why did you or why are you considering bk?

[monkatom]

I am filling with 121K unsecured CC debt due to unexpected second child and living beyond my means. I think i will look up Dave Ramsey as I do not want to file BK only to be in trouble again shortly.

[getouttathehole]

We are filing because, and it is a long story, two years ago my husband got laid off, didn't even get his last paycheck (that's what you get for working for an ex-enron vp). We lived in a small town with no options for jobs in his line of work (also complicated by immigration limitations because we are Canadian). So we moved from NC to KS for a new job. Could not sell our house in NC, had it on the market for 2 years. Tried renting it out but couldn't even make the mortgage payment with the rental money plus the place was starting to need some major repairs. It finally went into foreclosure last fall. In the mean time we racked up a lot of debt just trying to pay the bills on two houses. Made a few bad decisions to borrow money to hold us over until the NC house sold, which of course never happened, plus our current house started needing some major repairs. Now we are here. If everything goes smoothly I am not even sure how it will feel not to have constant stress like I have for the past 2.5 years! I hope to find out!

[demismom]

Mostly same as you

I did get pg and put on bedrest for 5 and a half months, where we used credit to live on, but after the baby was born, I didn't go back to work until she was 3 and that was stupid. Pride got in the way.

[Bandit]

Letting congress know is not the solution it will be more of a problem. WE as a community know how to better spend our money than congress, and we are in BK. This government isnt far behind. I do not need them providing me with insurance. Give me more of the money I make and let me bear the expense of retirement and medical. I am in BK right now and paid well over $22,000 in taxwes this year to the different federal agencies and that is not including the 8% sales tax I have here in Texas. I have local land line through AT@T. That phone line cost me $9.00 a month and I pay $11.50 in taxes on it. I would be willing to say we actually get to keep less than 40% of the money we make when it is all said and done. WE owe it to take care of our elderly but that responsibility should be left to us the private citizens. There are a lot of private non-profit charities available. These are who we should be giving to not Congress .

I do not need them providing me with insurance.

If Congress wants to offer me valid & cost effective health insurance- I will sign up for that in a second flat as in RIGHT NOW.
If others want to turn it down or pay for their own that is fine...but I will take any insurance I can get. I know now, that paying for our monthly dues at 200-300 a month does NOT promise us another BK because all it will take is 5 long nights in the hopsital & POOF! I am 20,000 of 100,000 back into debt with an 80/20 not including deductible. That is nothing to do with a very long term illness that can happen to any of us at any time.

When I worked for companies that offered health insurance I signed up immediately for it & indeed used it every time.

You are talking about a lot of taxes & that is not going to change much. Maybe you need a better tax accountant? that could get more of that back for you each year?

[Bandit]

We are filing because, and it is a long story,

LOL! it is always a long story, my dear A very long miserable sob story and yet it does not take very long to get into it

One thing leads to another &...& then another & there is just no way of turning it around.

[Bandit]

Lets let Congress know ..

Congress knows as that is one of the biggest issues on the table this year & we know why. But most of them really do not give a d*** (pardon my french) & talk a big speech but I don't see them doing a lot with it.

When our country had good factory jobs, the entire family had 100% coverage for insurance but sadly the dirty rich & those politicians gave all our fair jobs to China right along with tossing the benifits for hard workers right out the window then went out & pocketed it!

My father always said, "When you have a good employee there is no reason not to take care of them & share the wealth with them, it is the right thing to do."

Not everyone cares to be dirty rich but would still like to see their kids raised with fair health care so they have a chance at something in life.
This is turning into a huge mess in our country while the foreigners come in & get 100% coverage. EH?!

ahhh...that felt good to vent a little

[Bandit]

Give me more of the money I make and let me bear the expense of retirement and medical.

I just wanted to go back on this because I am in agreement with bmcmull, about the retirement as the way it is set up right now we can do way better with our own retirement accounts... but the health insurance & cost of medical attention is WAY out of control & we know why.

[Dirk Squarejaw]

Mine has a bit of a story too. Back in '99, I took on a 2nd job. It was going to be for the summer only while school was out and I would quit when I started teaching again in the fall, but they were paying me $11 part time and I couldn't let go of the money. After a few years, I was living off both salaries instead of my teaching job paying the bills and the 2nd job providing "fun money". I got married in 2002 and the debt started piling up because I started buying odds and ends with the intention that I'd pay it off the next month or in the summer while I was working 40hrs at my 2nd job. Things got out of hand and in 2005 I took control of it. I got a consolidation loan from MBNA with rates that were a bit high, but it would have been paid off in 2010.

After taking the loan, I started paying for everything in cash. If I didn't have the money, I waited a week or two. I used my credit cards maybe a dozen times from 2005 until March of 2007. Then, my wife came home one day from her new job and told me she'd been sleeping with the credit manager in her accounting office. After the divorce, I got left with the house, 2 joint debts, car, etc. and losing her income put a major dent in my plan to pay off my debt and use cash only. After making it a few months, I finally couldn't do it any more starting this last month. I simply can't find a way to come up with the money to pay all the bills even with working two jobs. So I'm finally off to see a lawyer or three in the next few weeks.

[pa308]

demi i dont think it was stupid to stay with your child for 3 years. Probably the best 3 years for your child and you.

[bigreddog]

I thought we lived the good life. Nice house we built. Owned a very successful cleaning business. ($750k yr, 20 employees).Bought a second house to rehab and sell, two nice cars, didn't have to work hard, went away for a weekend at least once a month, got a new credit card in the mail each month. What a life. Wrong.....We used every card to rehab the 2nd home. We sold our nice new home about 1 day before the housing bubble burst in 12/05 but we had home equitied it to death so what was left went into the rehab house so we could live in it. 2 yrs. later and it's almost livable. The kicker came when all the credit cards that we had 2.9%, 5.9% and 7.9% all kicked up to 29% due to our credit risk. Bull$*S)* We have never in 12 yrs. EVER missed a single payment.Because we were sole proprietors of a business all the business loans were in our names. So we had $140k in c.c. debt. $75k in secured loans and a $325k mortgage. One night I woke up and figured that just the minimum payments were killing us and in 30 years they still wouldn't be paid off. We filed in May. The IRS gets $7,000. The state gets $5000. The lawyer gets $1350 and the trustee gets $3500 and the CREDIT CARD COMPANIES get what left. About $8000 And now our credit scores although not great in the high 600's are still higher than before the BK filing????????The banks created this recession and screwed us with this new BK legislation and I'm happy to think I may be one of them that stuck a little of it back to them. BK is supposed to give honest people a new start in life. I feel like many of you that I've BEEN thrown in prison for 5 yrs. and the banks are laughing all the way back to the bank.