Tell me about your experience

[jade73]

I want to hear the reasons behind why some of you filed and what you kept and...details, give me details. I love to read others experiences before I do something.

[keepmine]

Circumstance vary but, at the end of the day we all filed because we had debt we couldn't repay.

What you keep depends on, the value of your assets and how much your state allows you to exempt.
Me, I had about $90K worth of assets that were exempt. The equity in my home and, my IRA and 401K were all exempt. Plus, a beater for a car and personal property.

[AngelinaCat]

We all have different experiences as to how it happened that we had to declare BK.
I suggest perusing this thread:

http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?t=30380

This might help give you an overview.

[zpbk13]

Our experience: We bought a house we could not afford; the economy is lousy so all dh's lovely overtime has dried up, plus it has become a never endin battle with our trying to rob Peter to pay Paul. I am so glad I found this website. At one point I felt ashamed and like I was less of a person because of this decision but finding this site has helped me to restore my dignity.

As far as what we intend to keep: my car because it is new; our timeshare because our attorney assures us the trustee does not want it and that is it. For now we will stay in our house and if we can sell down the line we will. We are eventually surrendering DH's car and buying a work vehicle for him early next year. We don't own lots of toys (boat, motorcycles, etc.) so there is nothing to give up in that area.

All in all, we feel very fortunate to have so many on this site that have walked this path before us and those that are walking it with us. I don't want to file bk but having come to the conclusion that we must, I feel a certain sense of peace about it.

[jade73]

zpbk13:

Thanks for sharing. I'm so scared I'm gonna lose my home. We currently have it for sale but of course we've only had 1 person come look at it in 4 months.

[AngelinaCat]

Welcome to the forum Jade73. We made bad business decisions, plus crossed a big-time block-bully, who essentially cyberstalked us and bled us dry while we were trying to figure out how to legally stop him. It can't be done.

Meanwhile, we had health problems, no insurance at times, and four hurricanes in 2004. And we were trying to do our bit for society, and our tithe to God, by helping to rehabilitate former prisoners.

Then 'Hub got prostate cancer....

Do you really want me to continue....?

[pdxgrrrl]

Jade73,

I'm filing because I'm underemployed and can't keep up with my bills, in a nutshell. I made some bad financial decisions in my mid-20's (I'll be 30 next month) and they finally caught up with me in the forms of a horrible credit rating (lower than 500), some $16k in unsecured debt, and a car I can't afford anymore. I was also recently sued for a defaulted credit card. I had to choose between chipping away at my debt or keeping a roof over my head. (I rent and it was either keep the car and be homeless or have an apartment and no car.) I chose to have a place to live. I'll be filing later this month.

Good luck to you. It's a hard decision, but you'll be relieved if/when you decide to do it. I highly recommend hiring a lawyer to help you with it. My case is a fairly simple, no-asset Chapter 7, but I'm glad I have someone helping me.