It would be nice to see your personal list of creditors and amounts for everyone

[FU2MI]

Primary Residence

160k

Rental 1

80k

Rental 2

73k

Rental 3

116k

Credit cards

BOA: 17k
CHASE: 11k
AMEX: 10k
CITI: 8k

TOTAL: 475K

nice to see some people in my shoes...

Goodluck to everyone!!

[debtmonster]

Primary Residence
160k
Rental 1
80k
Rental 2
73k
Rental 3
116k
Credit cards
BOA: 17k
CHASE: 11k
AMEX: 10k
CITI: 8k
TOTAL: 475K

nice to see some people in my shoes...

Goodluck to everyone!!

Yep! Welcome to the BK club. Did you go BK on all of this already? Contimplating? Or is it in process?

[Stilltheone]

I'm entitled to drive that BMW. Other people who have one are no more special than me. Everyone should have one, or at the very least a Porsche Cayenne Turbo.

Ya know, I thought that too about my Cadillac Escalade. "I want it, I gotta have it". Didn't matter to me that my payment almost doubled, didn't matter that gas and insurance went up. I just "wanted it".

Funny thing is when my husband's pay got cut, my first thought was "Why did I buy that damn Escalade?"

Now, after filing bankruptcy, being brought to a new low, I don't think I'm "entitled" to my Escalade anymore. In fact, it somewhat embarasses me to drive. (hence the reason I have been trying like HECK to trade it in on a Chevy minivan)

When I get behind the wheel, I don't feel as if I "deserve" it. I don't feel as if I've "earned" it. I feel like I am lying to the world around me. In fact, everytime I get in it, I hit it (lightly) with my fist because it has been such a thorn in my side. I hate it with a passion. It signifies money and power and I'm tired of pretending I have both. <sigh>

I know you're trying to "lighten the mood", but bankruptcy is a serious matter. It's not something to laugh about.

[Cali]

When you got it did you think you could afford it? Or did you buy it just because it was an Escalade?

Ya know, I thought that too about my Cadillac Escalade. "I want it, I gotta have it". Didn't matter to me that my payment almost doubled, didn't matter that gas and insurance went up. I just "wanted it".

Funny thing is when my husband's pay got cut, my first thought was "Why did I buy that damn Escalade?"

Now, after filing bankruptcy, being brought to a new low, I don't think I'm "entitled" to my Escalade anymore. In fact, it somewhat embarasses me to drive. (hence the reason I have been trying like HECK to trade it in on a Chevy minivan)

When I get behind the wheel, I don't feel as if I "deserve" it. I don't feel as if I've "earned" it. I feel like I am lying to the world around me. In fact, everytime I get in it, I hit it (lightly) with my fist because it has been such a thorn in my side. I hate it with a passion. It signifies money and power and I'm tired of pretending I have both. <sigh>

I know you're trying to "lighten the mood", but bankruptcy is a serious matter. It's not something to laugh about.

[Stilltheone]

When you got it did you think you could afford it? Or did you buy it just because it was an Escalade?

We traded in our Pontiac Montana van. Our payment was $270.

The sales guy at the dealership pressured me into the Escalade. Our payment is $460.

I think it was a little of both. I had the sales guy and my husband, saying "You can afford it", but it scared me to death. Yet, at the same time, I wanted it BECAUSE it was an Escalade.

Now, I can't even stand to look at it. If my husband didn't drive 100 miles a day roundtrip to work, I'd let him drive it and I'd take his clunker.

[debtmonster]

The sales guy at the dealership pressured me into the Escalade. Our payment is $460.

$460?!?!? THAT'S ALL!?!??! How did you get it so cheap??! Are you nuts?! My BMW payment was $740! If my payment was only $460, I would eat Ramen noodles for years to be able to keep it if I had to.

I didn't originally start out with the BMW. I had a Saturn Vue Hybrid that I was paying $600/mo. on. It broke down 9 times in the first year. It left my wife stranded 3 times where we had to get the tow truck and tow it to the dealer from electrical problems. After going back to the dealer all of those times, that's why I was like, "Awe what the heck, for $130 more I could be driving a Bimmer and not deal with this BS." When you're making $7000-9000/mo., $740/mo. payments is not an issue. Just look at all of the people in California who are paying $3500/mo. for rent when they are making $10,000/mo. Same difference.

I can have a cheap beater car just as long as me or my wife DO NOT HAVE JOBS. Once you have a job, you need something reliable when you're driving 70 miles per day. Being that both of us are gonna be unemployed, now we won't need the BMW anymore. I found an old 91 Nissan Sentra for $1500. Something like that would have to make due for a while. Once my BK is over and they take both of our cars, I'll get something cheap like that.

I learned my lesson with the BMW. For now on, I will buy one "USED" instead of paying $43,000 for a brand new one. I can get a nice 5-year old BMW 3-series for the same price that we paid for our Saturn Ion. That makes me sick. While a 5 year old Saturn has major squeaks and rattles, a 5 year old BMW still drives like a brand new car (unless it was wrecked.)

[Stilltheone]

$460?!?!? THAT'S ALL!?!??! How did you get it so cheap??! Are you nuts?! My BMW payment was $740! If my payment was only $460, I would eat Ramen noodles for years to be able to keep it if I had to.

I didn't originally start out with the BMW. I had a Saturn Vue Hybrid that I was paying $600/mo. on. It broke down 9 times in the first year. It left my wife stranded 3 times where we had to get the tow truck and tow it to the dealer from electrical problems. After going back to the dealer all of those times, that's why I was like, "Awe what the heck, for $130 more I could be driving a Bimmer and not deal with this BS." When you're making $7000-9000/mo., $740/mo. payments is not an issue. Just look at all of the people in California who are paying $3500/mo. for rent when they are making $10,000/mo. Same difference.

I can have a cheap beater car just as long as me or my wife DO NOT HAVE JOBS. Once you have a job, you need something reliable when you're driving 70 miles per day. Being that both of us are gonna be unemployed, now we won't need the BMW anymore. I found an old 91 Nissan Sentra for $1500. Something like that would have to make due for a while. Once my BK is over and they take both of our cars, I'll get something cheap like that.

I learned my lesson with the BMW. For now on, I will buy one "USED" instead of paying $43,000 for a brand new one. I can get a nice 5-year old BMW 3-series for the same price that we paid for our Saturn Ion. That makes me sick. While a 5 year old Saturn has major squeaks and rattles, a 5 year old BMW still drives like a brand new car (unless it was wrecked.)

I didn't buy a brand new Escalade. I bought a 4 year old one with 80K miles on it. After all was said and done, my original loan amount was $21,500. Now, the Escalade will be rounding 100K miles anyday now and I STILL owe $19K on it.

I'm sorry, but going from a $270 monthly payment to $460 was a huge jump for us...One that I'm STILL kicking myself for.

Well, what can I say? You bought a Saturn. 'Nuff said.

My husband, the one who actually goes to work everyday (and drives 100 miles a day round trip) drives a beater car. He has my old car, that I got brand new for graduation....a 1998 Chevy Camaro. It has almost 190K miles on it and it has to last us at least another year or 2.

Regardless, I hate my Escalade, wish a million times over that I had gotten rid of it when I had the chance. I don't feel "entitled" to it. I feel ashamed of it, embarassed, and wish everytime I get behind the wheel that I didn't have to "pretend" that I have money. I'm tired of putting on the "act". <sigh>

[debtmonster]

I didn't buy a brand new Escalade. I bought a 4 year old one with 80K miles on it. After all was said and done, my original loan amount was $21,500. Now, the Escalade will be rounding 100K miles anyday now and I STILL owe $19K on it.

I'm sorry, but going from a $270 monthly payment to $460 was a huge jump for us...One that I'm STILL kicking myself for.

Well, what can I say? You bought a Saturn. 'Nuff said.

My husband, the one who actually goes to work everyday (and drives 100 miles a day round trip) drives a beater car. He has my old car, that I got brand new for graduation....a 1998 Chevy Camaro. It has almost 190K miles on it and it has to last us at least another year or 2.

Regardless, I hate my Escalade, wish a million times over that I had gotten rid of it when I had the chance. I don't feel "entitled" to it. I feel ashamed of it, embarassed, and wish everytime I get behind the wheel that I didn't have to "pretend" that I have money. I'm tired of putting on the "act". <sigh>

Gotcha. I didn't know it was old. I've owned many Camaro Z28's in the past. I used to get leaks. Is it a 6 or 8 cylinder Camaro? I remember that Camaro having a sticker price of about $18,000 for the 6-cylinder. My Z28 was $25,000. I was paying $500/mo. on that back in 1999. I had a job paying $33/hr. back then.

Yeah, that would be upsetting to owe all that money on a car with 100,000 miles. Those things are so upside down now, it's not even funny.

What was the household income at the time for the big jump in payment?

[Stilltheone]

Gotcha. I didn't know it was old. I've owned many Camaro Z28's in the past. I used to get leaks. Is it a 6 or 8 cylinder Camaro? I remember that Camaro having a sticker price of about $18,000 for the 6-cylinder. My Z28 was $25,000. I was paying $500/mo. on that back in 1999. I had a job paying $33/hr. back then.

Yeah, that would be upsetting to owe all that money on a car with 100,000 miles. Those things are so upside down now, it's not even funny.

What was the household income at the time for the big jump in payment?

My Camaro is a V-6. We've had the usual maintenance stuff, but nothing major. I've had 2 accidents with it also. My husband is a store manager for an automotive place, so he's pretty on top of our cars.

I have no clue how much it cost back in '98 when my parents bought it. It was my high school graduation gift. Never saw the price.

"Upsetting" is not the word I have for owing what we owe on that stupid Escalade. We've been to dealership after dealership and the most we've been offered is $11,400 for trade in. It's pretty hard to roll in $8500 of negative equity.

At the time we bought the Escalade, my husband was making $60K/year. Of course, we had $60K in credit card debt, plus our $260K mortgage and then took on the extra payment. But, according to the sales guy "We could afford it".

It's funny because we went back to the original dealership we bought the Escalade from about a month ago and they offered us $8500 to trade it in. I flipped out---"Are you serious?!?! We just bought it, LESS THAN A YEAR AGO FROM YOU FOR ALMOST $22K AND YOU'RE OFFEREING ME $8500?!?!?"

The same sales guy that said we could afford the Escalade pulled our credit and saw our bankruptcy. I said "Do you still think we can afford the Escalade now?"

[debtmonster]

At only him making $60k with a $260k mortgage, yeah, there's NO WAY you could afford that at the time. That's way too much house for that little money. I bought my house for $120k and I was making $40k at the time which was not much less!! I could not even dream of buying a $260k home on $60k. That's just INSANITY!!

GM cars DROP LIKE A STONE!! I remember my Camaro's always being worth 50% of what I paid after 2 years. This is exactly why I am including BOTH my cars in the BK. I have no desire to re-affirm either of them because they are so buried upside down just like your Escalade. I owe $37k on that Bimmer and it's barely worth $20k as a trade. I owe $13k on my Saturn and it's worth maybe $5-6k as a trade. FORGET THAT!! They can HAVE THEM BACK and I'll buy a beater car for now.

What I'm worried about is where we will live after the sheriff kicks us out. We'll have a BK on our credit report and we'll have no money and no way to rent. We'll literally be homeless.

My first Camaro was $17,500. I was making $42k at the time I bought it. It was repo'd in 1996. The bank hasn't forgotten about it all this time. It's still on their books as active. I called to get the information for the BK. They said the current payoff is $17,600!! MORE THAN WHAT I PAID FOR THE CAR after I did a year's worth of payments!! WOW!

After I lost this car, I got an '89 Grand Prix with 130,000 miles on it. It had tons of problems. I got a $500 motorcycle and drove that around, which also had tons of problems. I got tired of all of the repairs and that's why I went back to buying brand new cars again. Some how the repo's fell off and they sold me another car again. Then in 1991 I bought a VW for $19,000. I lost my job when Bush Sr. became president and we had that other recession. I couldn't get a job to save my life after sending out thousands of resumes. Then they repo'd that as well. It's like no matter what you do, you can't beat the system. You either make car payments forever, or you constantly drive a car that leaves you stranded on a regular basis.

I am just getting tired of it. Anytime I buy a new car, something always happens 1 to 3 years later. Beater cars don't work for me since I always drive 20,000 to 30,000 miles per year. The cars wear out and have tons of problems. When I had that VW repo'd, I had 18,000 miles on the car in only 8 months!!! It was a lease. I'm sure they were pissed off about that.

[Stilltheone]

At only him making $60k with a $260k mortgage, yeah, there's NO WAY you could afford that at the time. That's way too much house for that little money. I bought my house for $120k and I was making $40k at the time which was not much less!! I could not even dream of buying a $260k home on $60k. That's just INSANITY!!

GM cars DROP LIKE A STONE!! I remember my Camaro's always being worth 50% of what I paid after 2 years. This is exactly why I am including BOTH my cars in the BK. I have no desire to re-affirm either of them because they are so buried upside down just like your Escalade. I owe $37k on that Bimmer and it's barely worth $20k as a trade. I owe $13k on my Saturn and it's worth maybe $5-6k as a trade. FORGET THAT!! They can HAVE THEM BACK and I'll buy a beater car for now.

What's sad is when we bought this house, we bought it for $200K, with my husband making $40K. We refi'ed twice, rolling in $60K worth of cc debt. Now, my husband makes about $55K/year, after having a pay cut and then eventually getting a promotion. It's nice without the credit cards, but the Escalade payment is dragging us down.

You will only find GM cars in this driveway. We've owned Pontiacs (Montana/Grand Prix GTP), Chevy's (Camaros/Pick ups) and now Cadillac. If it's not a Chevy or a Pontiac, forgedda'bout it. I'd love to get a Venture and my husband wants a GTO...someday. It's not looking too great right now.

At least you're not reaffirming. I *WISH* we didn't reaffirm the Escalade, but, at the time, it was worth $24K...now I can't even get $14K out of it.

"Other recession"? Dude, I was 11 years old when Bush Sr. took office. I don't REMEMBER the "other recession".

[landofpoor]

think someone found company lol

[Stilltheone]

think someone found company lol

Sorry, as I was typing my last post, I thought to myself "Gosh, I've gotten off track".

This is my last post on this thread. My apologies!

[Tbornetun]

That is not what landofpoor was talking about. Your fine.

[Cali]

If I am paying for something, there is no way I am going to be pressured into getting anything I don't want.

We traded in our Pontiac Montana van. Our payment was $270.

The sales guy at the dealership pressured me into the Escalade. Our payment is $460.

I think it was a little of both. I had the sales guy and my husband, saying "You can afford it", but it scared me to death. Yet, at the same time, I wanted it BECAUSE it was an Escalade.

Now, I can't even stand to look at it. If my husband didn't drive 100 miles a day roundtrip to work, I'd let him drive it and I'd take his clunker.