Hi everybody! First I would like to say that I have been reading some posts and you guys have taken some commendable action to reconcile and perfect your credit! I will tell you my quick tale of woe and look forward to some advice from you guys as I try to learn myself! I have a large amount of student loans and when I was almost 21 (still in college) my dad died unexpectedly. He was the sole breadwinner and had a business which we were forced to close. I finished out school, heavy hearted, and began my job search which was less-than-fruitful. Meanwhile my family's mortgage was exceedingly difficult to pay amongst other bills. My student loans amount to $700 a month (private and federal) and I decided to try to work as much as I can to pay the mortgage in lieu of my loans- knowing that I was screwing myself but figured I would rather have a roof over our heads (plus we have about 200k in equity in the house). To make a long story short we got behind on the mortgage and were faced foreclosure. Now I had a serious predicament because I had terrible credit due to my defaulted student loans and it looked like we were losing the house on top of all this. To make a long story short I got another job and worked 7 days a week for a year and got the house out of foreclosure and have since fixed all of my student loans and have begun the rehabilitation process with my federal loans which, after 9 months, takes away all of the negative reporting which goes along with my defaulting on the loans themselves. I have read "Best Credit" by Dana Neal and it has helped me get motivated to tackle my credit situation. I have opened up two secured credit cards and have signed up for all kinds of notifications to allow me to better control my financial destiny. I have to admit, though, I am still nervous about ordering my credit reports because I am scared to see my score. Anyway, I look forward to reading all of your posts and hopefully collecting some of your intellect to use in my own situation. Thank you for reading my story and hopefully you guys can keep me motivated to keep improving. Best of luck to all of you! Thanks! TOM
