The Streetwise Guide to Going Broke without Losing your Shirt

By Alex Coxon

Hmmmmmmm. Tricky one this. We are going to tell you all of the tricks, tips, cons and cheats to avoid bankruptcy. ‘Irresponsible?’ we hear someone say. Probably a rather pompous fellow in the corner of the room who has never taken a financial risk in their life. But he does have a point.

We do not want people running around the world, chalking up debts and then running off leaving little old ladies without their life savings. People who do that are complete arseholes and deserve everything that society can throw at them – starting with rotten tomatoes in the stocks and finishing with some time at ‘her majesty’s pleasure’.

But for every genuine arsehole there are thousands of well meaning souls who get into financial difficulty without meaning to. It can be bad luck, bad advice, bad judgment or a combination of all three. In virtually all cases their biggest creditor will be a bank and it is banks that trigger most bankruptcies in the world.

Now banks losing money are somewhat different to little old ladies. Banks are in the business of taking risks. To them, bad debts are just a part of business. No one is going to lose their life savings. No one is even likely to lose their jobs. Banks budget for bad debts every year and every year they write off billions of dollars of debts world wide.

Some of those debts are owed by little old ladies, who they have little concern over bankrupting. Some of those debts are owed by struggling businesses, the closure of which will cause hundreds or thousands of people to lose their jobs. They do not care. Some of those debts are owed by struggling third world countries which they cannot do anything about, which really annoys them.

For banks generally can do many, many things to recover their money. They have whole departments whose job it is just to squeeze you for every dollar. They have very expensive lawyers. They have unbelievable power over your finances. Their documentation gives them the ability to demand the return of their money almost on their whim. They can kick you out of your house, steal your car from your driveway at midnight, move into your business and use the police to escort you from your own premises.

They are ruthless in using every weapon in their formidable armory to milk you dry – and then bankrupt you anyway. So this book is aimed at leveling the playing field a little bit.

You will learn how to bamboozle their bureaucracy, subvert their powers, protect your assets, counter attack and negotiate to get the best deal you can.

A word of caution. This ebook will show you how to manipulate your figures and manipulate the banking system to protect you from their power. Done correctly, the bank will not even know that they have been manipulated. They may even buy you lunch afterwards – though don’t count on it! To do so you may end up deluding your banker. It is fundamentally important that you do not delude yourself. By all means encourage your banker to live in cloud cuckoo land but keep your own feet firmly on the ground.

Insolvency can be an intensely stressful pastime so we have written this book with a degree of levity, but bankruptcy is a very serious undertaking. As such, it must be undertaken with caution and care. While this book will encourage you to 'do it yourself' as much as possible, neither we nor the publishers accept any responsibility if you stuff it up, so if you are in any doubt you should consult your accountant or lawyer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alex Coxon
• Release date: Aug 22, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466057005

Book preview

Copyright 2011 The Streetwise Guide

Smashwords Edition

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This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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About Streetwise Guides

Streetwise, adj. Having the shrewd resourcefulness needed to survive in an urban environment

You can have all the business qualifications in the world, but without knowing your way around the rough and tumble of business you will have little chance of success. There are myriad stories of MBA graduates, global marketing managers, ex heads of multi nationals, highly qualified academics, experienced accountants and lawyers who have tried to run their own business and failed miserably. Conversely, there are far more stories of individuals who have left school in their teens and built up very successful businesses. Some of these have become household names - Richard Branson, Charles E. Culpepper, George Eastman, Henry Ford, Soichiro Honda, Ray Kroc, John D. Rockefeller, Vidal Sassoon.

A survey of 500 UK business owners and managers (of businesses with more than 50 employees) by The Institute of Leadership and Management found that only 32% had a university degree, 12% left school under the age of 16 and 7% did not even leave school with a basic school certificate.

What these individuals lacked in formal education they made up for with their streetwise skills. However many of those would have learnt those skills the hard way, struggling for the first few years as they learnt the street fighting rules that you often need in business to survive and prosper.

The Streetwise Guides will give you those skills. They will teach you how to work the system to your advantage. They will reveal the secrets and expose much of the hypocrisy in the business world, especially when dealing with bankers, accountants, lawyers and other business professionals. They will also teach you how to do business with the big end of town. They will show you the strengths and weaknesses of the Corporate World and teach you how they think so that you understand how best to deal with them, whether as a customer, supplier, creditor or debtor.

The Streetwise Guide authors always welcome feedback and can be contacted on

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Chapter 1 – Introduction…

Hmmmmmmm. Tricky one this. We are going to tell you all of the tricks, tips, cons and cheats to avoid bankruptcy. ‘Irresponsible?’ we hear someone say. Probably a rather pompous fellow in the corner of the room who has never taken a financial risk in their life. But he does have a point.

We do not want people running around the world, chalking up debts and then running off leaving little old ladies without their life savings. People who do that are complete arseholes and deserve everything that society can throw at them – starting with rotten tomatoes in the stocks and finishing with some time at ‘her majesty’s pleasure’.

But for every genuine arsehole there are thousands of well meaning souls who get into financial difficulty without meaning to. It can be bad luck, bad advice, bad judgment or a combination of all three. In virtually all cases their biggest creditor will be a bank and it is banks that trigger most bankruptcies in the world.

Now banks losing money are somewhat different to little old ladies. Banks are in the business of taking risks. To them, bad debts are just a part of business. No one is going to lose their life savings. No one is even likely to lose their jobs. Banks budget for bad debts every year and every year they write off billions of dollars of debts world wide.

Some of those debts are owed by little old ladies, who they have little concern over bankrupting. Some of those debts are owed by struggling businesses, the closure of which will cause hundreds or thousands of people to lose their jobs. They do not care. Some of those debts are owed by struggling third world countries which they cannot do anything about, which really annoys them.

For banks generally can do many, many things to recover their money. They have whole departments whose job it is just to squeeze you for every