"Bankruptcy is a Beginning"

I was 38 years old when I was forced to file bankruptcy. Prior to that, I was always good with finances and rarely was late or missed a bill.

Things started going downhill when I had some medical problems. I had to have over a year of physical therapy for a knee injury which was not covered by insurance, and there were other medical expenses as well. I was not able to work and had difficulty driving due to the injury.

With the economy as it is, I was unable to find a job, blew through my savings, and had to live on my credit cards since I wasn't eligible for unemployment benefits.

The credit card companies were not understanding of my situation, refused to give me extensions on my payments, and eventually reduced my credit limits, limiting my ability to purchase necessary items even more.

I tried to pay the bills in order of importance but they kept piling up. Within 18 months I had accumulated over $100,000 in credit card debt.

I took odd jobs, and looked everywhere for a permanent job, sending out about 200 applications. Nothing ended up being a long term, permanent job.

I met with financial advisors and determined that due to the large amount of debt I had, and no prospects for much of an income, that filing bankruptcy would be my best alternative. I was not happy about having to do this, but my advisors reassured me that it would be the best thing for me.

I did feel better when I read the personal stories of other and knew I wasn't alone. I came to realize that most people are only a few missed paychecks away from bankruptcy.

I was able to file Chapter 13, which meant that I could keep much of my property, but had to make arrangements with my creditors to pay a portion of what I owed them. With help from financial advisors, I came to agreements with the credit card companies to pay about 25% on average of what I owed them. We worked out a payment plan that was doable on the part time job I had. It was a long hard road to pay my creditors even that small amount, and to begin to rebuild my credit.

But declaring bankruptcy was the best decision I could have made. I could not have dug myself out of that hole on my own, and I know in time my credit will be rebuilt.

Contributed by Jacob from Tennessee