankruptcies has skyrocketed over the past 20 years from around 300,000 in 1980 to its current level of nearly 1.7 million.

One of the saddest and most surprising trends in the rapid increase in personal bankruptcy filings is who is filing and what drove them to that point. According to Warren’s 1999 book The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt:

• The average age of someone filing for bankruptcy is 38
• 44% of all filers are couples
• 30% are women filing alone
• 26% are men filing alone
• Those filing for bankruptcy are slightly better educated than the general population
• Two out of three have lost a job
• Half of those filing have experienced a serious health problem
• More than 90% of those filing have suffered a job loss, medical event or divorce

While bankruptcy can seem like the only option out of a financially distressing situation, it does carry significant long-term implications for your financial future. Before filing it’s important to know what it will solve and what it won’t. Let’s take a look inside bankruptcy to learn more.