MasConcepts Incorporated

I know the title sounds strange considering ppl in America make bankruptcy sound like the scariest, most world ending thing, but just do it. Don’t be like me. I had an incredibly tough financial situation due to breaking a lease, moving home after living across country, taking a MUCH lower paying job for a year and completely draining my savings, AND most of my retirement, all for me to still end up filing. I essentially started going through a quarter life crisis at 28 years old and now at 30, I have very little left in my retirement and am starting from ground zero all over again. I worked so hard in my 20s and really set myself up for a decent life. I’ve never been one to splurge or rack up a bunch of CC debt. I’ve always been very responsible with money, but life happened.

I was in a career that I hated and it was damaging my mental/physical health to the point that I was getting physically sick from the job and the stress. I ended up quitting that 60k salaried job and took a job making $24 an hour bc mentally, I was almost at the point of no return. I was barely making ends meet and was paying for most of my rent through my first paycheck and my car/utilities on my second paycheck. I racked up 22k in CC debt, took out about 14k from retirement to try helping with bills and helping pay off CC debt, all for me to still not be able to pay off the debt and have to file chapter 7 bankruptcy. I guess this was a rock bottom for me and it truly sucked. I’m slowly getting back on my feet. I contacted a lawyer and it’s only $1,600 to file. I wish I’d just taken $1,600 to file earlier instead attempting to pay off my debts by nearly draining my retirement, but I’d always heard and thought that bankruptcy had even more negative consequences than what I’d done, but in my case, I think that filing bankruptcy sooner would’ve saved me from starting from zero all over again and wasting my 20s building all for it to fall apart by 30.

All of this to say please learn from my mistake. File sooner if you need to and don’t have family to lean on for financial help. I’m not advocating for being financially irresponsible and then just filing for the heck of it, but if you’re going through a tough time bc life happens, just file. You’ll probably be much better off.