For those of you who have been around a while you know my story-I started lurking here about three years ago, finally got the nerve to register and start asking questions two years ago, and when my wife lost her job in June 2011, we finally got serious and started talking to an attorney. Long story short we strategically defaulted on our cards and easily qualified for CH7 due to the loss of income. We filed shortly after the new year in 2013 and received our discharge around the end of March. I shudder to think what might have happened had I not found this site and gotten straightforward no-nonsense and truthful answers to all of the big scary questions that BK brings up (Will we lose our house, won't our lives be ruined, etc...?). Anyway, life after discharge was going well since we had actually been able to slowly build savings with my wife on unemployment, but the specter of her benefits expiring in November was constantly haunting us.
She is a teacher by trade and was pounding the pavement hard in March and April when schools begin to announce their vacancies for the upcoming year. She must have sent out 40-50 application packages to practically every school district within about an hour commute of our home to no avail. Out of all of those applications she got only two interviews. The first interview she didn't think went so well, but the second one did-she felt like she really connected, would fit in well at the school, etc... She got the call today with an offer and hopefully will sign a contract within a week!!! We have really come full circle at this point and can now begin rebuilding our lives thanks to being able to wipe out our CC debt via CH7. We did not reaffirm our home and it is underwater by about 10-15%, but we are going to stay and pay and hang in to see what the market does. We love where we live, its convenient to both of our jobs, and there's really no reason for us to move. Right now our focus is building a true emergency fund, living an all cash lifestyle (we'll never go back to credit cards I don't think), and feeling more in control of our financial lives than we ever have before. I can't say enough about this site and how it helped us navigate the process and to allay our fears. I know that a lot of folks tend to fly the coop after they are discharged but I plan to hang around to offer advice to newbies and give updates on our progress. Plenty of folks did that for me and I feel that I owe it to others.
She is a teacher by trade and was pounding the pavement hard in March and April when schools begin to announce their vacancies for the upcoming year. She must have sent out 40-50 application packages to practically every school district within about an hour commute of our home to no avail. Out of all of those applications she got only two interviews. The first interview she didn't think went so well, but the second one did-she felt like she really connected, would fit in well at the school, etc... She got the call today with an offer and hopefully will sign a contract within a week!!! We have really come full circle at this point and can now begin rebuilding our lives thanks to being able to wipe out our CC debt via CH7. We did not reaffirm our home and it is underwater by about 10-15%, but we are going to stay and pay and hang in to see what the market does. We love where we live, its convenient to both of our jobs, and there's really no reason for us to move. Right now our focus is building a true emergency fund, living an all cash lifestyle (we'll never go back to credit cards I don't think), and feeling more in control of our financial lives than we ever have before. I can't say enough about this site and how it helped us navigate the process and to allay our fears. I know that a lot of folks tend to fly the coop after they are discharged but I plan to hang around to offer advice to newbies and give updates on our progress. Plenty of folks did that for me and I feel that I owe it to others.
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