I finally bit the bullet and filed CH7 in August '09... after years of denial, scraping, praying, wishful thinking, sleepless nights, making silent deals with God, working 7 days a week and even emptying my 401K in an effort to keep those precious minimum payments paid on time... trying to stave off what was inevitable anyway.
I was 60 years old, had been laid off from my "secure" government job several months earlier, hadn't taken a vacation, been to a restaurant or gone to a movie in what seemed like years. (I couldn't possibly do that! Every penny I could get my hands on had to go to keeping those ridiculous-rate credit cards current because I was so afraid of what would happen if I fell behind.) I even came home from the hospital the day my mother died and instead of immediately calling relatives to tell them of her death, I first called my credit card companies to make over-the-phone payments so I wouldn't be late. Good Lord.
My life had turned into one big Whack-A-Mole game... played out in secret because I was so ashamed of myself for getting into such a mess. I couldn't find a job, I was depressed as hell and, more than anything else, I was utterly exhausted from running for so long and getting nowhere.
Then the mallet finally... blessedly... broke. I woke up one morning, knew I just couldn't do it anymore, called a lawyer and that was it. I filed a few weeks later.
Wish I could tell you that I made all the right moves and the bankruptcy went smoothly. It didn't. I didn't do any homework or pre-planning before I filed (don't try that at home), ended up having to fire my lawyer, get another one, attend two 341 meetings and lose out on most of a personal injury settlement because of bad filing timing... but man oh man, it all turned out to be worth it in the end.
It's now been 14 months since I filed, 10 months since I was discharged. I can sleep nights, I've lost 50 pounds and, after a year of unemployment, I was finally able to get another job... paying a bit more than my previous one. I only work 5 days a week now, I'm rapidly building a healthy emergency fund, contributing to my 401K... and I've even been to a few movies. Best of all, I'm not harboring any "shameful" secrets anymore. My friends and my employer all know about the bankruptcy and accept me anyway.
I'll never be able to afford to retire, of course, and will be working till the day I die... but even that prospect feels better than life before bankruptcy did. Heck, I may even get a second job at Chucky Cheese as a Whack-A-Mole coach. God knows, I have enough experience at it.
I was 60 years old, had been laid off from my "secure" government job several months earlier, hadn't taken a vacation, been to a restaurant or gone to a movie in what seemed like years. (I couldn't possibly do that! Every penny I could get my hands on had to go to keeping those ridiculous-rate credit cards current because I was so afraid of what would happen if I fell behind.) I even came home from the hospital the day my mother died and instead of immediately calling relatives to tell them of her death, I first called my credit card companies to make over-the-phone payments so I wouldn't be late. Good Lord.
My life had turned into one big Whack-A-Mole game... played out in secret because I was so ashamed of myself for getting into such a mess. I couldn't find a job, I was depressed as hell and, more than anything else, I was utterly exhausted from running for so long and getting nowhere.
Then the mallet finally... blessedly... broke. I woke up one morning, knew I just couldn't do it anymore, called a lawyer and that was it. I filed a few weeks later.
Wish I could tell you that I made all the right moves and the bankruptcy went smoothly. It didn't. I didn't do any homework or pre-planning before I filed (don't try that at home), ended up having to fire my lawyer, get another one, attend two 341 meetings and lose out on most of a personal injury settlement because of bad filing timing... but man oh man, it all turned out to be worth it in the end.
It's now been 14 months since I filed, 10 months since I was discharged. I can sleep nights, I've lost 50 pounds and, after a year of unemployment, I was finally able to get another job... paying a bit more than my previous one. I only work 5 days a week now, I'm rapidly building a healthy emergency fund, contributing to my 401K... and I've even been to a few movies. Best of all, I'm not harboring any "shameful" secrets anymore. My friends and my employer all know about the bankruptcy and accept me anyway.
I'll never be able to afford to retire, of course, and will be working till the day I die... but even that prospect feels better than life before bankruptcy did. Heck, I may even get a second job at Chucky Cheese as a Whack-A-Mole coach. God knows, I have enough experience at it.
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