Remember that 5 year plan? Well, we just skipped to year 3.5! Wowza!! We did NOT make this decision lightly either. Believe-you-me I've been struggling with the pros and cons for a while and it is, most definitely, the best option for us. We paid our $200 retainer fee to the lawyer today. This means we stop paying all of the bills we are including in our bankruptcy. Which is EVERYTHING but our car and of course our monthly living bills. I feel like we're breaking the law or something. I have never in my life not paid a bill when it was due. Now we're told by our lawyer not to pay most of them. Ahhhhhh!
Right now we have about $16,500 in debt. That amount is only if we request payoffs and put down the cash now. But as it is, we are barely getting by, making minimum payments. If you factor in crappy minimum payments with our super duper interest rates we are looking at at least $32,000 and 8 years to pay it all off. At least!! Are you kidding me?! Barely scrape by for the next 8 years or so hoping to finally pay off all of our debt? No thank you, I'll take the bankruptcy.
And so there it is. We just went from the first half of year 1 in "the plan" to year 3.5. Our new 5 year plan is:
Year 1- The first half of Year 1 is me staying home for 2 months with our new baby and enjoying it without any worries. Save all extra monies and pay off the lawyer ASAP to finalize the bankruptcy. This should be finished by July, no problem. So really that's the first 1/4 of Year 1.
Year .75-Year 5: Save, save, save and save some more. Since we no longer have outstanding debt to pay, every month I am putting at least $400 into our savings account. This will still give us plenty of money to live comfortably within our means. But not give us enough extra that we regress into our old awful habits of spending money on crap.
By the end of Year 5 we are going to be house hunting damn it. I am fighting tooth and nail for this, I want it so badly I can taste the blood from being vicious! (Ha ha ha, I'm joking about the blood.)
*very deep, deeeeeep sigh*
Even though I feel like we are bad people for filing bankruptcy, I know that this is the best decision for us. I already feel ten times lighter having this stress off us. I didn't even realize how much our financial situation was stressing me out until now. It's like our whole world has changed. Our entire perspective of what we can now accomplish is a complete 180. Starting fresh is a great feeling. I'm looking forward to see our savings account skyrocket! Woohoo woohoo woohooo!!!!
Right now we have about $16,500 in debt. That amount is only if we request payoffs and put down the cash now. But as it is, we are barely getting by, making minimum payments. If you factor in crappy minimum payments with our super duper interest rates we are looking at at least $32,000 and 8 years to pay it all off. At least!! Are you kidding me?! Barely scrape by for the next 8 years or so hoping to finally pay off all of our debt? No thank you, I'll take the bankruptcy.
And so there it is. We just went from the first half of year 1 in "the plan" to year 3.5. Our new 5 year plan is:
Year 1- The first half of Year 1 is me staying home for 2 months with our new baby and enjoying it without any worries. Save all extra monies and pay off the lawyer ASAP to finalize the bankruptcy. This should be finished by July, no problem. So really that's the first 1/4 of Year 1.
Year .75-Year 5: Save, save, save and save some more. Since we no longer have outstanding debt to pay, every month I am putting at least $400 into our savings account. This will still give us plenty of money to live comfortably within our means. But not give us enough extra that we regress into our old awful habits of spending money on crap.
By the end of Year 5 we are going to be house hunting damn it. I am fighting tooth and nail for this, I want it so badly I can taste the blood from being vicious! (Ha ha ha, I'm joking about the blood.)
*very deep, deeeeeep sigh*
Even though I feel like we are bad people for filing bankruptcy, I know that this is the best decision for us. I already feel ten times lighter having this stress off us. I didn't even realize how much our financial situation was stressing me out until now. It's like our whole world has changed. Our entire perspective of what we can now accomplish is a complete 180. Starting fresh is a great feeling. I'm looking forward to see our savings account skyrocket! Woohoo woohoo woohooo!!!!
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