I have completed my 2nd "Debtor Education" course (which made a few good points but was mostly patronizing. I may have been dumb in some ways, but not that dumb!). Now, if all goes well the final part of this process is the 341 and then hopefully the closing.
I was just reflecting on what a long journey it has been already! The two meetings with the Attorney's office, the mess of getting all that paperwork together (six months of pay stubs, 2 years state and fed taxes, two months of all bank statements, all the bills, W2's, all the stuff the attorney had me fill out). The two mandatory courses, the whole process of deciding for sure to do it and then figuring out how to pay for it (regretably, through my now-defunked HSA but it is cheaper to take the tax fall then to keep trying to pay people to avoid garnishment!).
Of course, I cannot help but look at the wasteland that my finances have been for a number of years and kick myself. You see, I am not one of those "medical disaster" filers for BK, I just plain made some serious mistakes.
Way back in 1995, I got the bright idea of going back to school to finish my degree, which I did. I already had student loan debt and I took on a great deal more, as in 30,000 or so more. I had thought of going on to law school, but I thank goodness now I decided against it because I am already in a lot of student loan debt, mercifully none of it the dreaded private SL's, that I cannot discharge now. In fact, my student loans are the reason I am filing on the $45,000.00 I have in other unsecured debt. I would tough it out and pay it up were it not for those. There is, however the even messier story of how I got into all that debt!
When I returned to school, my whole financial picture was thrown out of wack. I found myself working less to deal with the school stuff. I studied like crazy, threw myself into research and kind of let the rest of world alone. I barely noticed until I had a whole lot of debt that I was using credit cards to live on, even though I always worked at least 25-30 hours a week and had student loans too I was racking up debt just on clothes, food, nothing really lavish at all just, ya know, stuff (including "retail therapy" trip to Victoria's Secret and way to many and dinners out). Careless, silly, and no big baubles or anything of tangible value much to show for it, or even any spectacular vacations.
I paid the cards faithfully though until about 2001. Then, when I could no longer do it (my income did not meet my expectations after graduating, old story!) I simply stopped paying most of them. I picked up some additional debts here and there, at the time I filed I had two good credit cards in excellent standing and also a judgement for around 16,000 that I paid on faithfully for the past few years. I was also getting increasingly nasty notices from Arrow Financial, who was saying I owed them 18,000 on a debt that had originally been around 7,000. My original load of card debt was probably "only" about 18-20 grand, but in waiting around for magic to happen to enable me to pay these people off, I grew it to more than double that.
I look back, and I wonder how an intelligent, professional person like myself made so many poor choices and denied reality for so long. If I had heard this story about someone else 15 years ago, I would have thought they were mentally ill or just plain stupid.
I have truly learned a *lot*. I have learned about facing problems rather than hoping they will go away, I learned about needs vs. desires and more. I have definitely learned that the only cards I need in my life are my debit card and my driver's license. No loans or credit for me, I am done with all that, living on cash and loving it! Paying off the giant student loans before I retire even seems manageable now.
I look at it this way now, even if a crazy trustee found a way to push my essentially broke and below-median self into a 13 (which my attorney assures me will not happen!) I would be better off because I would have finally faced this debt.
I am getting married in April 2010 and looking very forward to our new life together.
I was just reflecting on what a long journey it has been already! The two meetings with the Attorney's office, the mess of getting all that paperwork together (six months of pay stubs, 2 years state and fed taxes, two months of all bank statements, all the bills, W2's, all the stuff the attorney had me fill out). The two mandatory courses, the whole process of deciding for sure to do it and then figuring out how to pay for it (regretably, through my now-defunked HSA but it is cheaper to take the tax fall then to keep trying to pay people to avoid garnishment!).
Of course, I cannot help but look at the wasteland that my finances have been for a number of years and kick myself. You see, I am not one of those "medical disaster" filers for BK, I just plain made some serious mistakes.
Way back in 1995, I got the bright idea of going back to school to finish my degree, which I did. I already had student loan debt and I took on a great deal more, as in 30,000 or so more. I had thought of going on to law school, but I thank goodness now I decided against it because I am already in a lot of student loan debt, mercifully none of it the dreaded private SL's, that I cannot discharge now. In fact, my student loans are the reason I am filing on the $45,000.00 I have in other unsecured debt. I would tough it out and pay it up were it not for those. There is, however the even messier story of how I got into all that debt!
When I returned to school, my whole financial picture was thrown out of wack. I found myself working less to deal with the school stuff. I studied like crazy, threw myself into research and kind of let the rest of world alone. I barely noticed until I had a whole lot of debt that I was using credit cards to live on, even though I always worked at least 25-30 hours a week and had student loans too I was racking up debt just on clothes, food, nothing really lavish at all just, ya know, stuff (including "retail therapy" trip to Victoria's Secret and way to many and dinners out). Careless, silly, and no big baubles or anything of tangible value much to show for it, or even any spectacular vacations.
I paid the cards faithfully though until about 2001. Then, when I could no longer do it (my income did not meet my expectations after graduating, old story!) I simply stopped paying most of them. I picked up some additional debts here and there, at the time I filed I had two good credit cards in excellent standing and also a judgement for around 16,000 that I paid on faithfully for the past few years. I was also getting increasingly nasty notices from Arrow Financial, who was saying I owed them 18,000 on a debt that had originally been around 7,000. My original load of card debt was probably "only" about 18-20 grand, but in waiting around for magic to happen to enable me to pay these people off, I grew it to more than double that.
I look back, and I wonder how an intelligent, professional person like myself made so many poor choices and denied reality for so long. If I had heard this story about someone else 15 years ago, I would have thought they were mentally ill or just plain stupid.
I have truly learned a *lot*. I have learned about facing problems rather than hoping they will go away, I learned about needs vs. desires and more. I have definitely learned that the only cards I need in my life are my debit card and my driver's license. No loans or credit for me, I am done with all that, living on cash and loving it! Paying off the giant student loans before I retire even seems manageable now.
I look at it this way now, even if a crazy trustee found a way to push my essentially broke and below-median self into a 13 (which my attorney assures me will not happen!) I would be better off because I would have finally faced this debt.
I am getting married in April 2010 and looking very forward to our new life together.
) half our salary was paid ONCE a year in the form of a bonus, so it was very easy to spend on credit cards, anticipating the year end bonus. Many years, even though I got well over average bonuses, I pre-spent most of them during the course of the year, and they simply went to paying down my credit cards when they finally came. It would only take one year with a less-then-expected bonus, to build of balances on my cards that I wouldn't be able to pay off.
) I went to an overpriced school that I couldn't afford, so my student loans mostly went to the basics of living, but that was not the norm. And even I took a couple of trips that I would not have taken if I didn't have the student loans. (backpacking in Europe anyone? 
) Everyone got credit cards, and to us they were like magic money. We never thought about them as obligations that would have to be paid back later.
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