Hindsight is 20/20, so what would you have done differently since you filed?

[andy158]

Same here. Still tried getting back up after several knock out punches for 2 years. Liquidated savings, 401 money and refi money to finally admit defeat last year. Keep your conscience and humility out of it and do what is financially right. Life is too short.

[cosmicmama]

I never would have used all my home equity to buy that damned coffee shop...

[fireworks]

Man...what would I have done differently.

-not start my business on a credit card
-not lease that space that was such a good deal when it was time for a storefront
-not use student loan money to finance my business
-finished my degree rather that go into business full-time

Had I stayed in college, I could have graduated this past spring and I could be working now making $50K+ (realistic starting salary in my field), we could live in a better house and have started a family. Instead I'm filing for bankruptcy, making half of what I could if I had finished school, still living in the same house in the near-ghetto, trying to find a way to go back to school in the fall, facing 3 more years before I get my degree, but needing enough income to pay the bills in the meantime.

Whew..that was a rant.

[tigergem]

I would have horded my savings more jealously instead of letting it burn a hole in some pocket.

I never would have married a sociopath. Seriously.

Or I never would have gotten sick and gone on disability.

Beyond that, I think I "woulda coulda shoulda" filed at least a couple of years sooner than I did.

But whatever. You can't undo what's done. All you can do is move forward and create a better destiny for yourself.

[woeisme]

I would have filed BEFORE the law changed, so I could have done a CH 7 instead of serving out my 5-year CH 13 sentence. But maybe I wouldn't have learned as much that way and I'd be in debt again.... so perhaps it's all for the best.

I would have definitely got a new car and upped some of my expenses to reduce my disposable income. Instead I was living as frugally and bare-boned as possible and now am forced to continue to do so for the duration of my CH 13 since that's what my expenses were on the forms used to generate my plan.

[sofarsogood2]

Of course, wish I hadn't gotten into this mess in the first place- but no regrets since filing. Major stress reliever, gets your priorities in order, puts a light at the end of a dark tunnel. Many lessons learned.

[Crozier]

I would have never refinanced my home, bought a luxury vehicle because it looked cool, or borrowed against a retirement account to remodel the house. I also would have filed BK a year earlier. Oh, I would have kept better records of my finances.

[LJoutWest]

We messed up in selling a small 4 bedroom 1800 square foot home with a $800 a month payment for a 3 bedroom 3 1/2 bath 4200 square foot home (new) with an unfinished basement for $1700 a month. We'd have been ok but then we refinanced it into an adjustable rate mortgage to pay off debt and our payment jumped to around $3500 a month. What I feared about that new home was that the payment, even the first one, pushed us to the top of what we could afford and if a major medical expense happen we would become very limited in about ability to meet our obligations. The major medical hit with me and that shoved us over the edge to where we could not refinance out of the loan and then the spiral just continued. The morale, live not within one's means, but below ones means. We should have kept the first home, my wife would have had an hour commute for 2 years each way to work but then she could have used a new commuter train that went in. For us moving forward, we will buy a place that we could afford on my salary (my wife makes much more than I) if my wife were to lose her income. Then pay cash for everything else.

[tbon]

Hell...I would've filed BEFORE BK13 laws changed in 05 .... I would've probably got the 36 month deal instead of 60 ..... oh well....