Which was harder?

[brokemfer]

Neither one was especially difficult. I hadn't even been considering BK, until I went and saw a debt management group. After running the numbers, the woman I met with told me to go see a bankruptcy attorney. That was a kick in the pants. I made an appointment to meet with an attorney the next day, and ended up filing with him.

[Over our heads]

The hardest part for us, was to actually stop paying the bills.
Our situation is different than most.
We had cashed in his 401k when he job changed (bad bad yes I know) and we could see that when it was gone, we were screwed. There was no way we could keep up. So we used that 401k money to retain our bk attorney and to finish paying our adoption attorney fees. There was enough left to get everyone caught up on dr. appts and glasses/contacts. We are now broker than we have ever been, and for the first time in our married life, we have 0 in the saving account.

Making the appt made me a little naseous. Going I was a bit scared. The means test was giving me the pukes. Having the lawyer say "you might want to think about letting the house go" seriously almost did me in. But, she assured me that no one could *make* us leave the house, and gave us some info on how to get the payments down after our BK. That was all a bit sick making, but doable. But I tell you, I slept better that night than I had in months.

Not paying the bills when they came in next made me feel awful. It did and does go against everything I was ever taught. It feels wrong to not pay them. I am happy that the OC's actually stopped calling when we gave our attorney's info. I hated telling them I just couldn't pay.

[athomas]

Making the appointment was the hardest. After I got over that hurdle it was pretty okay. Unfortunately we were in denial for so long that we ended up going with the first person we found. I regret that, but we're almost through it.

[santadawg]

Sorry everyone, but my wife is the toughest part. She won't let me breathe without asking her first. But I guess I deserve it.

[magyar123]

Nothing really was hard for me in 2004. My lawyer was my brother-in-law.

[justbroke]

Actually retain an attorney. First, because I received quotes for Retainers from $2,800 to $3,800! (Not including the actual, additional fees to be included in the Plan from $1,500 to $3,000 or more.) And people say Chapter 11s cost $10K+...

[bcvw]

I didn't find either to be to hard. It just has to be taken care of.

[BigJohn]

I called several lawyers; most were taking Chapter 7 and none were taking bankruptcy with a business. When I found one who did bankruptcies involving businesses, I made an appointment. He wanted a large down payment and did not seem to be very helpful. Later, I found the one we will be filing with.

[ansky0007]

For me I owe a substancial amount of debt $300k in CC alone, Finding a lawyer that I felt comfortable with with the hardest thing. We went on many consults and it would have been easier if everyone offered the same advice but it was all different so choosing the best lawyer for us was the hardest part. Now that that part is done getting ready to file in 2 months also seems like a difficult step since I am sure there will be objections to the large amount of debt we have.

[b_girl]

Making the first appt. It was hard to finally admit that our life wasn't working financially and that we were at the point of drowning in our own debt. The only thing hard about retaining the lawyer was coming up with the cash.

[StartingOver08]

Definately making an appointment was the most difficult thing.

Actually, the most difficult part for me was admiting that I could no longer make the payments and work myself out of debt.

[HHM]

In the grand scheme of your BK, which was more difficult for you to do.
I mean this in an emotional or mental sense. Obviously forking out money to retain services is hard, but which of the two choices was more difficult to commit too doing.

1. Make an appointment with an attorney, and actually go to the meeting.
2. Actually Retain an attorney.