Have things turned around for you post filing?

[aces67]

We've already been discharged and the whole first 9 months of this year was such a struggle. Dh's hours were drastically cut and we had a quite a time with the UST trying to get our 7 to go through.

Now though we got rid of 1 vehicle note completely in the 7 and reduced another from $592 a month to $384 a month and suddenly the last 3 months dh's job has had him working like mad and they are voluntarily paying him extra Overtime.

It's great to have extra money but we've struggled for so long we can't enjoy it. We're always worried about what will happen next. For the first time in years I'm actually going to be able to go pay the property taxes in FULL tomorrow and they aren't even due until January 31st. We have money in the savings and we aren't living paycheck to paycheck. We even have 3 small credit cards with zero balances on them.

It all seems like a dream and it's too good to really be true. I keep thinking something bad will happen next. We initially filed in 2006 and have been struggling ever since then until the last few months.

We're excited and hopeful but still scared

[AngelinaCatHub]

We are feeling the same fortune. We are on fixed income though.

If you have extra, save for the big emergency you fear. Call it insurance. Purchase a year's supply of storeable foods also as insurance. Pay what you up in advance and reduce more debt. Many other things we are doing like this.

Pleased to see another success story. 'Hub

[SleepWellNow]

We were discharged Nov. 3rd and are awaiting closing. As I look back on 2009, I have mixed feelings. Prior to our business failure, things were going very well. We had a lot of debt but our net worth, mostly in real estate, looked good. Our plan was to eventually sell all the properties, pay off all our debt, move into one of our smaller rentals and retire comfortably. We were government contractors for 23 years and didn't expect things to change. We planned to sell the business we worked so hard to build up. Well, the government decided to make some changes which put many small companies like ours out of business. Although we saw the business going down, we felt comfort in knowing we could sell our properties and still be looking good financially. Then the real estate crash. We struggled for quite a while trying to keep everything afloat until we finally admitted to ourselves, we just couldn't keep this up. We weren't "living", we were stuggling to exist. Mid-year we filed for BK and immediately began to breath again.

As happy as I am the debt is gone, we are still dealing with our properties. I requested mods on all of them, including our personal residence. We are prepared to lose all properties and save one to live in. Until I either get approvals or denials on the mods, I don't know where we will end up. One mod has come through, so I know we do have a house to live in. It's one of the larger houses with higher payments than I'd like so I'm hoping we get approved for one of the smaller, less expensive houses. The hardest part is putting pride aside and realizing this has to be a smart business decision. Carefully look at values (how upside-down we are in the properties) and how soon values are expected to go up in the neighborhoods they are in. I just need to get past the embarrasement of walking away from these properties. I have to keep telling myself, it will be difficult, but it will finally be over and we can move on.

So, our BK actually pushed us in to our retirement plan early (smaller house, got rid of debt). We just went down a different road to do that. We have a lot of changes ahead of us in 2010. I'm not looking forward to many of them but am confident, once it is all over, we will be happier than we have been in a very long time.

May 2010 be a year of positive change for everyone on this forum!

[jdcat]

We filed a 7 and received a discharge in June 2002. We were n debt due to ignorance/not understanding that things never stay the same. We spent and gave no thought to the future.

Things were really rough coming out of bankruptcy because of medical bills incurred after filing and DH's hours being cut. I think we grossed $40k in 2002 so net was really bad for a family of 5. We lived in a basement in a family members home for about 2 years then rented that same home until 2007 until we bought the house.

The years in between then and now have been up and down. 2007 was really good for us but even with that good year we never made above the median income for our state. I think if I had been working and not at home with our 3 children we might have done a little better but not much. Childcare would have eaten most of my pay.

My husbands job does have very good earning potential but without the demand for the product all we have is a potentially good income, nothing concrete.

It was nice though not feeling like we had a black cloud (debt) hanging over our heads at first. We did get credit again and did have to rely on credit when times were bad. We borrowed from our 401k at one point to pay these cc's off. We thought we were doing the responsible thing. Then life happened and daughter needed braces then glasses, then I needed glasses, hubby continued needing glasses, son needed dental work, dog needed surgery then didn't make it, groceries were needed blah blah blah. Life is expensive.

This time around, after being through it twice, I am determined to do this on our own. Meaning I want to be self reliant financially, I want to not have to depend on anyone/thing else for our security. If that means that we have to live payday to payday for several years to come so that we can build up the savings needed to guarantee our financial security then so be it.

It's going to be hard. Unexpected things will arise, impulses will have to be kept in check and lots of discussion between hubby and I will have to occur so that we can be on the same financial "wavelength". That's been one thing thats been hard. Hubby works hard and uses that to justify his desire to obtain "things". I'm the tightwad and get really upset with his spending. Something is going to have to give.

I can speak from personal experience that discharge of debt through bankruptcy is a godsend but it doesn't mean that things will be easy afterward. Life afterward can be just as hard depending on so many things, things that one can't always predict. We thought life would be so easy after we filed the first time but then I went into premature labor and hubbies hours were cut. These were things that we never ever would have guessed would happen.

I guess my advice, for myself at least, is to never be lax with our financial security no matter how good things may seem to get. Nothing stays the same.

[BobMango]

I'm waiting for things to get better post filing. We are halfway through our 60 days to discharge and with Christmas in the middle of that I have to say it has been stressful.

We hadn't paid on most of our credit cards for the previous six months, but did move 1,500 miles and now are maintaining two households. All of this following about 20 months of unemployment. Knowing then what I know now I would have done a few things differently post layoff. I did get a good severance package and we had some cash reserves so we able to hold out until late this summer. Then with the new job and the move it was clear that BK was the only option.

We did get our car payment reduced from $635 to $400 and will not need to maintain two households after June of 2010, but we are still looking at another six months of major juggling. Tax refund might provide some relief and we have some cattle to sell in the spring.

All in all I'm hopeful, but we are not out of the woods yet. Stress level is definitely better and now with a job (at half my former salary) there is at least more good to look forward to than bad.