Due to the tough economic times, I recently lost my job. Being the breadwinner for a family of five, I could not bear to see my family got hungry. I had to find a way to make sure that my family will still have all the basic necessities — food, shelter, and clothing. I knew that the separation package given to me by my former company would only last a couple of months at best. So in the interim I decided to get a part time job. Unfortunately, it didn’t pay anything close to what I used to get. So our financial problems were still very much a reality. Even though we have already cut down on a lot of things, some of which my children had a difficult time understanding why, since they had already gotten used to the lifestyle that we had before.

So I consulted with my wife on the possible courses of action that we could take. One of the possible courses of action that came up was just go ahead and file for bankruptcy. This seemed like a good choice for us since we hardly had any real properties that the banks could go after so it would also be easy to pick up again after that. But after thinking long and hard about it, we decided not to go with it. For the period in time wherein you are undergoing the filing, the liquidation, you will definitely be at rock bottom. We though about the kids who are already having a difficult time as it is, so they might not we able to handle something harsher. So we decided to go with bill consolidation instead.

At least this way, we will still have some semblance of or former lifestyle. Our priority was to clear out our consumer debt, particularly from our credit cards. Slowly but surely, we are making our way and hopefully once this economic slump is over, we will be able to get back up.