MasConcepts Incorporated

Discharge Day! I wanted to take a minute to say a few things…

First, a HUGE thank you to the people who shared their experiences over the last several months here. Your openness and candidness about successes, failures and fears have helped me as I navigated the process. There are likely hundreds if not thousands of folks like me who lurk Reddit and seek advice during a personally challenging time but didn’t comment.

I owned a business that I started a few years before COVID, and I took SBA disaster relief loans during the pandemic. Plenty of responsibility falls on me for not being more thorough and we can certainly debate the merits of the program as a whole. Yes my loans were PG.

For multiple years since, I have struggled with the loans, the payments and the stress. I avoided BK for lots of reasons. Stigma, stubbornness, hope that I would find the footing, etc.

As the walls closed and things got worse; it felt like I was suffocating.

The day I finally filed; what I felt was RELIEF. My advice to anyone struggling is the following:

Seek help today. Whatever that looks like. Don’t put it off. Don’t hope it will get better. Spend time to find the method and the chapter that works for you.

You’ll be ok. I survived it and while there may be some limitations after and work to rebuild; what it gave me was what BK is meant to: a fresh start.

I chose to let my car go. The negative equity was just going to start me behind and defeated the purpose of the whole situation. That may have been as intimidating as anything else. It’s ok!

Since filing, I saved money and have a reserve for the first time in years. I applied for a Cap One card to start my rebuild and was approved with no fees. I will eventually apply for a second. In time. Our household has 2 cars and I don’t need a car just for me at the moment. I have looked, researched one but will take my time on this and all purchases. The peace of sleeping every night isn’t worth what I got into.

If any of this feels similar, don’t wait. Research, consult and start over.

Ref: I filed chapter 7 in Georgia on the 2nd of Jul, 341 meeting was 30 days later and discharge was about 70 days after that.