Lessons you've learned since filing your BK..

[cali girl]

We had gotten a settlement and wanted to buy a house - pronto! We spent thousands cleaning up all of the credit we owed, paid off my car, then started house hunting although our scores were still only in the 500's.

We took a 25-year old house, on a 100% subprime loan (one of the bad ones!) thinking 'oh, we'll just refi in 2 years!' and ended up trapped in the cycle of interest only.

Then when the 2 years came calling, there was NO equity in the home, it was too tiny for us, we spent $8,000 to fix the pool in the backyard and it still wasn't up to par! Our rate went up 6% overnight and we were screwed.

What I've learned is that we should have just waited and gave ourselves some time to build credit and make informed decisions. The money was burning a hole in our pockets and we felt that if we didn't get a house soon, we wouldn't be able to hold onto it.

We've also learned that we need to focus on savings and the importance of having money for a rainy day. Talk about growing up quickly! The last three years have been a nightmare and we will NEVER go that route again!

What have you learned?

[PaKettle]

We had gotten a settlement and wanted to buy a house - pronto! We spent thousands cleaning up all of the credit we owed, paid off my car, then started house hunting although our scores were still only in the 500's.

We took a 25-year old house, on a 100% subprime loan (one of the bad ones!) thinking 'oh, we'll just refi in 2 years!' and ended up trapped in the cycle of interest only.

Then when the 2 years came calling, there was NO equity in the home, it was too tiny for us, we spent $8,000 to fix the pool in the backyard and it still wasn't up to par! Our rate went up 6% overnight and we were screwed.

What I've learned is that we should have just waited and gave ourselves some time to build credit and make informed decisions. The money was burning a hole in our pockets and we felt that if we didn't get a house soon, we wouldn't be able to hold onto it.

We've also learned that we need to focus on savings and the importance of having money for a rainy day. Talk about growing up quickly! The last three years have been a nightmare and we will NEVER go that route again!

What have you learned?

I've learned to not spend more than we have in savings, like for vacations and big ticket items. From now on we will save for those things. I might use a credit card to buy a big ticket item or plane ticket but I will not use that card again until that item is completely paid off, and I won't even charge it unless I'm sure we CAN pay it off within, say, 3 months.

I've also learned not to exaggerate my income on credit apps. Not only does that lead to getting more credit than one deserves, but it also caused me a bit of stress when I filed bankruptcy, worrying about them using it against me.

I've learned to save money. We are working on saving around 3-6 months expenses for an emergency fund. Right now we barely have one month but with our tax refund and the incentive payment from the Congress, we will then have about 3 months worth.

I've learned to keep track of what we're spending, especially cash, which - even though we are trying to keep track of it - seems to just disappear, and later I go, "what happened? clearcheckbook.com says we had $150 in cash, now we only have $50 and I can't account for the other $100!" So we're trying harder to keep track of every little expenditure so we know where it's all going. (clearcheckbook.com is a great little tool and free!)

[cali girl]

I've learned to keep track of what we're spending, especially cash, which - even though we are trying to keep track of it - seems to just disappear, and later I go, "what happened? clearcheckbook.com says we had $150 in cash, now we only have $50 and I can't account for the other $100!" So we're trying harder to keep track of every little expenditure so we know where it's all going. (clearcheckbook.com is a great little tool and free!)

OMG that is SO our situation. We have got to keep track of our spending. Walmart, Taco Bell, Little Caesars and Wendy's are getting rich off of us!