It would be nice to see your personal list of creditors and amounts for everyone

[AngelinaCatHub]

Treadingwater, you need a scissors party. Drop those cards and after bk, cash is King.

Note my signature emblem? That is what got me here also. 'Hub

[treadingwater]

Wow, it's painful to write all this down, but also a strange relief. Our 341 is 11/3. We are keeping our house and two cars with payments and no equity.

Target $200
Kohls $600
Bill me Later $700
Exxon $750 (This ONE I don't feel bad at all about - D*&^ OIL COMPANIES)
Ikea $1200
Lowes $1200
Macys $2100
Sears $12000 on three separate cards
Cap. One $2200
Discover $5200
Chase Business Visa $7700
BofA Gold Option $11000
Bo of A Gold Option $63000
BofA Business Visa $17000
BBT Business Visa $22000
Bof A Amex $26000
Chevy Chase Visa $27000
MBNA Visa $31000
BBT Business Line of Credit (personally secured by us - STUPID) $117,000
Owner/Builder Loan Services Spec House Foreclosed $187,000
Stock Building Supply $22000
Two Overdrawn Bank Accts. $4500

Well over $750k
Mostly thanks to a failed remodeling business that we just kept securing credit on way over our heads.

We've now retained another atty. to negotiate our BB&T mortgage on our residence so we can keep it but have an affordable payment.

I begged my husband to let his truck go in the BK, but he's refusing. Big source of tension as it's $700/mo. He should be driving a clunker until we recover from all this.

[debtmonster]

This is a whole other can of worms, it sounds great but it wouldn't work. Humans naturally try to better themselves for the most part. So it natural to always strive for more, even the caveman did this. So even though I am down now if you told me we all had to live in the same size/kind of house, all drive the same kind of car and all work for the same pay I think I would go crazy at some point. Like Peter said in the movie Office Space..."Where's the motivation"

I know. You are right. It has been tried and has not worked in other countries from what I have been told.

I just don't think it's right for a CEO to make $500 million while all of his employees barely make $30-50k. That is just so unfair. I couldn't sleep at night if I were that CEO. People at the top should be forced to share the wealth with the hard working people. Instead, they are all treated as legal pyramid schemes.

[Overmylimit]

Because life should be fair, even though it's not. Nobody should be any more special than anyone else. I believe in equality and when you look around, there is none. I should be a Democrat the way I think, even though I am a Republican.

This is a whole other can of worms, it sounds great but it wouldn't work. Humans naturally try to better themselves for the most part. So it natural to always strive for more, even the caveman did this. So even though I am down now if you told me we all had to live in the same size/kind of house, all drive the same kind of car and all work for the same pay I think I would go crazy at some point. Like Peter said in the movie Office Space..."Where's the motivation"

[halloweendmb1]

not even in a true socialist/communist society is there equality, I much prefer our way.

[debtmonster]

Other than the political implications of giving the government authority to control the real estate market, why should a house on the beach cost the same as a house in a suburban town or a city, simply because they are the same size?

Because life should be fair, even though it's not. Nobody should be any more special than anyone else. I believe in equality and when you look around, there is none. I should be a Democrat the way I think, even though I am a Republican.

[2Bshinyandnew]

I wish the gov't would step in and force all of the homes to go lower in price and make them affordable for everyone. It's not fair that a $900k home in CA is not different than a $150k home in Florida (square footage-wise and everything else.)

Be careful what you wish for. Other than the political implications of giving the government authority to control the real estate market, why should a house on the beach cost the same as a house in a suburban town or a city, simply because they are the same size?

The system needs fixing, but I don't think the government stepping in and price fixing by square ft is the answer. Maybe better regulation of the mortgage industry? Even then, regulations such as that should be on the state level not federal. Doesn't Texas have some kind of state regulation prohibiting a home owner from borrowing more than 80-90% of the equity in their home?

[BK2008]

My situation looks measly compared to some of yours:

American Honda $10K
Citi CC $18K
Home Depot $750
Verizon Wireless $167
Countrywide 1st: $89K
EMC 2nd: $11K

Income $45K

Single parent, lost job, can't make mortgage payments, no workout available for me as far as that goes. Can't make payments on UI, so will be moving in with my sister in Modesto. Otherwise, homeless after the fc sale.

[debtmonster]

I live outside of Stockton, there for awhile we had like 3-4000 a month just in our county alone...see the problem began here when the Bay Area (San Francisco, San Jose) had prices into the 400-600k range so people starting coming here because they could get the same house for half or less. So they came by the thousands and our city kept building like mad. Well before you know it the prices went up everywhere so a house in San Jose was the same price as here. Then all the people who had moved here for the price realized they could buy a house down the street and forget the commute. So then they left by the thousands and we are stuck with the mess. Also all of the sub prime guys made a killing off tons of people here who should never have been homeowners to begin with.

They said a house should be no more than 3x what you earn. That should be like 80+% of people should not be buying a home because the majority of the people in the US make $40-50k/yr. That means the majority of houses should be $150k or less, and that's not the case.

I wish the gov't would step in and force all of the homes to go lower in price and make them affordable for everyone. It's not fair that a $900k home in CA is not different than a $150k home in Florida (square footage-wise and everything else.) This is why I could never move to CA. If I made $70k there, I'd still be so poor.

I remember back in 2001 reading an article in the Washington Post about a guy who worked in Santa Clara and he made $80k. He could not afford any of the homes and he was living at the Salvation Army. He asked them not to use his name because he did not want his boss knowing that he lived at the Salvation Army.

[Overmylimit]

I live outside of Stockton, there for awhile we had like 3-4000 a month just in our county alone...see the problem began here when the Bay Area (San Francisco, San Jose) had prices into the 400-600k range so people starting coming here because they could get the same house for half or less. So they came by the thousands and our city kept building like mad. Well before you know it the prices went up everywhere so a house in San Jose was the same price as here. Then all the people who had moved here for the price realized they could buy a house down the street and forget the commute. So then they left by the thousands and we are stuck with the mess. Also all of the sub prime guys made a killing off tons of people here who should never have been homeowners to begin with.

[debtmonster]

Sounds like a good plan. I live in Ca also, some people just don't realize how crazy it is here.

I live in FL and I know how crazy it is in CA.

All you have to do is go to Youtube.com and watch all of these videos by "Mr. Mortgage" and he shows you how bad it is in California. I was up until the wee hours of the night watching many of his videos.

He has some SUPER SCARY numbers going on about the massive foreclosures in California. Some of the videos are 10 minutes each, so you can spend a good couple hours watching. He has a nice blog that also goes more indepth. This guy probably knows more about foreclosures than anyone in the country.

[BROKENN]

So when you shut down your business, did you have to show it was closed and if so how? Just a cancelled business license or checking account?

The lawyer told the the trustee we were closing. I shut down the insurances and packed up his office I had to close mine too. But the lawyer told the trustee I needed to finish some projects so that I could make some money and keep food on the table Lawyer stuck up for me.

At my 341 it was exactly what the trustee wanted to know. Did our businesses close? And did my DH have a job yet? And what money were we living off of. I told the trustee our bank accounts and accounts recievables listed for both companies. He seemed fine with that when he sat and looked at the schedule. Asked if it was blah amount, I said yes. He asked for no paperwork proof.

So I could tell the trustee had called my lawyer. I am going to keep doing what I do to keep food on the table while my DH looks for a job.

Also, we are surrendering our house.

[Flamingo]

I have read two posts from OLD hack.. They both seem to be negative.

People here are trying to either find help or decide if they should file. Seeing real life examples help provide a comparative view of where people are\were when filing. Someone may be on the edge of filing and come across this post help them make the final decision on whether they should or should not file. In addition, the person may identify with one particular post\poster and may want to read all the individuals prior post(s) to see what challenges they faced and what questions they have asked. Further more, these posts listing debts will make it real for the person that may still be in the denial stage.

I am known on here not to "sugar coat" things as I believe common sense and cool heads should prevail in the personal and business world; however, when one reads the postings in this thread and realizes the amounts of debt that are being discharged every day in this country by people in way over their heads mostly due to the obtaining of too much credit, living beyond one's means, etc., and then the income stopping or not much savings involved to get one through a bad time such as a job loss, know that creditors get to write off your discharged debt but all of us end up pulling the load in increased prices for food, services, you name it. Of course when one is in the throws of filing BK, you don't think of this until after you go through the process and see what is done and what is going on.

Bankruptcy should be a one time Get out of Jail Free card and one should learn from it, stay away from the credit and change their lifestyle in order not to get in that position again. This economy and the mortgage bust should be a good lesson for everyone as to how greed can do you in. We are all suffering because banks wanted to give folks with bad credit a chance at a house and the entire thing just snowballed into hell. We are all poorer for that, while many are billionaires.

I believe we should all learn from this thread. We filed Chapter 13 and paid back 64% of our debts just to keep our house so we only discharged a 36% of our debts and I realize that others will be paying that back in higher fees and services while the creditors wrote it off.

Your mind set changes a bit after filing when you realize what is going on out there. While most of you may not see it now due to the stress of the debt, you will see it later. I thank DebtMonster for requesting everyone to list the amounts of debt - it is a real education for everyone to see what goes on and the amount of debt that is just a fraction on this forum that gets discharged. Good eye opener and educational thread.

[lillaimof2kids]

I had...
$80,000 in CC debt
$50,000 in business loans
$10,000 in landfill fees (we closed our sanitation/trash business)
$15,000 Auto loan (SUV was only worth $7000)
$90,000 Home loan 1st mortgage (we kept the house)
$45,000 Equity line 2nd mortgage (we had to keep this since we kept the house)
$280,000 TOTAL

We kept the house, but did not sign any reaffirmations! Economy is still very unstable, I wanted an out if DH were to loose his job!

[Annika]

Our BK (Ch. 7) was in December 2004; discharged in 2005.

Mortgage - $45,000 (has always been current - we kept the house)

Truck - $300 (was current - only had 1 payment left at time of filing - we reaffirmed)

Non-dischargable taxes - $2,000 (paid off in 2007)

Credit Cards, including Lowes, Sears, etc. - $26,000. All were current at the time of filing. Never late, never missed a payment. We had already paid these cards down from their previous balances, and had paid 2 of them completely off -- we were doing so great! -- when I suddenly became seriously ill. I very nearly didn't make it. I spent 4 months in and out of the hospital, and ended up having to have major surgery in September 2004.

And that resulted in almost $100,000 in medical bills, which did us in. We tried our best, but there was just no way to pay that kind of money on top of our regular bills.

But on the good side, our only debt now is our mortgage. No credit cards. No vehicle payments. We've been using cash only since December 2004.