Thursday 29 October 2009

Nearly made it too

Even six months ago I didn't see this coming. To an outsider it might have been obvious, but it certainly wasn't to me. Like a lot of people (in the UK something like a million people are either on the edge of, or have dived into, insolvency) using credit cards was a daily activity. Not for holidays, not for luxuries, for food, for stuff for the kids, for everyday living. Over the last few years I knew my debt had risen sharply, after all, the cost of everything has gone up - food, electricity, gas; at our last mortgage review we picked a really bad deal too. My wife and I, although concerned, really didn't see the end coming - one of the things that I'm not looking forward to is the Official Receiver going over the numbers and saying 'you really didn't get it? are you mad?' And maybe he will be right. We just thought that we would (again) pull the rabbit out of the hat. My wife has a weird sort of job where she can earn a large chunk of cash in one go, a deal was on the horizon, looked a dead cert, this was the life-saver on it's way. And then after one phone call the deal was dead.

If we made any mistake it was to tie the potential of this deal coming off with it being our saviour. But then again, that's how most companies go down too - pushing everything to get that one extra order, hope while the order is on the cards, despair when the order dissappears in a puff of smoke.

That's life, I'm going bankrupt for £50K. Say it fast and it doesn't sound much, does it? Bugger, we nearly made it too.