Breaking The Bankruptcy Cycle

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Summary

In this episode, host Louisa Larado shares her personal journey of transforming her financial future after bankruptcy. She discusses the wrong advice she received and the strategies that didn't work for her. She emphasizes the importance of a holistic approach that combines mindset transformation with practical financial strategies. Louisa introduces her program, the Bankruptcy Breakthrough Blueprint, which aims to help individuals regain financial stability and achieve their money goals. She encourages listeners take action to break the bankruptcy cycle. The episode concludes with a visualization exercise of where listeners could be in one year if they start taking action now.

Takeaways

• Transforming your financial future after bankruptcy requires a holistic approach that combines mindset transformation with practical financial strategies.
• Avoid following wrong advice and quick fix solutions that don't address the root causes of financial struggles.
• Take immediate action to regain financial stability and avoid further setbacks.
• Join a supportive community of like-minded individuals who have gone through similar experiences.
• Visualize where you want to be in one year and start taking steps towards achieving your financial goals.

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Disclaimer: The information contained on today’s podcast has been provided as general advice only. The contents have been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or individual needs. Before making any decision regarding the information, strategies or products mentioned on today’s episode, please consult your own financial advisor or other professional first.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Personal Journey
• 8:37 Breaking the Bankruptcy Cycle
• 14:52 The Importance of Taking Immediate Action
• 18:40 The Power of Community Support
• 21:00 Building Consistent Habits for Long-Term Financial Transformation

Transcript

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Bankruptcy to Bliss podcast. I'm your host, Louisa Larado and today I'm so excited to share some big news with you. We're diving into a topic that is so close to my heart and discussing how to transform your financial future after bankruptcy. We're to be looking all about how to break this bankruptcy cycle once and for all to see yourself in your best financial future you could ever imagine.

So a few years ago, I made a decision that completely transformed my whole financial confidence and brought me just that peace of mind and stability.

that was when I stopped listening to all the wrong advice about how to recover from my bankruptcy and how to rebuild my finances because I was trying all these different strategies, but nothing seemed to be working. And there was just all of these so -called financial experts that told me things like cutting down your budget, like sticking to really tight budgets, maybe taking out high interest loans.

Some of them just told me to ignore the debt or just to get over it move on. And you know what? Those ideas and those suggestions just didn't sit right with me. I knew there had to be something else. So I had to do my own research. I had to do a lot of work on my own to find the real way to transform my future after bankruptcy.

because what I found was when you try these sort of quick fix solutions that a lot of people advise you to do, all they do is they don't change your habits. So you're more likely to fall back into the same patterns you are previously in. And they just lead to more stress and setbacks. And that just did not sit well for me. I didn't want a quick fix solution. I wanted something that could withstand for the long term that could set

my family up with financial stability and not just have financial stability but actually start thriving and being able to live a life that we really enjoy where we're not worried about every single cent that we're spending. We're not scraping through just to get by each week. That was not living my life in my opinion. So I really wanted more.

So for myself, I had to do this the hard way. And if you've listened to some of my previous podcasts before, you know a bit about my background and my story, how we had to literally start from nothing. So we'd gone from having a pretty good life with our family. And then we had to make that hard decision just due to a few bad investment choices.

and one sort of thing on top of the other sort of piled up and we faced the point where we just couldn't figure out what we were going to do, how we were going to get out of that situation. And I'm sure if you're listening to this, you may have experienced something similar where you have to face the facts that I just have nothing, like what can I do? How do I get out of this situation? And

At the time, bankruptcy was the situation that we realised was going to be the best option for us and our situation just to give us that clean slate to wipe all those debts that we just could not repay and start over. And we did have to start over. We had to start over with nothing in our bank accounts, no properties, the very bare minimum and rebuild ourselves. our

bankruptcy was discharged in 2019. So five years later, we have our own property, we have our own home, we have pre -approval for an investment property, but we're tossing out whether we do that at the moment or just go on an amazing, epic family holiday at the end of the year. So I think we're leaning to that option at the moment. But we have these fantastic choices now that we get to make. And we'll probably do both because we're in that situation where

It's not a matter of how do we get through the week, but how do we enjoy our money more? What's going to be the best for our family? and you know what? The reason that we found the success and I'm not telling you this to brag or to boast or to make myself feel good. I'm telling you this because I know what it feels like to have nothing. And like I said, it was only five years ago. Our bankruptcy was just discharged and we had to

start over and figure out how to get to the point that I'm at now. And at first I've made all these mistakes. I listened to all this advice that just wasn't getting me anywhere. I was managing my money amazingly. I was looking at different strategies to invest, but it wasn't until I did my own learning and I learned that first I had to work from my mindset and then all the other strategies could work for me. So the reason I'm sharing

what is possible is for one, so you know that if it can work for me, why can it not happen for you? A lot of us have these limiting thoughts that in order, know, once we've had these big setbacks or this big financial hurdle we've had to overcome that it's going to be hard from now. We're just going to have to get by and you enter that sort of mentality that.

It's going to be a struggle. Money is a struggle. It's not something you can enjoy money. It's something that is hard. It's something you've got to work for. It's something that doesn't come easy to you maybe, or it's something that's just too hard for you to think about so you don't want to. But I want to show you, if you know that there are people that have been in your situation and have got over that, that gives you the evidence that it can work. And if it can work for me, why can it not work for you?

So what I discovered, There was nothing out there. I did a lot of research on the best way to recover from our bankruptcy. And at the time I didn't find anything that was a holistic approach to overcoming a bankruptcy. I found some great strategies, like I said, on making money, managing money. I found some great strategies on working on my mindset, but there was nothing that incorporated the two together.

So that is why I have been working so hard over the last year on, I've had this great idea that if I could create something that shows you the exact steps and the exact path to fast track your recovery that includes all of the best parts of the things that I have learned to teach you, then that's what I wanna do. I don't wanna keep my successes or

the things that I've found out through my own research just to myself. Because what's the point of that? I want to share that with people who are in the same situation that I'm currently in so that you can also get the most out of this situation. So I have created a program called the Bankruptcy Breakthrough Blueprint. And this is just a compilation of everything I've learned through my own journey. And it's designed not only to help you regain your financial stability, but also reach these amazing money goals that you

at the moment are probably only dreaming about, but you just have no idea how to get there. And that's why I'm so excited that I'm going to be launching this program starting from today. But I want to give you a few more ideas, though, on just how we can break this bankruptcy cycle, because I don't want you to be trapped in this this mindset that it's going to be hard. It's going to be a struggle because it definitely doesn't have to be

my whole point is just to empower people to have that financial understanding and feel empowered by their finances. So it's not just like giving you generic financial advice that you have. I've actually been through bankruptcy myself. I know what it's like. I'm not a financial advisor. I'm not

a money manager expert, but what I am is someone who has been where you are and know the exact steps you need to take to get there in the quickest way possible because I took the long way. So I intimately understand the emotional and practical challenges that you're facing right now. And by transforming my own experiences, I've created actionable guidance that you can then follow too.

And one of the other things that I noticed when I was researching ways to get over my bankruptcy is it's not just about the financial mechanics, like how do you manage your money? How do you budget? How do you increase your income? It's not all that stuff. When we were doing that stuff, and you might have heard me speak about this in previous episodes, we were still living paycheck to paycheck. No matter how many different strategies I tried, it wasn't until I dealt

deeper into transforming my money mindset that things started to shift. So that's a lot of what my course starts out to be. It's giving you that real insight into how you can transform your money mindset. And it's going to help you shift from that scarcity mindset into one of abundance so that you have long -term financial health. This is not a quick fix. This is something that will sustain you for the rest of your life.

When we fight out for our bankruptcy, our kids are young at a time, so I know what it feels like to have to raise your kids and have this scarcity mindset hovering over you and be so worried about being able to provide for your family. So one of my ultimate goals is just to be able to understand that financial stability impacts more than just you as an individual, but it's more about emphasizing

stable financial future for your entire family and setting them with a great role model they can follow from you. So to celebrate the launch of the Bankruptcy Breakthrough Blueprint, I'm really excited to open the doors to the program, like I said, starting today. But it's only going to be open for a limited time. But to kick things off, I'm going to be hosting a free masterclass called What's Stopping You Transform Your Financial Future After Bankruptcy.

And I'd really love for you to join me in this master class. I'm going to be sharing the exact same framework that I teach inside my PAY program. And this is the exact steps that you need. It's only four steps that you need to take. And in the master class, I'll be telling you the exact four steps. You could start applying these steps immediately in your life. So I really urge you to use the link in the show notes to register for this free

masterclass and in that masterclass if you want to learn more about the bankruptcy blueprint I'll give you a bit more detail about that. But let's talk a little bit more about why you need to break the bankruptcy cycle, why this is such an important thing for you. So if you're starting right now, if you're taking action right now, whether it's listening to my podcast, whether it's registering for this masterclass, whether it's choosing to enroll in the bankruptcy breakthrough blueprint,

If you're starting now, it means you can immediately begin to rebuild your confidence and financial stability. The more you put this off, the more you delay taking any actions towards the future you want, the harder it's going to be. So today is the best day to start. By taking action also, you're going to start avoiding any further financial setbacks. So the sooner you start

implementing any of the strategies that I talk about, the sooner you're to be able to avoid repeating the same financial mistakes you've made in the past. Now, if you are currently right in the middle of this crisis time where you're really stressed and worried about your money, then the quicker you can get on to help and support, the quicker you're going to start

putting steps into action and you're to prevent your situation from getting worse. Because quite often, I remember when we were initially going through or before we'd made the decision to go through our bankruptcy. It's so overwhelming. It's so stressful. I just don't ever remember a time feeling so stressed or worried in my life. And the easiest option when you're in that situation is always just to bury your head in the sand and think, my gosh, I just don't want to think about it.

And, you know, whether it's watching some mindless TV or scrolling through social media or just something to take your mind off it because you just want to avoid it. You don't even want to think about it. I know I've been there. Trust me. I understand. But the longer I put on off, the harder it got. So taking immediate action. Sometimes it's, you know, it's like ripping off that bandage. You just have to do it. You just have to take a step, dive in and start doing something, start taking some action.

Now anyone that is interested in joining the Bankruptcy Breakthrough Blueprint, you'll have an exclusive access to a really supportive community as well with all like -minded people. Now I actually have another community too. So if you're not doing the Bankruptcy Breakthrough Blueprint, you can still join my free Facebook group, which is Bankruptcy to Bliss. And that's also got a great community of individuals who've gone through bankruptcy or big financial setback and are just looking for

some different ways that they can look at recovering and it's a great support of space that you can also look at joining. Now what I want you to do right now is visualize your life one year from now as to where you see yourself, where would you like to be? Where would you like to be? Now from my own experience because like I said I didn't start figuring this out straight away

I didn't find the solution straight away. I tried a few different things and nothing really seemed to work for a couple of years. So one year from now, this is exactly where I was. So I don't know if you will relate to it. So in one year from now, without taking any more action, just keep doing what you're doing right now.

I found that I was still broke. We were still living paycheck to paycheck or dipping into savings or borrowing money. We just weren't getting ahead. We were still struggling with debt. We still had family members we owed money to. So if that's you, you might have to still be facing those financial difficulties like managing your debt. And it might lead to further financial distress or even

another bankruptcy down the track if you're still doing the same thing that got you there in the first place. A big one for me was just being stagnant. Like we did not feel like we were getting further. It didn't matter how much our pay increased, how much extra income we were bringing in. We weren't getting ahead. It was just like this, the exact same situation. And that's because we didn't break the habits we were doing prior to our bankruptcy. Even though we were earning the money.

if we still doing the same stuff, it's not really going to shift. So if you don't have that clear focus on your financial goals, because maybe it's due to lack of structural planning or guidance, you're going to also probably find yourself quite stagnant. Another massive one for me was having that persistent negative mindset now.

I was the one that was responsible for our finances prior to bankruptcy and I still am to this day. so being the one that responsible, if you have to go through bankruptcy, you'll you feel like you're the one that is your fault. You're the one that's done this. So as a result, this was my biggest hurdle was my mindset. I was constantly worried about every single cent my family spent. I was constantly saying we can't afford this or

micromanaging everybody's spending, micromanaging my husband's spending because I was just so fearful of every single dollar that we spent. And that really hindered our ability to get ahead because it was so restrictive. And I just didn't have that faith or that confidence within myself to be able to handle monies, which is probably a big reason why.

We didn't allow more money into our lives because I knew I couldn't handle it at that time. My mindset was not ready for it. My confidence wasn't ready for it. My financial self -worth wasn't ready for that. So a mindset shift, you know, if you're not changing everything, you'll probably find yourself with that persistent negative mindset as well. Another big thing I found was missed opportunities for growth. every minute is valuable if you're looking at building savings, having

interest on different accounts that you might hold or investing wisely. So the quickie get into these things like think about it. Have you ever looked back and think, if I only invested in this share or if I only put this amount of savings in my account each month, I've been in different situation. The time is now. We can't go back, but we're never going to be younger or have more opportunities than we do today for the rest of our life. So start now.

So don't miss that opportunity for growth. Another big thing is having that lack of confidence and hope. So if you're having these continual financial struggles without the proper support, it can lead you to decrease confidence and hope, which will make it way harder for you to make positive changes in your financial life down the track. And this is a really vital one that so many people overlook, but I think this is so vital, is having that community support.

And if you listen to my last episode on financial shame, this was a really big thing for us is having that support from people. And if you are going through bankruptcy, you might have discovered that it's a really taboo subject or it's not an openly discussed subject with a lot of friendship circles or a lot of support circles because people don't want to have to admit their failures sometimes. So.

without that support and without that community, you can feel quite isolated and alone and this can lead to shame and a lot of other negative feelings. So by having access to people who are in the same situation as you, this can really help you thrive and help you learn from what they're doing. It can help you see what's possible for you and it can just help give you ideas and support and encouragement and keep you accountable. And there's so many advantages.

of having others who are having a shared experience being able to help you, guide you through the process, not having to do it on your own.

And the final thing you might see yourself in a year from now, is still being constantly worried about money. Cause I know that's exactly where I was. I was worried, like I said, about every cent we were spending at the time. But the good news is that doesn't have to be that way. if you do want to do the masterclass or if you do want to just say yes to looking into the bankruptcy breakthrough blueprint.

This is what you could see your life as and this is the life I want for you because I know these are the things my one year goals.

In one year from now, can start to have your debt under control. Imagine what that would feel like not to have to worry about outstanding debts and just seeing yourself starting to have that financial still stability again. You'll have noticed financial progress. you'll be because you're making this steady progress. You'll start off with setting these small goals for yourself that you'll increase. You'll get your confidence built up again.

and you'll have that stability. You might have yourself an emergency fund. Your credit rating is going to be improving and you might even be looking at investing in one year from now. The biggest thing, though, is your mindset will be completely transformed and this is going to help you adopt positive beliefs and attitudes that empower you to make informed financial decisions and sustain lasting habits. So it's not just a quick fix. This is for life. This is something that once you do it and it

Once you start applying it to your money, you'll start applying it to all areas of your life and it is truly transformational. You'll be able to start seizing these financial opportunities. So if you start learning more about saving and investing, you're to be able to start taking advantage of any financial opportunities that come up for you and that can help you with your accumulating more money or having that stability and security. You'll have that increase.

confidence and hopes. So imagine feeling more confident and hopeful about your financial future and having the skills and knowledge to just navigate any financial challenges that come up. And the big thing was that supportive community. So having those people that are going through the same thing as you, that can share their wins, successes, guide you, teach you through their mistakes, keep you accountable is so, so valuable.

you start creating these consistent financial habits and that will just help you maintain what you've learned for the rest of your life because once as a habit, you will keep doing it because it's like, you know, have you ever heard that how you can't unlearn things? So once you know the way that you can get forward, you don't want to go back to your old ways because you know what you always were doing for you. So you know the path is only up from here.

if any of this sounds good to you, you're like, yes, this is what I need. I'm ready to take the next steps. I want to learn more. Then click the link below to sign up for my free masterclass. There's a few times you can choose from so you can choose a time that works for you. The link is in the show notes directly below. Don't miss out because it will teach you a little bit more so you can find out more about

the Bankruptcy Breakthrough Blueprint to see if it's right for you. And if it's right for you, then you'll be able to enroll through that Masterclass. If you have any questions, please make sure you comment below or send them in to me. Thank you so much for tuning in today's episode. I can't wait to see those of you at the Masterclass and if not, I'll see you on the next episode. Thank you so much for listening.