[sergiofarias]

Hello I am asking your opinion because I cannot seem to figure out what the best case scenario is. Make a very long story short I am in serious trouble, I invested in a business which is bankrupt (for many unfortunate reasons). I owe about $80,000.00 dlls in credit card debt due to this business and the minimum monthly payments are $1,500.00 dlls a month. Up to now the business had been paying the credit cards but it is no longer able to do so. So I am faced with paying them now. As of now I have not been late on any cards and my interest rate on all of them is less than 9%. After all is said and done I have no excess cash, my wife an I both work and between my personal debt $50,000.00 ($30,000 is attributed to the business which I invested in cash and never saw it again and put some home remodeling on my card because I was told I would have the money back in 6 months but never did) and the minimums on these is about $1,000.00 a month plus car payments, food etc. and my mortgage ( I have no equity in my house to dip in to) I cannot make the minimums on these cards, I have about $60,000.00 in my 401k and was thinking about cashing out and paying off part of the debt to make it more manageable or should I consider bankruptcy. I have been struggling with this decision for about a year now and it has come down to the wire and need to make a call. I know people tell me not to cash out my 401k, but I also wonder what good it will do if I get sick over this and drop! (not trying to be dramatic just stating a possibility) or should I file for bankruptcy if I qualify. Any help wold be appreciated:confused: :confused: :( :confused: :(

[George_1950]

Definitely consult with a competent bankruptcy attorney; you need to find out whether your 401k is 'exempt' property or not; if it is, you can walk away from the mess with lessons learned. There is no need to worry yourself sick over this.

[excon]

Hello serg:

You didn't provide enough information for us to give you a detailed plan. This isn't the place for it anyway. So, I can't tell from what you've said whether bk is your best option.

You certainly might get out of your plight with just better budgeting, long term planning, or maybe even debt consolidation. I don't know if your situation can be saved or not.

What I do know, is that if you go see a bankruptcy attorney, guess which option he's going to think is best for you? Therefore, before I stopped there, I'd visit a financial planner, a CPA, a debt counselor - I don't know which one.

As an aside, get on with it. It's only money. If you did it once, you can do it again. It's this in-between world that's tearing you up.

excon