Bankruptcy advice and opinions - all welcome

[luv2travel2]

I disagree about the 401K don't touch it not unless you are ready to loose 35 percent in penalty and taxes? This is something that can not be touched in bankruptcy so why would you take your nest egg away if your only 10 years or so from retiring. What if you take all your money things don't improve now you have no money no home and have to work till you die . I know that I am in the minority here (and I use to be one of those who was pay your bills at all cost) but when you have done all you can sold all you can and it's still not enough it's time to consider Bankruptcy. It was not a easy choice it was very painful and a very hard lesson to learn. It was not the end of the world as others seem to think it is, was it horrible I don't think so, difficult you bet it was, did I cry at night, yes and in the end did I learn something about us and really how the world works yes and it was priceless.
I am so much happier and less stressful now that I don't need all those things or go all those places that we think we need to go to keep us happy.

 

[crisi]

I disagree about the 401K don't touch it not unless you are ready to loose 35 percent in penalty and taxes? This is something that can not be touched in bankruptcy so why would you take your nest egg away if your only 10 years or so from retiring. What if you take all your money things don't improve now you have no money no home and have to work till you die . I know that I am in the minority here (and I use to be one of those who was pay your bills at all cost) but when you have done all you can sold all you can and it's still not enough it's time to consider Bankruptcy. It was not a easy choice it was very painful and a very hard lesson to learn. It was not the end of the world as others seem to think it is, was it horrible I don't think so, difficult you bet it was, did I cry at night, yes and in the end did I learn something about us and really how the world works yes and it was priceless.
I am so much happier and less stressful now that I don't need all those things or go all those places that we think we need to go to keep us happy.

The laws are there for a reason. Protecting your 401k is there for two - one to encourage savings for retirement, and two because you'll want something more than beans and rice in subsidized housing when you retire. Unless you were well paid for a lot of years, SSI is a pittance (and if you were well paid for a lot of years, its a relative pittance). You either save now, or you will likely need additional public assistance in retirement (such as subsidized housing).

Bankruptcy laws exist because they are necessary. When your back is to the wall, take advantage of them. The downside is steep enough (as someone said, a trustee telling you where you can spend almost every penny and giving you an allowance is No Fun At All, I got together with my husband in the last year or so of his pay back period, and I paid for pretty much everything - he had a little money for rent and food) to discourage people doing it just for fun.

 

[bdcp]

I disagree about the 401K don't touch it not unless you are ready to loose 35 percent in penalty and taxes? This is something that can not be touched in bankruptcy so why would you take your nest egg away if your only 10 years or so from retiring. What if you take all your money things don't improve now you have no money no home and have to work till you die . I know that I am in the minority here (and I use to be one of those who was pay your bills at all cost) but when you have done all you can sold all you can and it's still not enough it's time to consider Bankruptcy. It was not a easy choice it was very painful and a very hard lesson to learn. It was not the end of the world as others seem to think it is, was it horrible I don't think so, difficult you bet it was, did I cry at night, yes and in the end did I learn something about us and really how the world works yes and it was priceless.
I am so much happier and less stressful now that I don't need all those things or go all those places that we think we need to go to keep us happy.

From what the OP has posted, it doesn't look like they have much in their retirement savings if it would only give them a couple of months worth of bill paying, not like that's enough to retire on. We also don't know how old the OP is or whether their spouse has income. Lots of variables we DON'T know. We also don't know if they could even pay their mortgage if they declared bankruptcy. We don't know how much difference is between income and bills since the OP hasn't answered that question.

If you read the above post from OP, they mentioned they dont' think bankruptcy would really help them anyway.

 

[luv2travel2]

The laws are there for a reason. Protecting your 401k is there for two - one to encourage savings for retirement, and two because you'll want something more than beans and rice in subsidized housing when you retire. Unless you were well paid for a lot of years, SSI is a pittance (and if you were well paid for a lot of years, its a relative pittance). You either save now, or you will likely need additional public assistance in retirement (such as subsidized housing).

Bankruptcy laws exist because they are necessary. When your back is to the wall, take advantage of them. The downside is steep enough (as someone said, a trustee telling you where you can spend almost every penny and giving you an allowance is No Fun At All, I got together with my husband in the last year or so of his pay back period, and I paid for pretty much everything - he had a little money for rent and food) to discourage people doing it just for fun.

Oh I agree with you it's not fun at all and the law exist for a reason and have been around for ions. We took filing as a very serious matter and a life lesson we never want or will repeat again. I now there is some who abuse it always is in everything we have learned our lesson. We came very close to cashing in our 401K to pay all the bills we even stopped contributing at one point to have more money to pay the bills that is when we choose to see some lawyers and all said leave the 401K alone and start adding to it.

I just wanted the OP to know it is not the end of her world will it be very hard yes easy no you can survive even though you don't think you will. We also went to CCCS first to try to see if we could do a repayment plan and they told us to talk to a lawyer which started the whole process.