Why Are/Have You Filed BK?

[HFCF09]

We finally had to give way. Life spiraled out of control the last 2 years. Moved to NC with no debt only expect a car. Everything was fine for 6 mos, bought a house, then husband hours starting getting cut, I made a wrong move in my career which made things worse. So we were living off of credit cards hoping that things would start picking up and I would find another job so that I could help with the bills. I've been looking for over a year with no luck. I was pure commission before that and wanted a paycheck. No one will hire me. I can only think because I've been self employed for 6 years. Finally couldn't make ends meet. We filed a Ch. 13 so that we could keep the cars. Still not sure how to feel about it all. There is light at the other end of the tunnel but I feel that the next five years are going to haunt us.

[willbfree]

Loss of a job with six figure income is what got us here. We have worked our entire lives to be responsible and pay our bills on time. My spouse still has a good job but doesn't make close to what I did. We have tapped our 401K plans to continue paying all the bills on time. We had never been late on a payment to anyone but without a similar six figure income job for me there is no way to continue. With the economy tanking there is no way I will find a job. We are filing a Chapter 7 and doing all the necessary paperwork. Met with our bankruptcy attorney who is wonderful and provided us with a step by step plan to get ready. Never had a collection call before this started and it's been a real eye opener. Hopefully we will begin to feel that "relief" that the bankruptcy lawyer tells us will happen.

[Willy13]

Borrowed from Credit cards with 0% offers to earn interest in savings accounts. Interest rates tanked and then I put more than I should of in the stock market. Long story short, I got burned bad.

[ska]

Years and years of credit card debt that we just could not get paid off. This debt started way back in the early 90's. A lot of borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. I fought the thought that we were drowning in debt; I thought we would get ahead some day. Well, needless to say, that day never came. However, I did finally realize that we were in desperate need of help.

[Blackadder]

With me it all started with wanting to provide my wife with her fairytale wedding 6 years ago. We actually were able to payoff 3/4 of the debt, then we got pregrant. Our son was born prematurerly and fought for his life, but did not make it. The medical bills and my wife being out of work for several months threw us over the edge to stay. No matter how hard we try we just never made enough $$$ to stop the bleeding. That is the much shorter version.

[mkuki]

I took the usual path....

Started living the american dream,...student loan, mortgage, car note, fix the house on credit card, 2 kids, wife stays @ home to raise kids, lost job early '08, hanged on surving on savings, CC's and cashing 401K to keep creditors happy & maintain good credit, 9 months later I got a job 1600 miles away, no relo offered so spent my last dough to move my a$$ over, maxed out CC's, fico tanked, gas prices shot up,....and interest rates got jacked up to 28%, cant rent out other property, kept paying mortage, CC's, car note, and fridge near empty while on six figure income...I said eff-it, I am filing and I aint scared no more.

Paid lawyer in full, just in case I get laid off and cannot come up with the cash to "free" myself.

[merlia]

Looks great! A lot of great thoughts!

___________________
Miami Lawyers

[SobStory]

We are homebuilders. We made our living by building and selling. We built. Can't sell. Trashed my IRA (my entire life savings) in keeping current. We have also lost all our building capital and run up huge debts. Time to throw in the towel. It's a shame but it is what it is. As self employed, we pay thru the nose for terrible medical insurance ($15K deductible each) but I am grateful that we have no medical issues or debt.
We will lose our home and probably can't afford to stay in this area.

[FakeName]

I'm kind of similar to mkuki. I make a good salary and have a steady job. No one at any point in my life ever taught me how to "spend less than you earn." I can remember to the day in my sophomore year of college in 1995 when I started down the path that lead me here.

I had been in a car accident and used a credit card to pay my portion of the deductible (I was in college and coming up with $1000 wasn't easy). That was the last day I was debt free. That got close to being paid off and I went, "Huh. That wasn't so bad. I'd really like a new computer - I'll just pay for it over time..."

Blah, blah, blah... American dream... House, 2 car payments... Remodel kitchen... Two kids, wife stays at home but I didn't want "our lifestyle" to change...

You've heard it before. And it sucks. This feeling SUCKS. I majored in math in college so I don't know how I let this happen.

Anyway, fast forward to now and I'm in it up to my eyeballs with no end in sight. I feel like a horrible father and husband for getting us into this, but I'm going to do what needs to be done to get us out.

[lockedout]

I was involed in a 14 month labor dispute. Company locked 2400 of us out. No one in 100 miles would hire us, because they knew one day we would return. Lost about 90,000 in income in the 14 months we were out.

[dw2008]

Bought another house before selling the first and was never able to sell the first house. After using all my savings on paying two mortgages and using all my credit to get by we had to file for BK.

[lonesumluser]

Why I filed bankrupcy

I went through lots of tough stuff, lost my sister to cancer, lost my mom and dad to heart disease, an unruly teenager, drunk husband, an obsession of a famous person, an e-bay addiction, ate too much food and the list goes on and on. I have judgments against me and creditors sending the sheriff's department to my house.

I am stuck with some very high payments on my bankrupcy and must not spend one penny extra on anything each month, feeling very depressed, can't sleep, can't eat (which is a good thing) and can't really talk to my husband because he doesn't know anything about anything!!!

[BrokeinCA]

Too much credit

We just got in over our heads with credit card debt. We are filing Ch. 13 to payoff what we can of our credit card debt and save our home.

[ShouldWeFile]

I am not sure we will file as yet, but the reason we are considering it is mostly due to excessive debt.

Then to cap it off, income decreased significantly (100% commission based income), and finally lost my employment, and did not return for a couple of months...

We likely would have been fine if we were living well under our means...

[slam22]

Ours was sort of death by a thousand cuts. Weren't really paying as close attention as we should have been and before we knew it we had over 200k in CC's and a line of credit. In addition we had a HELOC of over 100k that was of course was underwater. Then my wife lost her job and it all came crashing down. Filed Chapter 7 and it all went away. Don't want to ever experience such a high level of suck again. We've come out the other side in really good shape and feel extremely fortunate. Of course we got to keep our 401k's and IRA's and those combined are about 500k even in today's market. We are even still in our house that we haven't made a mortgage payment on in a year. One of these days they will boot us out but until that day comes we are just saving as much cash as we can. Best advice I can give anyone contemplating BK is to do as much preparation in advance as you can. Hire an attorney. Don't even think about doing it yourself. Good luck.