How I got to bankruptcy

I was making a lot of money, but spending it as quickly as it came in. Between me and my wife, we spent over $1600 per month in car payments! I was not worried, I was bringing in plenty to cover that and expensive dinners, trips to Vegas and other vacations.

It was great then things started slowing down on the income side of things. I guess the saying “You live by the sword, you die by the sword” is true. From $1,000 per day to $100 per day. That’s a big drop, but the car payment did not stop coming due. During this time I was also seperated from my wife and starting divorce proceedings. It’s not easy going through a divorce, and even worse when there are money issues. I tend to overspent when down, and stressed, so my credit card debt went up over 25k and I thought I could pay it off later. Everything would be fine later… except later never came.

I guess the main lesson in my story is to live way beneath your means, and make sure you have enough savings to weather the worst storm. I should have had 3 - 6 months of income saved before I even thought about spending money on cars and trips. I also run several automotive websites and should have known that financing a luxury sports car was not the smartest thing either. I have decided from now on, no more car loans ! Fortunetly I work on cars and can keep them running, so buying an older used car or even a classic car cash will not be a problem with me.

Next post will be about finding a bankruptcy attorney and when I decided to file.