My own story is not the same but I have ended up on a debt management plan. I lent money to family through loans and they never paid me back… Over 5 years it built up until I couldn’t afford payments and ended up in a predicament…. That’s why I am now in the debt management plan. I pay a set amount each month (around $200 US) which is much easier to handle and it is reducing the debt, slowly (18 years to pay it all off right now).

As for credit, NEVER again. If I ever buy a property it will be cash too.

Times are hard right now but I feel positive that I will get through and that emergency fund is paramount.

Thanks for sharing your story.
.-= Forest´s last blog ..A Helping Hand For Fellow Yakezie Members =-.

However…I feel obliged to point out that on the other side of the bankruptcy coin are the creditors – I once lost a lot of money when one of my clients declared bankruptcy. I never saw a penny of what they owed me, and I still had to pay off all the subcontractors I’d hired for the work that we did for them. That all came out of my pocket. What if I couldn’t have paid them? Then THEY would have had to pay for materials, labor, etc from THEIR pockets.

Bankrupcty isn’t just a personal hell for the declarer. Its effects can spread far and wide.
.-= Mickey´s last blog ..“She owns the subject…” =-.

The good news is that it gets better. You don't sound like the type to fall into debt again, and with hard work, you'll recover. We filed in 2003, moved into a rental, and were able to buy a needed vehicle and the home we're in now in 2006. Since then, we have refinanced the home to a better interest rate and have been paying extra on the van so that it's almost paid off. Once it is, we'll be debt-free except for mortgage. We intend to stay that way.

One thing we did about a year after our bankruptcy was to get a low-limit credit card from our credit union and charge some small necessities. We ran up a balance of just $100-$200…something we knew we could easily pay off…then we let the card carry the balance and paid only the minimum for a couple of cycles, then on the third billing we paid it off completely. We waited a while then did the whole thing again…several times. That may not be the best advice for someone who can't control themselves with a credit card, but since we could, it helped repair our credit more quickly. In the last year or so, though, we've stopped doing that and only use the credit card once in a while to keep the account open and then pay it in full immediately.
.-= Annie Jones´s last blog ..Monday Morning Chit Chat =-.