"A Second Chance with Bankruptcy"
Life After Bankruptcy Stories
One of the biggest decisions in life was made by my wife and myself when we moved from California to Colorado.My bankruptcy signs were obvious when we had our second child. I was working in bank in the Bay Area (San Francisco) as a loan officer at the time. As most people know, this area has a high cost of living.
After we had our second child, my wife was unable to return to work and I had to get a part time job in addition to my regular job at the bank to support the family. The expenses were getting out of hand and credit cards were all maxed out.
A year later, we decided to move to Colorado to avoid the high cost of living in the San Francisco area. Luckily, I landed a job soon but it was still too much to manage all the debt we had accumulated over the previous several years.
After consulting with an attorney, we filed chapter 7. It was a difficult decision since I was working as a financial advisor in a credit union and I was preaching to my customers how to avoid the debt pit, yet, I fell into that pitfall.
Things started to improve in about a year after filing chapter 7. In the beginning, we did not want any more credit cards. First of all, nobody wants to give you one for about six months anyway; secondly, the interest rate is usually very high. However, in order to rebuild credit history, we started with small limits but would always make full payment on time.
Two years later, we were able to purchase a house also. I am glad we have recovered from the major debt we fell under but we're still very cautious when making purchases. We filed chapter 7 in 1999 in Colorado, it is off our record after 10 years.
It is unfortunate for anyone to have to go through this stressful process, but sometimes life gives you a second chance to breathe and one should take it.
Contributed by Abbas from Colorado
