Regret

[Keithh1632]

We retained our lawyer on 3/16 and filed on 5/10. Gathering all the paperwork did not seem all that hard as I thought it might be. My only regret is that I wish we had done it sooner. Why did we wait so long?

[researchnerd]

My thoughts were exactly the same. We're filing within the next week, and I can't help but wonder why we didn't do this a year ago or more. My attorney reminded me not to dwell on the past, but to handle things the best way I can moving forward. I think bankruptcy - at least in our culture - is a tough thing to wrap your head around for several reasons:

1) Despite the crappy economy and the fact that record numbers of people are filing BK these days, there is still some social stigma attached to it. It really isn't the end of the world, and there are laws in place to protect people from BK-related discrimination.

2) I think people have misconceptions about how to file BK and who is eligible, especially after the changes in 2005. I'm sure there are people who have more complicated situations, but ours has quite a few moving parts and the attorney still makes it sound pretty straightforward. I'm really hoping it continues to be as simple as it seems.

3) I also think people have misconceptions about the pros and cons of BK. Yes, it messes up your credit, but it also offers a lot of legal protections. A lot of people get stuck on that first part without considering the second.

4) BK can carry a lot of emotion with it. I found that I am able to deal with that better by thinking of it as a business decision, not a personal failure. Big corporations file for BK all the time without any emotion attached to it at all.