Lived in another state in a very HCOL area -- job relocated us to a LCOL out of state. In the HCOL area we owned a home with a reasonable mortgage and high monthly HOA fee ($300/mo). We both had great jobs in recession-proof industries (ha!), so when we moved we bought a home in the LCOL area with an almost identical mortgage and no HOA. Decided to rent out the HCOL home at a loss (rent didn't cover mortgage + HOA), but it was fine and we could still put money in savings and retirement. Put the house on the market to sell at the same time we were renting and assumed it would be gone in a couple of years.
Fast forward 3 years later and I lost my job. Our income was literally cut in half. It was fine because we had a tenant, we tightened our belts, cut spending, and continued paying our bills. A few months later, our tenant decided not to renew. We searched for a new one and had a string of awful tenants and circumstances over the next year that had us making major repairs and maxing our credit cards and emptying our emergency fund. During that time one of us also developed a major medical problem that we did not have insurance coverage for. We kept on trucking for another year eventually also emptying both of our retirement accounts to try to keep up with both of the mortgages, credit cards and medical bills. We were too stupid and proud to seek counsel or even Google...we had no idea that we could protect our retirement...we were just trying to pay our bills.
That leads us to current day. We filed Ch7, we have a small amount of assets that were not exempt, but otherwise hoping for a smooth discharge. We decided to let both homes go (as we may potentially be relocated again in the next year, and don't want to sell in this market) and the foreclosure date for our current home is in mid-May. We have a rental lined up already, they never ran our credit, just asked for personal references and we didn't disclose anything about our situation.
It was hard for us to file...but it has been such a relief. We literally did everything we could not to get in this position and we ended up here anyway. I just wish we had known that we could have kept our retirement accounts, but hopefully we can build them up again somewhat quickly.
Fast forward 3 years later and I lost my job. Our income was literally cut in half. It was fine because we had a tenant, we tightened our belts, cut spending, and continued paying our bills. A few months later, our tenant decided not to renew. We searched for a new one and had a string of awful tenants and circumstances over the next year that had us making major repairs and maxing our credit cards and emptying our emergency fund. During that time one of us also developed a major medical problem that we did not have insurance coverage for. We kept on trucking for another year eventually also emptying both of our retirement accounts to try to keep up with both of the mortgages, credit cards and medical bills. We were too stupid and proud to seek counsel or even Google...we had no idea that we could protect our retirement...we were just trying to pay our bills.
That leads us to current day. We filed Ch7, we have a small amount of assets that were not exempt, but otherwise hoping for a smooth discharge. We decided to let both homes go (as we may potentially be relocated again in the next year, and don't want to sell in this market) and the foreclosure date for our current home is in mid-May. We have a rental lined up already, they never ran our credit, just asked for personal references and we didn't disclose anything about our situation.
It was hard for us to file...but it has been such a relief. We literally did everything we could not to get in this position and we ended up here anyway. I just wish we had known that we could have kept our retirement accounts, but hopefully we can build them up again somewhat quickly.
12/14/10 - Filed Chapter 7, 02/09/11 - 341 Hearing, 04/14/11 - 
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