Were you aware how much you owed?

[nc73]

I was at the lawyers and he asked me how much I owed to creditors. I said 50k. So just in case I added everything and it was almost twice that! That's not even counting the student loans.

[needanswers]

You are not alone. I had no idea it was as bad as it was until paychecks became slimmer.

To date, we have never missed a payment and I still feel very upset about missing a payment even though I know BK is imminent.

[screentest]

With both of you on this as well.

I just finally added up all my debt and minimum payments each month plus living expenses and now I know why I beg a pray for overtime every month and still have to draw about $800 a month from savings to make ends meet.

Now my savings are just about gone and I cant forbear my student loans anymore. I think I finally realized there is no magic bullet coming and I have three BK appointments next week.

[momofthree]

I knew how much overall debt we had, but I didn't really realize how much all those minimum payments added up to each month!

[Flamingo]

Reality bites hard when you are used to using credit cards, taking out cash advances to pay for things for which you have no cash on hand or taking out personal loans, etc. It's an awful thing to have to sit down and list it all and then see where you actually are in what you owe. It's a big wake up call and makes you realize how dependent you are on credit and how bad one is at keeping track of one's finances. One good thing comes out of it all...you will learn to budget so you don't end up in the same place again...let's just say that most do learn....

[coolmom04]

We also had somewhat of an idea of the credit card debt, but didn't realize the TOTAL amount of debt including my student loans, the mortgage, the vehicles, and a personal loan I have. I did know that we were barely holding our heads above water each month, but never really wanted to face the reasons why!

[SMinGA]

I was a little surprised once I added it all up. Hard to say though whether I really didn't know or just refused to think about it?

[frogger]

We knew how much we owed, we knew how much the "minimum" payments were, therefore, we filed.

Everyone should know how much they owe. If you don't find out.

Never be in a situation in which you don't own your personal finances again!

[blessed]

We knew how much debt we had, good and bad. We only owe 65k on the mortgage now and were proud of making that purchase, thought we were making some good decisions. And eventually we'd be able to pay off the cc balances if we just keep making the minimums to "buy" some time and not let our credit scores tank.

In hind sight I'm so glad we didn't qualify for a HELOC though. Talk about robbing peter to pay paul, that would have ruined us. I feel blessed that bk is an option for us knowing that it would have taken forever and thousands in interest to pay back just a little bit of money borrowed. Seeing it on paper did open our eyes wider though.

[nc73]

I think with mine it was the fees that kept adding up for over 2 years.

[screentest]

Another new shocker is the new CC statments. They now list the actual number of years it will take to pay off debt at minimum payments as well as the actual payback cost.

I have one account in particular that will take 37 years to pay back at more than three times the amount I actually charged. The banks can make this kind of money and I am supposed to feel bad about exercising my ability for a clean start?

[DeadManCrawling]

For people contemplating filing, it is also worthwhile to learn how much interest you have ALREADY paid over the years as you built a mountain of debt.

We had paid about 700k in INTEREST on 500k in debts. And were still not making progress.

Our house is a good example. Bought for 400k in 2001. At time of BK still owed 380k.

Over the decade or so, we had an average monthly payment of 4k. So, we had paid nearly 500k in INTEREST and barely dented the original principal. Had we rented, and we could have for 1k per month, in an okay area, we would have banked nearly 370k in cash.

That was an eye-opener, and that wasn't even including credit cards and other debts.

[nc73]

For people contemplating filing, it is also worthwhile to learn how much interest you have ALREADY paid over the years as you built a mountain of debt.

We had paid about 700k in INTEREST on 500k in debts. And were still not making progress.

Our house is a good example. Bought for 400k in 2001. At time of BK still owed 380k.

Over the decade or so, we had an average monthly payment of 4k. So, we had paid nearly 500k in INTEREST and barely dented the original principal. Had we rented, and we could have for 1k per month, in an okay area, we would have banked nearly 370k in cash.

That was an eye-opener, and that wasn't even including credit cards and other debts.

You'd also have to figure that you deducted your mortgage interest, but it is still better in this housing market. I think the days of home ownership is over for me. Still I see people buying and buying.

[Tman]

I kinda knew how much it was/is (alot!). I allowed myself to get sucked in by zero percent deals. If I took this zero percent and paid off this 20% card I would save tons! Well the zero percent came with $5,000 more than needed, so I decided if I paid off this other one at 18% I would save even more. Of course by now the 20% WANTED ME BACK! so they sent me a special offer for balance transfers at 5.99%, so I figured, if I paid off this other one at 15% I would save a ton. In the meantime, the zero percent expired on the first card and then they lowered the limit. Then a payment would come due between pays or the cars needed tires or the washing machine broke or we really did need a new grill and before you know it all you are right back in the rat race. My minimum payments total around $750 a month. Which ironically enough is just about my average CC usage over the past several years. After making the minimum and a little more to try to get ahead, it seemed I was always just a little short. When I think about what I could do with an extra $750 a month it boggles my mind. I could of course start to save money so that the next time the car needs tires or the washing machine breaks or the grill needs replaced I would just pay cash. I don't know how many 6 months SAC deals I have paid interest on over the years, I don't even want to think about it. Sorry for rambling.