"I Wish I Had Filed Bankruptcy Sooner"

I filed Chapter 7 at the end of 2009. I was in very serious financial troubles having been unemployed for almost a year.

I continued to pay all of my bills whle spending all of my life's savings and 401K. I did not know anything about Chapter 7 until a friend of mine confessed that he had recently filed.

Had I known of this opportunity earlier, I would have filed before I was completely broke.

I had to borrow the money from family, just to file. I had to take my pride out of the picture and look at what was best for my family.

The process went very smoothly. I used a personal referral for my attorney and all that was required of me was to document the account numbers, amount owed and contact information for my debtors. I only made a couple of visits to my attorney and most of the communications were done by email and the postal service.

After filing bankruptcy, the phone calls from the collectors stopped. I think that this was the most gratifying thing of filing. The calls were constant and never pleasant, but once they stopped, I saw that there was an end in sight.

The court appearance took only a few minutes by my anwering only a few questions. I wasn't expecting that I would be listening to a number of cases prior to mine, or that other people would hear mine. But it was good, because it showed me that I wasn't the only one in the world with serious financial troubles.

I received my discharge a few weeks later and a huge load was removed from my shoulders.

My suggestions to anyone considering filing Chapter 7 would be to consult an attorney. Don't go in thinking that you are an expert, the attorney is the expert. Ask questions if you are unsure of anything.

Our government has given us this right to file, so take advantage of it before it's too late.

Contributed by Roger from Georgia