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Nah, I'm not writing a poem I just wanted to write and let everyone know that I had a pretty damn good day today!

Well, the day didn't start out too great. I had to wake up at 7 am instead of my usual 9 am. But I felt pretty good because I knew I was taking a first big step in straightening out my horrific mess of bills and debts. My paycheque was being garnished at work for monies I owed. They were garnishing my cheque like 50%!!

So I went to work the morning I found out about my garnishment. I was extremely bummed out, and almost on the verge of tears. Angry with myself for getting in such a mess, and angry that so much of my fairly meager paycheque be taken away. They were garnishing 25% of the balance I owed them off my pay.

Anyhow, I decided to get some free help from my work's EAP (Employee Assistance Program) and got an appointment for financial counseling. I met with Joe today and he went over my possible options. I am taking the bankruptcy route. In some ways, it's the easy way to go. In other ways, it could prove to be risky.

For those who don't know, when you go through bankruptcy, you basically declare to all your creditors/collection agencies that "I'm FUCKING BROKE! Now leave me alone, assholes!!"

There are fees involved, but I'm not sure what they're for. When you first declare you're bankrupt, there is a fee of $250.00. I think it's $100.00 for processing fees, and $150.00 for your first payment. Then once a month, for 8 months, I would pay $150.00 to my trustee in my bankruptcy.

My penalty for committing this 'sin' is that I have this on my credit records for 6 years and 8 months. That means I can't get a credit card, a bank loan, car loan, mortgage, etc. without that effecting my credit rating. That's the only thing that scares me, is because a lot can happen in 7 years. However, my going bankrupt will wipe clean my debts of over $11,000, and I pay $1,450.00 over 8 or 9 months.

Fuck it, I say. I've been living just fine and my credit has sucked for the last 3 years. The year I left my wife.

Soooo, now my finances are going to be in order someday soon. I'm applying for bankruptcy in a few days, I think. I'm 90 percent confident that I'm going to apply...but I'm going to do a bit more research.

Oh yeah, and get this. When I do file, my co-signed student line of credit balance of $4,800 gets dumped on my co-signor...my ex-father in law. Honestly, I don't give a shit because he has an assload of money. He just helped my ex-wife...his daughter, buy her very own house in the suburbs. So I stab him in the arse with a bill...ol' George can handle it.

Sigh...I rambled a lot there. I'm stiff fucking stoned. It's 1:37 am and I have to wake up at 7 or 7:30 tomorrow.

I wouldnt go for bankcruptcy if I was you. You never know when you might need to take out a loan, get a credit card etc. You could be sacked from your job and being bankcrupt doesnt look the best when applying for a job but Im sure your making the right decision for you. Good to hear you had a good day, still waiting for one to come my way.

Think long and hard before you choose the bankrupcy route..

My nephew who is 20 is going through sorta the same thing. See when he was 18 he bought a 15,000 Volkwagon Jetta, with $400 per month payments. Well he wound up getting a shitload of tickets and got his license suspended. He continued driving and got caught. The fine for driving with licence suspended is $1200 and his car gets seized for 30 days and he has to pay $300 pound fees. To make a long story short this happens 3 or 4 times and he is $5000 in debt only for his tickets. WE finally convince him to un register the vehicule and stop using it. This one day he moves the car out into the street because the asphalt guys were doing the driveway. He forgets and leaves the car there for 3 days. Cops come by..seize the vehicule. Get this...they now have indefinately seized the vehicule..can't get it back until he pays all his tickets which now amount to $6000-$7000!!! And has $10 pound fees everyday....
So he goes to the bank and asks for a loan to pay everything off..they refuse him becuase he has no assets and no co-signer. HE went to the bankrupcy office to get advice. They told him not to do bankrupcy, that he was enough in debt to do it. With the car he owes around $20,000......They told him to simply close his bank account and stop making payments!!!! They said forget the car, the bank will reposses it, just concentrate on paying your tickets. Guess the bank can't do much to reclaim the money cause he has nothing or something. Said that will damage his credit report much less than bankrupcy.

Gorecore, have you looked into bill or debt consolidation?? Google it, there are tons of finace companies that do it. www.creditadvisors.ca is one. They take your credit card bills and pay them off for you. You in turn must make monthly payments to them..with a lower interst fee. They aim to make you debt free in 3-5 years I think. Check into it, might be good for your situation.

My mom and dad declared bankruptcy before they divorced and to this day my mom still complains about that.

Good Luck man, this next hit is for you

dont file fro bankruptcy

Yeah man, my cousin filed for bankruptcy a few years ago after being a good 25,000 euros in debt, and shit went downhill from there. You'll have a shitload of trouble finding a decent job, you probably won't get credit cards ever again, or plain credit for that matter.

I'd go with Higher's suggestion and try debt consolidation before you think about filing for bakruptcy.

Seems like everyone is quite down on me going bankrupt. Not that I don't trust everyone's advice (thanks by the way), but I'm going to listen to my family and go bankrupt.

They agreed that they would co-sign a credit card for me with a limit of $500.00 so I can start re-building my credit right after my 8 or 9 months of payments are finished. My parents had to file for bankruptcy about 8 years ago, and they're doing really well. They sold their old house for double what they paid for it, bought a nicer house, bought a new car.

I've thought about debt consolidation before. I tried getting a loan at my bank to consolidate my bills but they said my debt ratio is too high.

Ah well, I've weighed my pro's and con's back and forth over and over. And going bankrupt is the way for me to go. Besides, it's only money and credit standings...it's not Keith. It doesn't decide whether I exist or not.

Ahhhh...money.

You'll never get a debt consolidation from a bank, you need to try a finance company. They take higher risk cases. Banks suck ass when it comes to getting loans if you have no or little assets. Have you tried www.citifinancial.com..I got a loan from them once with no assets and no cosigner..musta be about 18 or 19.

Like you said about your parents, credit rating doesn't matter....when you have lotsa money everyone will loan to you regardless. Start saving!! That is exactly what the bankrupty place told my nephew. But if you do not have money, damn yes it will hurt you. My nephews mother has gone through 2 bankrupcies..she is blocked for credit for 14 years.

Nowadays you can also get prepaid credit cards to rebuild your credit rating. You send a check into visa, they load the card and you use it. It appears on the credit rating as a normal credit card transaction I believe (not 100% positive though)

How old are you anyways?

^^ I think ol' Keith is around 25-32

Yeah, I'm in that age bracket. I'm 30.

Get your ass on msn BEATCH!