Why Are/Have You Filed BK?

[Ifonly]

The reason we are filing is due to increase in cc payments, loans, childcare, and utilites. Over the past two years everything increased and we can no longer afford to pay the minimal required so now forced into bankruptcy.

I remember a series one of the nightly news show did before the financial meltdown called the "middle class squeeze". Boy, don't we all feel it now - middle class or not.

Mine isn't one main reason or another. Credit card debt was always a way of life. I used my VISA/MC to get me thru the last two years of school. I worked my way to a Bachelor's degree. I already lived on my own so my bartending paid for rent, food, car and health insurance and some tuition but it wasn't enough - I remember books being over $1K a semester. In Accounting, the laws change so you can't buy used. I thought the debt was an investment in a good career.

Graduated in '92 and there were very few accounting jobs due to the S&L scandal at the time. Took entry level at a company and this started me on my path to specializing in corporate accounting - I have no public experience which very often employers treat as being the holy grail - shame they don't realize that my practical experience serves them much better.

Husband/then boyfriend out of work for a year - could not find another teaching job (music ed) so he switched industries. A few times the rent went on a CC check.

After marriage, my father stroked out and the insurance company denied, denied, denied. I had to sell his home to pay for nursing home care (PT and OT) and then he came to live with house. This forced us into buying a home long before we planned to.

2 months after moving in, I became unexpectedly pregnant. I know they say that you're never ready, but we REALLY weren't ready. Laid off while on maternity leave - FMLA doesn't protect you when the position is eliminated. A handful of car accidents, BTW, did you know that to insure two cars in the assigned risk pool in NJ costs over $8,000 a year? We actually moved to PA to escape the car insurance cost.

Another year of unemployment for me in 2005 and then I fell into the trap of working at a job with a long commute and long hours. I never stopped to realize what the increased tax bracket, nanny costs and gas were doing to me. The job promised me a relocate that was "2 months away", "2 weeks away". I grew tired of chasing that moldy carrot after two years. Meanwhile, we were incurring debt to pay debt. Oh, what a house of cards.

Finally, I took a job closer to home, better opportunity last year - oops, laid off in August of '08 - no jobs to be had. And the ones that are there are paying $20-$30 K less than they should be. They know it's an employer's market. I can't afford to go back to work without considering the taxes, child care and commute again.

And to finish me off, I let a friend live here with her daughter room and board free for over two years. This ended in her just moving out one day and leaving me with the car that she WAS paying for but the loan was in my name. Note, the operative word - WAS paying for.

And here we are!

[amjo30]

The reason we are filing is due to increase in cc payments, loans, childcare, and utilites. Over the past two years everything increased and we can no longer afford to pay the minimal required so now forced into bankruptcy.

[ease]

Fluctuating income, using CC's for paying bills/mortgage, business expenses and groceries adds up very quickly!
We now have our income up to wear we can squeak by. We don't have enough for minimums. DMP would increase our monthly payment.
We are self employed and have zero savings and no retirement plan. We cancelled the useless health insurance that was adding to the CC debt.
Three kids. No contingency fund. Yikes.
Money issues create major marital family stress for us.
We need to get out, start over and breathe again.

[slam22]

Ours was sort of death by a thousand cuts. Weren't really paying as close attention as we should have been and before we knew it we had over 200k in CC's and a line of credit. In addition we had a HELOC of over 100k that was of course was underwater. Then my wife lost her job and it all came crashing down. Filed Chapter 7 and it all went away. Don't want to ever experience such a high level of suck again. We've come out the other side in really good shape and feel extremely fortunate. Of course we got to keep our 401k's and IRA's and those combined are about 500k even in today's market. We are even still in our house that we haven't made a mortgage payment on in a year. One of these days they will boot us out but until that day comes we are just saving as much cash as we can. Best advice I can give anyone contemplating BK is to do as much preparation in advance as you can. Hire an attorney. Don't even think about doing it yourself. Good luck.

[ShouldWeFile]

I am not sure we will file as yet, but the reason we are considering it is mostly due to excessive debt.

Then to cap it off, income decreased significantly (100% commission based income), and finally lost my employment, and did not return for a couple of months...

We likely would have been fine if we were living well under our means...

[BrokeinCA]

Too much credit

We just got in over our heads with credit card debt. We are filing Ch. 13 to payoff what we can of our credit card debt and save our home.

[lonesumluser]

Why I filed bankrupcy

I went through lots of tough stuff, lost my sister to cancer, lost my mom and dad to heart disease, an unruly teenager, drunk husband, an obsession of a famous person, an e-bay addiction, ate too much food and the list goes on and on. I have judgments against me and creditors sending the sheriff's department to my house.

I am stuck with some very high payments on my bankrupcy and must not spend one penny extra on anything each month, feeling very depressed, can't sleep, can't eat (which is a good thing) and can't really talk to my husband because he doesn't know anything about anything!!!

[dw2008]

Bought another house before selling the first and was never able to sell the first house. After using all my savings on paying two mortgages and using all my credit to get by we had to file for BK.

[lockedout]

I was involed in a 14 month labor dispute. Company locked 2400 of us out. No one in 100 miles would hire us, because they knew one day we would return. Lost about 90,000 in income in the 14 months we were out.

[FakeName]

I'm kind of similar to mkuki. I make a good salary and have a steady job. No one at any point in my life ever taught me how to "spend less than you earn." I can remember to the day in my sophomore year of college in 1995 when I started down the path that lead me here.

I had been in a car accident and used a credit card to pay my portion of the deductible (I was in college and coming up with $1000 wasn't easy). That was the last day I was debt free. That got close to being paid off and I went, "Huh. That wasn't so bad. I'd really like a new computer - I'll just pay for it over time..."

Blah, blah, blah... American dream... House, 2 car payments... Remodel kitchen... Two kids, wife stays at home but I didn't want "our lifestyle" to change...

You've heard it before. And it sucks. This feeling SUCKS. I majored in math in college so I don't know how I let this happen.

Anyway, fast forward to now and I'm in it up to my eyeballs with no end in sight. I feel like a horrible father and husband for getting us into this, but I'm going to do what needs to be done to get us out.

[SobStory]

We are homebuilders. We made our living by building and selling. We built. Can't sell. Trashed my IRA (my entire life savings) in keeping current. We have also lost all our building capital and run up huge debts. Time to throw in the towel. It's a shame but it is what it is. As self employed, we pay thru the nose for terrible medical insurance ($15K deductible each) but I am grateful that we have no medical issues or debt.
We will lose our home and probably can't afford to stay in this area.

[merlia]

Looks great! A lot of great thoughts!

___________________
Miami Lawyers

[mkuki]

I took the usual path....

Started living the american dream,...student loan, mortgage, car note, fix the house on credit card, 2 kids, wife stays @ home to raise kids, lost job early '08, hanged on surving on savings, CC's and cashing 401K to keep creditors happy & maintain good credit, 9 months later I got a job 1600 miles away, no relo offered so spent my last dough to move my a$$ over, maxed out CC's, fico tanked, gas prices shot up,....and interest rates got jacked up to 28%, cant rent out other property, kept paying mortage, CC's, car note, and fridge near empty while on six figure income...I said eff-it, I am filing and I aint scared no more.

Paid lawyer in full, just in case I get laid off and cannot come up with the cash to "free" myself.

[Blackadder]

With me it all started with wanting to provide my wife with her fairytale wedding 6 years ago. We actually were able to payoff 3/4 of the debt, then we got pregrant. Our son was born prematurerly and fought for his life, but did not make it. The medical bills and my wife being out of work for several months threw us over the edge to stay. No matter how hard we try we just never made enough $$$ to stop the bleeding. That is the much shorter version.

[ska]

Years and years of credit card debt that we just could not get paid off. This debt started way back in the early 90's. A lot of borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. I fought the thought that we were drowning in debt; I thought we would get ahead some day. Well, needless to say, that day never came. However, I did finally realize that we were in desperate need of help.