There will definitely be negative effects from bankruptcy on your financial future for quite a while, but you can do things to make them better and speed the process along.

What you need to understand is that financial institutions judge whether they want to do business with you based on your financial history. Your credit score is calculated based on the information in your credit report, a record of your history. Now that record has “bankruptcy” marked all over it, and while this is a fresh start for you in many way, companies do not know if you will make payments on time because it is clearly marked that you have had problems in the past. This will stay on your credit report for 10 years.

That doesn’t mean you can’t move forward and have a better score sooner than that, however. You just need to take some time and make some effort to build up a history of positive payments on top of that. With enough work rebuilding credit after bankruptcy you can have an acceptable score in as little as two years.

Without it, you will feel the negative effects in multiple areas. This will come up whenever a credit check is performed, which is more often than you may think. This will affect your ability to rent a car or an apartment, buy a home, or get a loan. If will come up when you go to get any kind of insurance, and you will have very high rates. Many employers now perform credit checks and will see that you’ve discharged your debts.

People can be very judgmental about this, they will care about why you did it. Have a short one to two sentence explanation prepared for these situations (it was medical, I just went through a divorce, etc).

While these effects will spread to many areas of your life, don’t forget that you can rebuild your credit and move forward–don’t let this stop you from living your life.

While this eight-page document is meant to ensure that only the most “qualified” of filers use bankruptcy as a way to eliminate their debt, the Chapter 7 means test is clearly not meant to frighten or intimidate filers.

When determining whether an individual qualifies for bankruptcy protection, the bankruptcy courts will first determine whether the person filing meets the median income level determined by the Census Bureau for their specific state. As far as the Chapter 7 means test is concerned, if income is anywhere below the median, then the determination of presumption will be made.

As for median income levels, they are readily available on most websites that discuss bankruptcy and its process. The median levels for single people range anywhere from a low of $32,348 in Mississippi to a high of $57,505 in Connecticut.

When submitting to the Chapter 7 Means Test, if the presumption does not arise based on the income levels, then additional questions will need to be answered. Many of them will require that the filer obtain “basic allowance amounts” from the IRS website for such things as housing expenses, living expenses, and so forth. When the actual amounts exceed the basic amounts, the application will be subjected to further scrutiny to eliminate the potential for fraud.

And ultimately the Chapter 7 Means Test exists for that very reason – to avoid fraudulent personal bankruptcy filings. But with that in mind, the Chapter 7 means test allows even the most financially mismanaged individual plenty of opportunity to meet the determination of presumption requirements. Fields such as charitable contributions and additional necessary expenses are provided, so that instances where the Census Bureau and/or IRS-maximums are far exceeded, with proper reason and evidence can still be included for the purposes of the Chapter 7 means test.

Remember, filing for bankruptcy is a stressful event. For that reason, the US Bankruptcy Courts have asked just 57 questions when subjecting filers to the Chapter 7 means test. These questions are all located on Official Form 22A and can be completed independently or with the assistance of a bankruptcy professional.