It happened so quickly.
The minimum payments kept growing. I’d pay more than the minimum, but we were charging more than we paid off.
I thought I could handle it. I’ll just pay this one for now. I can pay the minimum on this one. I’ll pay them double next time. Wait! I can transfer my balance to this one!
At some point, my wages were garnished. A significant chunk of my paycheck was taken for the next 2 years. I don’t even remember when I started missing our mortgage payments.
We finally ended up declaring bankruptcy. It was the first solution that we pursued when we received the foreclosure notice. I still don’t know if it was the best way forward, but we knew we needed to solve this problem as quietly as we could.
Chapter 13 Life
Five years of making payments, living paycheck to paycheck, and hiding our bankruptcy have taken a toll. The stress and shame of carrying this burden have not been easy. Without the love and support of my wife, I don’t know how I could have managed.
Despite the challenges, bankruptcy still wasn’t enough to wake me from proper financial management. It was only this year that I have put in the effort to get our money situation in order.
The torch is lit
It was a tip from my dad to call this insurance guy. “Give him a call. He can save you a bunch on your car insurance.” It started me down the path of looking at all my spending and seeing where I could save a few bucks so I wouldn’t keep over drafting my account.
I started tracking my expenses, building a budget, and looking for ways to reduce my bills. I started reading a few books, which eventually led me to the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) movement.
FIRE is all about aggressive savings in order to retire early. In our case FIRE is about catching up on our savings so that I’ll actually be able to retire, and maybe before I’m 70.
Bankrupt2FI is born
I created this blog to take you on our journey to financial independence while dealing with the unique repercussions of bankruptcy.
I hope to share the roller-coaster of feelings throughout the process while helping to defeat the stigma around financial problems.
I hope to share the tips and tricks of FIRE that I’m learning and help make talking about money less taboo.
Finally, I hope that our story can help someone avoid bankruptcy, make it through quicker, or just relate to our experience and not feel so alone when faced with debt and bankruptcy.