Paying down your debts can be essential especially with consumer debt like credit cards. Building up an emergency savings account can be crucial to enhancing your quality of life and preparing for the worst case scenario. Most consumers in the United States today have more credit card debt than they have access to emergency savings, this can seem like the average cost for modern living but it can be a huge threat to someone’s financial stability.

The rate in the US of credit card bills that outweigh savings is a higher rate than ever before. We are nearly at a credit crisis that we haven’t faced in almost a decade. With around 18% of individuals across the United States that carry no credit card debt, there’s only a small portion of the population that are not affected in their savings from credit debt as a whole.

Low income households continue to regularly face higher credit card debt and this prevents any amount of savings. Individuals that make less than $30,000 per year often sit with some of the highest amount of credit card debt and no way to access an emergency savings fund.

With 33% of households in the United States sitting with incomes at this level, it can be very difficult for US citizens to buck this trend.

As credit card debt continues to grow one of the best ways that you may be able to break the debt cycle is to consider the option for bankruptcy. An increasing number of US citizens are now continuing to work towards establishing a financial safety net by resetting their debt. Seeking debt relief with bankruptcy can be an optimal way to avoid the growing balances of extremely high interest rates and to start saving for financial emergencies.

This post was written by Trey Wright, a bankruptcy lawyer in Tallahassee. Trey is one of the founding partners of Bruner Wright, P.A. Attorneys at Law, which specializes in areas related to bankruptcy law, estate planning, and business litigation.