Delayed Day 2: Back Story and continuation of Day 1

        Sorry for missing yesterday. I ended up getting a little too busy late in the day to post my update. However, I'm up this morning and ready to go. I dove in to my story a little yesterday and don't feel that I gave sufficient back story to describe just how I got to that point and why I was changing everything. I moved to Texas in 2014 and started a new position after a promotion with the company I was working for at the time. That is what started my dive into overuse of credit and especially revolving credit or, as most of you know it, credit cards. I enjoyed the "purchasing power" and being able to buy things that I wouldn't be able to buy with cash. However, I never made progress on paying back the debt as quickly as I did on continuing to accrue more debt. I knew the warning signs of a bad ending were there, but I was enjoying the moment a little too much. I had a new place, a new job, new stuff; everything was going great. I would open new cards and balance transfer on the older cards that were about to start charging me interest in order to keep the 0% interest chain going. Little did I know, that boat would eventually sail away. I would eventually have more debt than even credit card lenders were allowed to give me. My ability to open new accounts stopped and my credit cards were nearly maxed out. I had come to the point of no return. Relatives tried to help me out of some of it and it provided some short-term relief. That, of course, made me feel like I had some cushion so I decided to move out of my apartment and buy my first home. This would prove to be a big mistake.
       I moved into the house and everything was great for a while. My wife got pregnant a few months later and we were living the "American Dream." We owned a home with our daughter about to have a new baby brother. After he was born, it put a financial strain on me and my wife and we would succumb to the black hole of credit card debt and maxed everything out. I was getting by for a few months before the pressure started to cause both of us to want to move back closer to our original home in Mobile. I was luckily able to find a better job with a large corporation in the same field. This was a huge deal for me as I've always wanted to work for a company like this. Now that I had the resume and they had the opening, it actually happened. I moved down to Louisiana and that is where we have been living for a little over a year now. The unfortunate part of the move is that the cost of living in my new place is higher than the cost of living where I came from and I did not receive much of an increase in pay. This brought even more challenges to make payments on credit cards and I eventually had to decide that I was not able to maintain the payments on them while still being able to provide the necessities for my family. So, again, 2017 was the year I stopped making payments and had to let them all go. I regret letting it get that bad, but I am planning to settle or pay in full all of my charged off balances over time in 2018 and maybe into 2019 as well. That is the reason I started my new habits with money and part of the reason I decided to create the blog. To share my story and get feedback from others who have been through the same or are going through the same. Has anyone ever had to deal with delinquent debt? Bankruptcy? Foreclosure or repossession? If so, this blog is for you to help provide my tips as well as get your advice on how you're taking on a similar challenge. I hope that this is beneficial for many and I hope that it will help to keep me motivated for the future. Please feel free to reach out to me in the comments or even by email if you'd like. I'm willing to give financial advice on what I have learned to be the best ways to save and invest money and also give advice on how to deal with collectors since I have been a collector myself in the past. I have experience in the automotive finance industry, but it translates to all credit industries. Thanks for taking the time to read my late Day 2 entry. Hope everyone makes it a great day today.