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Hello everyone,
I have come to a point in my life now where making the minimum payments on my debt and keeping a roof over my head and food on the table is very hard for me. I have about 40K in unsecured debt, and its hard to keep up with it all. Even though I am current on my payments it leaves me with no money left to take care of my basic needs. I met with a bankruptcy attorney and decided its time for me to file, and get a fresh start. It hurts to know that things can change so quickly and after years of hard work and paying my bills on time and being responsible with my credit it has come to this.
Before I moved out on my own with a roommate I was staying with my parents so it was much easier to handle the debt and paying them the rent they asked. However I moved out and am living with a roommate. My roomate now cannot pay their portion of the rent because of job loss and has abanonded me and left me with the rent to pay by myself. I also co-signed on a car for my roommate which he is not paying for now because he is not working so he is behind on those payments. So now with the increased living costs, and the negative reporting on my credit report due to the car note I am in a pretty crap situation.
I am going to file CH 7 BK and im going to sever a relationship with Navy Federal which has been an extremely good bank to me.
I'm afraid of the future now that Im going to file, and the fact im so young (28) filing bankrupcy feels embarrasing. I'm afraid of how I will be able to rent or buy a home in the future after filing bankruptcy, and how to rework on building my credit again.
If anyone has any suggestions or advice for me that would be great.
It's a huge decision, so it is normal to be afraid. You have to do what's right for you. I filed in September and I still cry sometimes when I think of what has happened. Age doesn't make it any better. In fact, I am 45 and realize that in two years I will probably be considered too old to buy a home, so I'll nrverr have one. You have lots of time to rebuild and still have your dreams. Hang in there!
I was also upset and embarassed when I filed 5 years ago, but today I know it was the best decision. I've used this experience to moderate my spending, and have learned to better manage my finances for the rough times. There is definitely life after bankruptcy, we all make mistakes or have unexpected things happen in our lives. I filed at 26, so even younger than you, and I've had no problems with renting apartments or buying cars, etc. Good luck!
As others have said it is important to use this as a learning experience.
As far as federal student loans you will have no problem getting them after bankruptcy as long as any current student loans are in good standing. The direct loan program isn't based on credit. I started and completed my masters program after bankruptcy using federal loans, the school only asked for my discharge paperwork.
I felt really, really bad too when I had to file. Morally, that I was not able to pay back my lendors. I had like 14 cards with some pretty good balances on them. I was never late on paying, but also got to the point that I could not make the payments any longer. I remember speaking with my BK lawyer about how bad I felt and he told me that the CC companies make a ton of money, and that this is a drop in the bucket for them. There is some staggering number out therre that shows the banks with the annual revenues and the BK process for us is a write off for them. I was relieved to learn this, but I still felt bad for myself too like I was a loser. I did get over the loser part pretty fast and I do enjoy paying cash for everything now. We got to keep our cars and I will build my credit back up over time. I will be sure to never get credit lines so high that I can't pay them back all because I wanted to keep my utilization low.