<prompt> Human: Hi PF thanks for the help,I am a 27 yo single female and have 17,000 in credit card debt long story, 8000 in unsecured loans, and 22,000 in student loans no degree yet, still in school. I work full-time but only make 25,000-30,000 per year depending on OT. I was barely skating by living paycheck to paycheck with no savings for the past few years, but recently I had an emergency come up and had to charge a large sum on one of my cards. With that addition I can no longer make my monthly payments and am going to go into the negative. I had a small reserve I pulled on for last month but this month will be the first month I have ever missed payments. I have been reading up on debt management vs debt settlement but based on what I have read it doesnt seem like either one of those is a very good idea. I also spoke with a bankruptcy lawyer who advised me I am eligible to file a chapter 7 bankruptcy to have everything but my student loans discharged, however it will cost me 2300 that I dont have. Said lawyer advised I stop making payments immediately to save for the bankruptcy fee and also advised I go buy a new car right now since its end of year clearance mine is 16 years old and falling apart w 220k miles, a new engine was the emergency that pushed me over but it still has the original transmission that could go anytime and I should get a reliable car with a warranty before my credit tanks. At this point I am completely overwhelmed by the entire situation and I have no idea what I should do, I would appreciate any input from those who have filed bankruptcy or those who have experience with this sort of thing. The repercussions of bankruptcy sound bad but as a single lady with no plans of buying a house is it really that bad?tl;drI have as much debt as I make in a year, Im about to start missing payments because I cant afford it, bankruptcy vs all other options.  <response>: Hard to imagine how you racked up this much debt, you say long story, but I suspect theres more than one long story.The idea behind buying a new car before bankruptcy is that when you negotiate your assets and liabilities, the courts may give you a break if you say you need your car to work and there are special exemptions for car loans here is an article about it. The risk is that the trustee would see that youre clearly trying to game the system and may refuse your application for bankruptcy and then youd be stuck with a car you cant afford on top of everything else.You didnt say how much you need to pay per month or what your income or expenses are but if youre unable to meet even the minimum payment on the cards the obvious only things you can do are to make more money or cut back expenses until you get this under control, and also avoid more emergencies or whatever is causing you to rack up the debt. This could mean moving into a cheaper place or taking on a roommate, getting more OT or hours or another job, etc.If you do declare bankruptcy but are living beyond your means and keep racking up debt, youll be really stuck in a couple of years because youll be in the same bad situation but wont be able to declare bankruptcy again. So be careful. 