Some friends of ours have about 200,000 dollars in credit card debt. That may seem like a LOT, but it’s piled up over many years, and they spent about half that money remodeling an old house they bought which they couldn’t keep and had to do a short sale (which I guess can be compared to one step above a foreclosure). They want to file for bankruptcy because they make so little money, and made a huge mistake, obviously, buying their home and then spending so much money on it. They also loaned about 20,000 dollars to the wife’s brother, that he never really paid back. But it sounds so scary to me, that big number. If they file for bankruptcy will they have a chance to explain themselves, or will that huge number send up a red flag (that doesn’t actually exist! lol). It’s actually quite a sad situation, as they went from living in a nice home on the hill to a dinky apartment in a crowded city. Happens, I guess..
Oh, they’ve stopped borrowing money, of course. Let’s put it this way. Almost half their debt was for the remodeling, which they ended up losing the house anyway. Of the 100k left over, 25% of that was a loan which was never paid back to her brother. Leaving 75k over the course of about 10 years, as her husband wasn’t working a lot, and neither was she. Long story.. disabilities and such.