Your story is remarkably similar to mine.
Lost my job in 2008, had no unemployment, drained savings and retirement trying to keep paying the bills.
Our problem was the 2nd mortgage not Credit Cards, (we had an 80-20 originally). They would not negotiate, even though I called them when I first lost my job and asked them for help.
The house foreclosed, they sold the debt to a collections agency, and they were ruthless. Drove me into bankruptcy as well. They left me no choice.
One thing I learned from that. The day you loose your job, your creditors become your enemy. It’s about survival of your family at that point, and they don’t care.
They don’t care if you spend every penny you have saved to try and stay current, when it runs out, they will take everything they can even if it means you and your wife and kids are out on the street.
My advice to anyone, if it happens to you, quit paying all debt. Use your savings to survive off of, because in the end, it will all be gone anyway, and you’ll get no help from them, when your savings is gone, any more that you would if you just cut them off from the first day you were out of work.
What I find amazing is this: People who lose their job seem to focus on everything except finding another job. Read any account and there is always infinitely more said about paying bills than finding work.
Do you have a job, now?
The message for us all is that debt is bad. Americans were largely taught not to worry about debt. Don’t pay off your house but use the money to invest.
Liberal elites benefit from human misery... makes it even creepier. Broken people are reliable democrat voters and keep liberal elites in power.
Have you noticed liberals don't accuse us of hating them any more? The reason that stopped it it dawned on them that we really do hate them - and we're not ashamed of it anymore...