Some of the reasons for insolvency that I have seen in my experience in Dallas and Plano include the following:

• Under-capitalization
• Breaches of contracts; untrustworthy associates; New York lenders
• Unavoidable delay in the commencement of a new restaurant
• Medical debt
• Accidents and illnesses
• Theft
• Precipitous fall in a market
• Loss of credit; change of bank officer
• Credit card overuse
• Making only minimum payments and not stopping use of credit cards
• Following the advice of inexperienced investors
• Buying into questionable tax avoidance schemes
• Supporting grown children
• Tuition
• Not paying taxes
• Trusting family members and friends without supervision
• Home equity loans
• Paying creditors with exempt property like IRA’s
• Inadequate medical insurance
• Irresponsible spending on consumables such as expensive cars
• Not knowing when to stop pouring money into a failing business
• Theft: scams and get rich quick schemes
• Refusal to get a bankruptcy discharge when you can: not getting legal advice,  misunderstanding of what is biblically permissible, false pride, unreasonable fears, not filing before a marriage, moving in with a man with significant debt before a marriage (it can prevent him from obtaining a bankruptcy discharge)
• Gigolos
• Highly leveraged investments
• Wives working and raising children at the same time
• Alcoholism, promiscuity, adultery, indolence
• Excessive spending on consumables
• Student loans
• Impulse buying
• Signing things like onerous leases, guarantees, co-signing promissory notes or signing promissory notes for pleasure items.  Think: what is your name on right now?
• Not reading what you are signing – or worse, thinking that it is not important
• Contracting with inflexible, unfair and gouging people
• Thinking that a potential spouse is honest and reliable because he or she is likeable; not checking them out
• Hiring cheap lawyers.
• Hiring lawyers because they are attractive and really nice rather than because they can really answer your questions and are trustworthy.
• Hiring cheap lawyers

Charles Chesnutt, Dallas 2010