One year later....

[killinstinct]

I wanted to post a quick note to encourage those of you starting out on the road I headed down about a year and a half ago

As with most of you, due to our circumstances, we found ourselves buried under the crushing debt load of a worthless home, as well as tens of thousands of dollars in credit cards. I let it go on far too long, trying to dig my way out.

One year after filing, we live in a great townhouse in a beautiful community. Our kids and family are doing fantastic, and the wife and I have a marriage stronger than ever. We were able to spend a five-day vacation at a beach rental last week. We were also able to send one of my daughters with mom to Disney World several months back for a cheerleading competition and a little mom-daughter bonding time. We've been able to save $$$ for emergencies and have a savings account that is GROWING! We've been able to pay cash for car repairs, etc.

Most importantly, we had a family emergency involving our grandmother which cost thousands of dollars. It hurt a bit, but we had it. That's what that emergency $$$ is for.

My advice to all you nervous wrecks reading this at 3am (I was one too...):

Hang in there, try not to worry, be honest. Make a plan for living on the $$$ you will make after filing, and learn to live on it. Insure that includes a safety cushion for savings. Then file, and never look back. This too, shall pass.

[ccsjoe]

Killinstinct,

Thanks for sharing. I am heading down the road right now, so encouragement is beyond welcomed at this point.

[ryan]

Great report and gives hope to alot of folks. Nice to hear you're doing well!

[killinstinct]

Thanks! Living on cash is true freedom! No more debt!!

[backtoschool]

Seeing killinstinct's post reminded me that I too, have passed a year since I filed. (It's good to see you doing so well Killinstinct! )

I have a good job, a nice chunk of money in the bank, a much happier personal life, and peace of mind. I don't regret filing at all.

With the money pressures gone, I was able to heal a all of my personal relationships, concentrate on making healthy personal changes in all areas of my life, and figure out what matters to me. I have never been happier and a big reason for this is that I am not constantly struggling at a job I hate, just to make enough money to pay my bills, and then find myself going out and overspending on my credit cards just to divert myself from my unhappiness. A cash life feels so much better.

Congrats on a great year killinstinct.

[nikkie876]

Thank you, your encouragement comes at just the right time for me. I was having a rough day today but you having given me the encouragement I was needing.

Congrats to you and your family!

[citizen]

Thanks for posting an update!! It is great to hear that you've turned things around and I'm looking forward to doing the same!

[ForumReader]

Killinstinct,

Thanks for starting this thread as it has been a year for me as well! I am glad to hear things are going well for you and your family. For me, given a fresh start has truly helped. I still have my job and am able to provide for my kids without having to worry about all those debt as compared to a year ago. Thankful for having good health, learning all the time with finances, making goals for the future. I gotta thank the yellow pages for pointing me to the right direction (filing for bk) after I was sued by one of my creditors and pulling the plug with the debt settlement co

Anyway, wishing everyone on the forum well!

[empowered]

Yeah, great idea to post a note about a year later. It's a pretty hopeful thread.

backtoschool, you said you were no longer working at a job you hate. Is that because you went *back to school"? So you probably have to take out student loans? Did you find something that will support you that you believe you will enjoy? Just wondering since I have similar plans.

Thanks.

[backtoschool]

Yeah, great idea to post a note about a year later. It's a pretty hopeful thread.

backtoschool, you said you were no longer working at a job you hate. Is that because you went *back to school"? So you probably have to take out student loans? Did you find something that will support you that you believe you will enjoy? Just wondering since I have similar plans.

Thanks.

Yes, I went back to school a month after I filed last year. It is my second graduate degree and I am on a fellowship so I did not have to take loans, but stafford loans were available to me even though I had an open bankruptcy at the time I started the new graduate program.

I really enjoy my new job which is similar to what I was doing before, but is in a different industry. I used to be an analyst for wall street and now I am an analyst for a vc firm that seeds startups in the midwest. It is a hybrid between my old profit-based career and the new non-profit career I am in school for.

I firmly believe that retraining is the only way many people will be able to bootstrap themselves out of this horrible recession/depression we are currently in, so I am all for people going back to school. I also believe that people should not have to spend their entire lives doing what they hate. I know in my case, when I hated my job, I spent more just to numb my pain....

[killinstinct]

Thanks for your updates as well, forumreader and backtoschool. I remember clearly all of us posting and researching, going through this together. We are at least three of the success stories!!! To those of you 'in the wings', take comfort in the fact that the horror stories are few and far between. The overwhelming majority of us get through this and move on to a better life!

[Silver26]

Thank you for posting this! Were you able to purchase a house this quickly? We have never had a mortgage and were told we had to wait 2 years. I was curious if that was the case for you. Right now we could buy a house and cut our rent in half.

[killinstinct]

Yeah, great idea to post a note about a year later. It's a pretty hopeful thread.

backtoschool, you said you were no longer working at a job you hate. Is that because you went *back to school"? So you probably have to take out student loans? Did you find something that will support you that you believe you will enjoy? Just wondering since I have similar plans.

Thanks.

Thank you for posting this! Were you able to purchase a house this quickly? We have never had a mortgage and were told we had to wait 2 years. I was curious if that was the case for you. Right now we could buy a house and cut our rent in half.

You were told correctly. You need to wait two years post-discharge most likely. There's lots of great info here under the post-discharge section. We surrendered a mc-mansion in BK that is up tor auction next month. We're looking at 3 years past that if we ever want to buy again. We had the opposite problem, were able to rent a comporable place for less than half our mortgage!

Good luck to you. If you're serious about buying, build up some savings, rebuild your credit with some small credit lines, and whatever you do, pay your bills on time from now on. Good luck!

[Freddy03]

Wow this is great! Just what I needed.

I am new here (today's day one) and I was feeling like my world was crumbling before me.

I have a better idea of BK and how it will change my life. I plan on filing and only looking a head.

Thanks again!

[packerfan]

Congratulations on your one year and thank you for sharing your story with us. Husband and I finally filed last month have our 341 in September! Still a long way to go my husband is contractor so work comes and goes, I was on unemployment for all of 2009 found employment in March but was let go yesterday! Seems like the nightmare will never end.. Also went back to school last year working on my bachlors in education (I'm really going for a complete fresh start in life!)

My kids also do cheerleading...mind if I ask was it Pop Warner? We were at Nationals in Disney last year as well!