I have a bachelors in business finance and I will complete my MBA next month. I was laid off about 20 months ago. The same week I was laid off I found out my wife was pregnant. We now have 3 children. I was eligible for unemployment and it did not last for very long. I then picked employment where I made 60% less than I was previously making to make ends meet. I now have gainful employment and I am making about 15% less than 20 months ago.

My wife and I will have student loans coming due in about 6 months and I am considering using my credit cards to payoff auto loans and other secured debts that are in both our names. When the student loans come due we will not be able to pay all of what is due every month with no end in sight. After being unemployed, we did very well keeping our heads above water however we are now feeling the pinch of our delayed situation. We feel if bankruptcy is our only solution we should use our credit cards to pay off everything.

We are considering filing bankruptcy under one of our names and NOT a joint bankruptcy so as to avoid having to forfeit any assets like the autos, etc. If we do this we should be able to retain all assets because it is not a joint filing. All of the credit cards we would use would be in wife’s name. Are there any issues with this?

Technorati Tags: assets, auto loans, bachelors in business, business finance, credit cards, debts, eligible for unemployment, feeling the pinch, filing bankruptcy, gainful employment, mba, student loans

I am an undergraduate student at a major American four-year university, where I study Computer Science in my Senior year. I am preparing to graduate on-time and with a GPA of approximately 3.4. I am highly involved in academia and extra-curricular research. I have a genuine passion for the subject matter, which is not reflected in my still-respectable grades. I am particularly interested in the fields of cryptography and data security, and intend to do research with my professors my senior year, and hopefully publish, which is not something every undergraduate student can say.

I have no intentions of leaving the academic environment yet. I am simply learning too much and "having too much fun", if you will (and I don’t mean partying, either). I have no desire to leave this environment for a stagnant middle-class work-force employment, and thus am preparing to apply to various institutions in pursuit of my Masters.

This is the largest crossroads I have reached in my life, and I intend to utilize it to the fullest.

Looking around me, I am extremely disillusioned with the current American lifestyle. I can look out my window every morning in the middle of rush-hour and see grid-locked cars for as far as the eye can see in every direction, all at a dead stop, and no reasonable public transportation alternatives, thanks to the big oil corporations that seem to run our country. Driving is terrible, dangerous, stressful, and I do not enjoy it. I wish I didn’t even have to own a car, let alone drive it every day, but it seems this society has evolved in such a way that you cannot be perceived as a successful, well-rounded individual without owning a giant gas-guzzler.

I’m watching the giant corporations that have built this country out-source all their labor overseas, leaving our citizens bereft of gainful employment. Then these same businesses declare bankruptcy, abandoning what employees they have left, while their CEO’s pleasantly depart with multi-million dollar personal severances.

I’m watching the average intelligence of the American citizen steadily decline, fed by the constant stream of fear-mongering, FUD, and mindlessly stupid "entertainment" that’s spoon-fed to them by American media.

I’m watching the government slowly and inexorably violate every one of our civil liberties and constitutional freedoms in the name of keeping us safe. I’m watching laws get proposed and passed without objection that would treat us like criminals, criminals that are guilty until proven innocent.

More relevantly, I’m watching my peers, those who are genuinely passionate about things like free and open-source software, freedom of information, and effective transparent security, muscled out of the industry by the posturing and threats of the MPAA and the RIAA. I’m watching copyright law and the DMCA slowly strangulate the innovation and freely-discussed invention that has carried technology this far.

I don’t want to live in, or raise children in, this environment.

I’m done. This game sucks. I want out.

I am looking to utilize this opportunity to apply to earn a Masters degree overseas in another country, and hopefully find a way to stay. I will admit to not being as worldly as I would like, and am seeking guidance as to where to begin my search.

I am seeking a country with a flourishing and prosperous technological industry, with major academic institutions that are very active in Computer Science research and development, and are adequately funded.

I am seeking a country with a robust public transportation system and, I would imagine, the relatively low percentage of car ownership that comes along with that.

I am seeking a country with the copyright law and civil liberties protections that will become more and more relevant to my personal prosperity as I continue in the field of cryptography and mathematics.

I am seeking a country with an accessible and reasonable process by which I may one day hope to become a citizen.

I have previously taken classes in Latin, Spanish, and Japanese, and have found myself with a natural aptitude for learning other languages, although I never persisted in any of them long enough to develop an extensive vocabulary. I am prepared now, however, to seriously learn a second language, whatever language that is.

I am seeking guidance on countries to consider, languages to begin learning, schools to apply to, the process that is necessary to study abroad, skills to acquire that will prove useful, any American or foreign legal processes that are best initiated as soon as possible, and any other relevant recommendations to what is going to be the largest decision of my life.

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