[notill]

Boy this sounds like my sister. She declared bankruptcy about 5 years ago and walked out on untold debt, she's now borrowed to the hilt again and upside down on everything. And as I write this she's entering her third week in Hawaii, her second trip there this year. In the meantime she "borrows" from our parents regularly, whom my brother and I help support. Unbelievable.

[Caffeine]

I don't understand why some people (not referring to any specific people mentioned on this thread) are intemperate with money.

Now, I understand if the financial outlay your society demands of you outstrips the income you earn. For example, if you live in an area where the rent for a no-frills one-bedroom apartment is $1500 or more per month, and living in a tent or a storage unit is illegal, you're probably screwed.

If it is forbidden where you live to use a clothesline or even a one-room air conditioning unit (seriously -- there are places in the US where you're not supposed to use window A/C units), but you can't afford to operate a dryer or central A/C... you're screwed.

I also understand if you arrange your life in a way that is financially prudent at the time, but doesn't work so well when one has a 30-year mortgage, but the 30-year job is mostly something of the past.

Mostly, I don't understand the blind urge to "buy that object you see on TV" or "buy that thingy because the other members of the herd are buying it too."

[Auntie_Cipation]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Caffeine', 'M')ostly, I don't understand the blind urge to "buy that object you see on TV" or "buy that thingy because the other members of the herd are buying it too."

[Caffeine]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Auntie_Cipation', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Caffeine', 'M')ostly, I don't understand the blind urge to "buy that object you see on TV" or "buy that thingy because the other members of the herd are buying it too."

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Caffeine', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Auntie_Cipation', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Caffeine', 'M')ostly, I don't understand the blind urge to "buy that object you see on TV" or "buy that thingy because the other members of the herd are buying it too."

[Cog]

I thought I would update this a bit with some new information. In what I consider a futile effort to keep her personal Titanic afloat, she has signed on with a debt relief company. Her basic income is $3000 a month and her credit car bills alone are $2500 per month. With mortgages still active on two properties she rents out, she is underwater around $400k.

The way this scam(I can't call it anything else) works is that she sends this debt relief company $900/month, stops payment on all her credit cards, and sometime down the road over the next three years, this debt relief company negotiates settlements with the CC companies. Also the debt relief company will take around 15% of everything she sends them. After reading up on this sort of thing all day, you aren't protected from being sued for the CC balances. If judgments and garnishments are filed against you, a later bankruptcy does not extinguish them.

My recommendation is that she immediately file bankruptcy and deal with all this right now. If I understand Illinois state law correctly, she will be able to keep her paid off $65,000 modest house as a primary residence and should be able to live simply with $3000 a month of income from SS and her husbands retirement.

Her husband hates the idea of bankruptcy but their FICO score is already trashed and will continue to be trashed with what is to follow with the debt relief plan. His impression is that he can go back to business as usual after a few years with this debt relief plan but it just doesn't sound like anything that will work to me. The sad part to me is that they still haven't learned anything and trying their best to avoid the sad truth that their high flying lifestyle is officially over.