Sometimes I feel like the most screwed up 24 year old on the planet. I finished my bankrupcty paperwork last week, and I honestly haven’t thought about it since then.
A Bankruptcy is supposed to be like somewhere in the top 5 most traumatic life events right? I swear I read that somewhere, maybe I’m nuts. Anyway…
I’ve screwed up so royally in the past 3 years that this just feels like another step. Not a turning point, but just another step. Stopping my trading addiction was a step, avoiding the foreclosure on the house (with a short sale) was a step, getting an apartment so I wasn’t sleeping on the floor of my office was a step, this BK is another step.
Steps, steps, steps. Those 4 I listed above all happened within the last 8 months. And I see at least another 4 pretty big steps that are going to happen in the next 8 months.
Stepping is tiring. But I will keep doing it! I have too!
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You are quite correct. It is a step.
The first thing you should do NOW (as in TODAY), is to plan on paying back the family member the money as soon as possible (i.e. within the next 2-3 months at the most).
Eat PB&J, Tuna fish, whatever it takes, but get that debt paid back as quickly as possible.
Then, see what you can do to set up a plan to start saving 10%-20% of your pay for retirement (longer term savings) and traditional savings (more liquid).
I declared BK somewhere over 12 years ago, and it cost me $1,200 at the time. Since then, my wife (girlfriend at the time) and I set goals of saving for 20% down on a house, getting married, and making sure that she could stay at home with the kids if she wanted. It took us 2 years to get to that moment in time, and we started out with twins on that day.
Fast forward 7 years, and we now have 4 kids, we’ve more than doubled the equity in our house (even with our property taxes going up 3x what it was when we bought the house), we’ve bought 2 newer cars (only because the older cars were starting to cost as much or more than it cost for the newer vehicles), and we’re saving 6% for retirement … all on a single paycheck.
Hi –
small steps.. baby steps…. its okay. Think about how far these small steps have taken you…. I’m impressed with your progress. Keep it up.
Steps mean progress. Steps mean NOT giving up. Steps mean Not giving in. Moving forward and become the best that we can be. Learning from our failures and growing to have the strength for the next Step.
This is life my friend. A series of steps, that move us forward to better places. Rejoice in the progress and keep stepping.
Heard back from the Lawyer today….need to get a few more things together (business tax returns), but nothing too major. So far, so good.
I have lots of “free time” lately…ie, nothing that absolutely HAS to be done. So, I’ve been working on some of my lesser businesses (Plan C, D, etc…). Fun stuff, but Plan A should/hopefully will start brining in some revenue in about 2 weeks. Right now I’m making enough to pay the bills and salary and some debt ($400 a month to my mom and some of the 0% rate business credit cards). But if I’m really going to make some progress my biz needs to be up in the high teens (in thousands) in revenue each month, not the high single digits as it is now…
Considering your sometimes wildly optimistic business projections, you may want to take a look at:
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/10/financial-model.html
where the redfin startup is allowing an inside peek into its books.
I’ve been reading your blog and I feel your pain. I’ll be 21 next month, my son just turns 4 months old today and my life is a heaping pile of debt and bad luck. I was homeless and without food a year ago. Moved a LOT in the last year but now we’ve got a decent place. Not enough space here and I’m still trying to figure out how to pay off loans and rent and be able to eat. Eh… anywho..
My parents declared bankruptcy twice during their terrible 17 year marriage. It’s really not all that it’s cracked up to be. I mean if you have to then you have to, right? Shit, I would if I were you. But the crappy part is that it stays on your credit and hovers over you like a black cloud for what seems like forever. At least you’re still young so you’ve got plenty of time to become a millionaire later in life.
I wish you a lot of luck with everything. Just be glad you’ve got steps to step on. Sometimes you take a step forward and fall flat on your face because there is nothing there to keep you steady. Progress is always nice!
Good luck
Nichele
http://www.pleasehelpmyfamilyout.blogspot.com
You know what the good news is? this is it!!! you can’t sink anymore, from now on, your going up! your putting all this behind you, fixing a few things and starting over!! good luck!
Oh, and to qualify things a little.
At your age, I was much more screwed up.
I was an alcoholic, had a huge distaste for “the man” (I never did figure out who this guy is, had debt that was more than twice my income but no assets to show for it, and the only thing that I made sure to pay on time was my rent.
See this post http://www.debtkid.com/what-this-bankruptcy-means-to-me#comment-3749 to for our most recent activity.
How’s it feel to be a deadbeat loser?
Hey. I feel your pain, but my government (UK) won’t let me go bankrupt or go insolvent (an IVA in UK terms) so with £30K or $60K of debt. I will be in a debt management plan for around 8 years, after my creditors have all their interest back (without interest it would be 3 years, greedy bar stewards) I am 27, still having to live with my damn parents, who are moving down a house next year so I will be kicked out….can’t get a mortgage or rent in the UK due to my credit history….and they wonder why there are more homeless than ever!
My boyf gets out of his bankruptcy in May (he managed to pay the depression card and was able to go through bankruptcy for £15K ($30K) earning £15K a year) I am emotionally stable (most of the time)and earn an average wage, so everyone can royally screw me because my ‘degree’ got me into so much debt.
So I shall hover in my existence till I am too old to have children naturally, then still get refused a mortgage!
Such is life!
that's crazy