To all those in the process or thinking BK - read!

[drowningNdebt]

I was discharged 1/11/2010 and life couldn't be better. I wiped out all my debt and I have never felt better, more relieved in my life than I do now. Even though I'm broke, I don't have the burden of the $90k in debt that was discharged. I have definetly learned my lesson and will never be a servant to the lender again. Yea I may only have a couple thousand in my bank now but I own my new car outright and have no bills!! So all of you pondering or in the BK process you too will be in my shoes soon! I would suggest filing and getting it done! You will never feel better in your life! No debt, no collectors harrassing you, having the ability to breath at the end of the month with the ability to actual put money away each month and just being you again. Thought I would share my aftermath story with the forum members so I can give some encouragement that BK isn't the worst thing in life!

[LadyInTheRed]

LOL. When I saw the thread title, I thought it was going to be spam from a debt settlement company.

Congratulations on your fresh start and thanks for the window to the other side!

[Overmylimit]

just being you again.

This is the part I am looking forward to the most

[lrprn]

Thanks for sharing your silver bankruptcy lining, DND! It must feel wonderful to know that you (and not your creditors) are in full control of your life again. WTG!

[killinstinct]

Awesome! Thanks. We're several months out of BK and saving lots of $$$ as well. It's true, there is life afterwards....

[HHM]

Great job.

[AngelinaCatHub]

LOL. When I saw the thread title, I thought it was going to be spam from a debt settlement company.

Congratulations on your fresh start and thanks for the window to the other side!

Yeah, me too.

I agree with DnD, and we are having the same feelings now. Boy if anyone did more to sabotage a bk, we did. No guidance from our lawyer and didn't know about bkforum.com. Now I can see how simple the process is and would go pro se, but then, the whole world was caving in. It is so gratifying to tell those newbies who are terrified, that 'better times are coming' as that is the truth. The main obstacle is getting over the "shame, stigma, embarrassment" that is so unnecessary. It is not shameful to wish a new start in life for things you never planned to happen. The trick is, start the practice for the new life even before the discharge, lower your standard of living to a practical level as we have all been trained to have "instant gratification" without effort. Easy Credit is not easy. It is a seduction into servitude. 'Hub

[wantout]

Yeah, me too.

I agree with DnD, and we are having the same feelings now. Boy if anyone did more to sabotage a bk, we did. No guidance from our lawyer and didn't know about bkforum.com. Now I can see how simple the process is and would go pro se, but then, the whole world was caving in. It is so gratifying to tell those newbies who are terrified, that 'better times are coming' as that is the truth. The main obstacle is getting over the "shame, stigma, embarrassment" that is so unnecessary. It is not shameful to wish a new start in life for things you never planned to happen. The trick is, start the practice for the new life even before the discharge, lower your standard of living to a practical level as we have all been trained to have "instant gratification" without effort. Easy Credit is not easy. It is a seduction into servitude. 'Hub

Could not have said it better myself..

[Logan]

I was discharged 1/11/2010 and life couldn't be better. I wiped out all my debt and I have never felt better, more relieved in my life than I do now. Even though I'm broke, I don't have the burden of the $90k in debt that was discharged. I have definetly learned my lesson and will never be a servant to the lender again. Yea I may only have a couple thousand in my bank now but I own my new car outright and have no bills!! So all of you pondering or in the BK process you too will be in my shoes soon! I would suggest filing and getting it done! You will never feel better in your life! No debt, no collectors harrassing you, having the ability to breath at the end of the month with the ability to actual put money away each month and just being you again. Thought I would share my aftermath story with the forum members so I can give some encouragement that BK isn't the worst thing in life!

I second this post.

I'm 2.5 years out of BK and I can now attain all the credit I need. I even called to cancel one of my credit cards yesterday and they begged me to stay and lowered my interest rate from 14.99% to 8.24%.

BK will be the beginning for everyone here to take control of there lives!!!!

Logan

[ISMAEL627]

in the process of filing, maybe 2 weeks out but my wife's mother just this past week gifted her $7,500.00 for new car since her's was repo'd. I am thinking this money may cause problems with our filing?

[stgsm]

We've danced around bk for years. We kept thinking that we could somehow dig out - and we could if we wanted to shovel for 40 years. No thanks. I am so happy we have finally stopped playing the game and are taking back our lives. When you don't care about "things" anymore life is so simple.

The stigma that I think is attached to our situation particularly is that nothing catastrophic happened to us to devastate us financially. We bought things on credit and don't have the income to support the lifestyle. I want to be a part of my kids lives. I don't want to work 80 hours a week to pay ccs. So I think some people think that because we are CHOOSING bk instead of it "happening" to us we have some character flaw. I am happy to educate them on that! I am choosing to clean up this mess in a way that is best for my family.

Looking forward to the future for the first time in years!

[LSUTiger32]

I hate to rain on the parade here, because there is no doubt there is a huge sense of relief when it is all said and done. I don't regret it for a second because the amount of debt I was able to free myself from (nearly half a million dollars) was overwhelming. I certainly echo the sentiments that there is a huge sense of being able to get on with your life and having a chance again.

That said.....it's not all fun and games. You will likely pay more for insurance and when you live in a state like Louisiana where homeowners already runs $300 plus a month that is not a good thing. Your credit score and ability to get credit that you might want (not talking about credit cards here, because I don't want them) is severly damaged. You won't get a home loan in this lending climate for 2 or 3 years. Everytime you fill out an application for something, you have to check off having filed BK.....for the rest of your life and for some people that is degrating. Most people, me included, will go through the agony of feeling like a failure financially and wishing there was another way. Not only that, but even when you are going through the actual process it's hard. Every part of your life is scrutinized and everytime something comes in the mail you cringe because you think it is bad news and will affect your discharge or your ability to come out the other side with enough assets and money to make another start.

Again, while I don't regret it for a second because for me there was no other way I just wanted to temper the idea that this is all fun and games. People need to think long and hard about this decision and while that usually means waiting too long to do the inevitable, it's the right thing to do.

[stgsm]

I agree with you LSUTiger32 - anyone who take filing bk lightly is probably making the wrong decision. We started talking about filing before they changed the laws making it hard to file - when was that? 2005? Literally 5 years of just hanging on never making any progress because we were afraid of filing for all the reasons you listed plus pride and "what will everyone think?". I am concerned that if something happens with our current employment situation that the bk may cause problems. But I also see that without all of our money going to pay debt we can save (finally) and live on much less than we ever have before. My dh and I both have said that our goal from here on is to never owe anyone a dime ever again. Our lifestyle has changed and we are not going back. The old way doesn't work.

[backtoschool]

I hate to rain on the parade here, because there is no doubt there is a huge sense of relief when it is all said and done. I don't regret it for a second because the amount of debt I was able to free myself from (nearly half a million dollars) was overwhelming. I certainly echo the sentiments that there is a huge sense of being able to get on with your life and having a chance again.

That said.....it's not all fun and games. You will likely pay more for insurance and when you live in a state like Louisiana where homeowners already runs $300 plus a month that is not a good thing. Your credit score and ability to get credit that you might want (not talking about credit cards here, because I don't want them) is severly damaged. You won't get a home loan in this lending climate for 2 or 3 years. Everytime you fill out an application for something, you have to check off having filed BK.....for the rest of your life and for some people that is degrating. Most people, me included, will go through the agony of feeling like a failure financially and wishing there was another way. Not only that, but even when you are going through the actual process it's hard. Every part of your life is scrutinized and everytime something comes in the mail you cringe because you think it is bad news and will affect your discharge or your ability to come out the other side with enough assets and money to make another start.

Again, while I don't regret it for a second because for me there was no other way I just wanted to temper the idea that this is all fun and games. People need to think long and hard about this decision and while that usually means waiting too long to do the inevitable, it's the right thing to do.

I agree with you LSUTiger32. The hardest part for me, (apart from my long, self-torturing decision process) was the sense that I could have avoided the whole thing if only somehow I had "been more responsible".

I am over that self recrimination now, but it took a long time for me to truly forgive myself for getting myself into the financial chaos that led to my filing.

The other point I would make is that if you work in the insurance or financial industries and work directly with money or in a financial advisory capacity your bankruptcy may affect your employability. Of course there are many exceptions to this rule, and ymmv.

Since discharge, I have had my renter's insurance rates go up 20%, even though my fico went up 85-100 points. Since I live in a safe university town and have never filed a claim with state farm in the 10+ years I have had insurance with them, I have to imagine that my bankruptcy is the culprit.

But all in all I am glad that I filed. The positives by far outweigh the minor negatives.

[DebtStinks]

Sorry you can't rain on my parade... the sun came out the day we were discharged and it has been beautiful ever since.

Of course everyone has a unique situation to work though... bankruptcy isn't going to fix everything. If you have suffered a job loss or significant salary reduction that makes it hard to pay even the basics then a bankruptcy isn't going feel like the same as it does for others.

We lost some income and started to fall behind on our mortgage that was underwater by over 50%. Our credit cards were used to pick up the slack each month as we didn't have enough to cover everything. Unless you can increase your income you will eventually reach a financial "point of no return". This is point where you can't cut anything else from the budget and the repayment period on your debt exceeds your life expectancy (really not that far from the truth). When I finally took my head out of the sand and realized that we had passed this "point of no return" bankruptcy was really our only out.

During the bankruptcy process we went though the full spectrum of emotions... fear, anxiety, shame, sadness, anger, you name it. But now that the process is over we finally have control of our lives again. We have really used this experience to change our financial situation and now live well below our means. The peace of mind of knowing that we have money to put into savings and retirement at the end of each month is priceless.

I really think we in a period of time where bankruptcies are becoming so common that a lot of the negative stigma will be a thing of the past. In our area pretty much everyone has a friend or family member that has recently dealt with a foreclosure/bankruptcy. In fact it seems like they are contagious. As the number of people in our area that file for bankruptcy or dump an underwater house increases it makes other people realize that this might be a viable out for them as well.

There is life after bankruptcy for sure. Just be sure to learn from the experience and never become a slave to your debts again.