Pride and Bankruptcy

Transcript:

Hello, this is Jeff Kelly. And in today’s episode, I want to talk more about pride and bankruptcy. I recently met with a client, and when we were just getting ready to file our case, she looked at me and she said, You know, I should have done this years ago, but my pride just wouldn’t let me. She had ignored her problems for years and years, tried to make the minimum payments, and eventually, the debt just grew so large that the creditor started filing garnishment actions. And that’s what motor motivated her to finally pull the trigger. She just got the point where she had to pride or no pride. And after she signed the court papers, she said, You know, I just feel like this huge burden has been taken off my shoulders.

Why do so many people wait longer than they should to file bankruptcy? I believe the answer to that question is one-word pride and I get it. Because I suffer from it as well. Is all pride bad? Well, no. I mean, it’s, it’s I think it’s a good idea to take pride in your work and try to work hard and produce the best you can. You know, I don’t know if any you’ve ever seen the movie Cool Runnings. But you know, I love that scene where the one bobsled guy is trying to encourage the other guy who’s maybe kind of suffering from some self-doubt. He’s like, I look at you, I see pride. I see power. And then bleep bleep bleep. But anyway, that’s a really good movie, by the way. That’s good pride. You know, courage people stand up. But there’s a bad side of pride. And when you think about it, you know, ask yourself this question. How many divorces do you think are caused by pride? I bet it’s a lot. Why can’t people just say they’re Sorry? When they know they did wrong? Oh, I bet it’s because of pride. Why can’t people forgive and just let things go? I think it’s because of pride. Where does that kind of pride lead? Not a very good place.

I recently had an experience myself with pride episode. I had this great idea. So I thought of getting into the Ottawa River river up around Neil’s landing and kayaking with my daughter down to Rome. Now, apparently, there’s a warning sign there that we completely missed. And as soon as we got in the water, my daughter looks at me, she goes, Dad, I really hate this. This is bad idea. Let’s just turn around, we can make it. Let’s just paddle back and get out of here. And I should listen to her. I really thought she would like it. It was her first time kayaking. She had absolutely hated it right from the start. And, you know, I hate to admit that I’m wrong. Why is that? Well, pride. So, and you know, I didn’t want to be a quitter. So I’m like, I just, you know, come on, I looked at the map, and it really isn’t that far between Rome and Cartersville. How long could it possibly take? And the river? We’re in kayaks? I mean, you know, I did the math in my head, I thought, well, cars will maybe about 20 miles away. And, you know, halfway is 10 miles surely won’t take a couple hours in the river. Right? We’ve got a current, wrong wrong. Man, I was so wrong. My poor daughter, she kept asking me how much further how much further Oh, just another hour, just another hour? Well, after about four hours of paddling, we came across this nice gentleman who was on the side of the river sit and kind of high up on a bank. And I asked him, I said, Hey, buddy, do you know how much further it is to Rome? And he looked at us with a sympathetic look, said, you know, it’s about six more hours of paddling. And right then and there. I should have gotten out of the river, I should have said, Oh, sir, I should I should have begged and pleaded you know, let me call my wife to come get us and I didn’t do it.

Why not? Well, because of pride. So instead, we paddled on for a few more hours, until we finally came to a nice young man named Joel and his girlfriend who were fishing on the side of the river and where he lived, he had he had a little dock there. And I asked if it was any way we could get out of the river there and have my wife come get us and he very graciously helped to fish us out of the river and saved us from total misery. I will be happy grateful Thank you, Joel from the River Bend area, you saved us. And my wife was able to come get us, he was so nice. He opened up a fence to his pasture, and we were able to get down there and get the kayaks out of there. And we made it, we made it. And, you know, all in all, my daughter was a pretty darn good sport about the entire thing. So I’m very grateful to her. Very grateful to my wife. But it really got me thinking, Wow, we could have got in trouble. And you know, in fact, there was one point in the trip, or, we were going to try to climb out of this one area, and it was too steep. And it was really muddy. And I slipped and I fell. And looking back on it, I could have broken my neck, I could have broke my back. I did fall, and I fell on top of the kayak and my daughter got a good laugh out of that. That could have ended badly because of pride. So think about it. How far will you go to protect your pride? How far are you willing to paddle to protect your pride? How much suffering Are you willing to make your family endure? Because of your pride? Oh, man, those are tough questions for all of us.

You know, when it comes to bankruptcy, a lot of people will go to great lengths to protect their pride. And I see people every year who will clean out their 401k. And you know, money that was meant for retirement just disappears and gone because they use it to pay debts that we could have wiped out in bankruptcy. And you know, 401k is or a protected asset that creditors can’t touch. But man, if they can talk you into pulling that money out to pay them, they’re sure gonna do it. And pride is a creditors best friend. You know, a lot of people will borrow money from family, knowing they’re never going to be able to pay it back to try to avoid bankruptcy. It’s a sad, it’s a bad move. It’s a sad move. Can you put $1 amount on the cost of pride? How much does pride cost? Well, now I can’t put an actual dollar amount on it. But you could it would probably be a lot. And sometimes it’s a lot more than your 401k it’s a lot more than money, you might relatives that you’re trying to bail you out in a short-term jam. Sometimes the cost of your pride is your marriage, or some other important relationship. Sometimes it’s a loss of a lot of time. You know, unfortunately, pride can also cost you your health. You know, anxiety is it’s real, it’s hurt, it’s bad, it’s bad for your heart, bad for your blood pressure. It’s bad on so many levels.

So, in conclusion, don’t let your pride blind you to the reality of math. Don’t let pride blind you to the fact that we all need grace at some point. That That’s just a fact. Take advantage of a free consultation, give me a call 770-881-8449 don’t cost anything to come meet with us. Let us evaluate the situation. I’ve got a great I really do have a great staff or got a great team of people you can you can see the proof in our our Google reviews. And you know we’ve got a lot of resources on my website to go to Kellycanhelp.com and scroll down to the bottom I’ve written a book on chapter 13 and chapter 7. Educate yourself learn about your options.

I’ve also written you know a lot of different blog posts on various topics of bankruptcy, you can go into the search box up top and you can search there and see him also got some podcasts and those are located at KellyCanHelp.com I’m sorry KellyBankruptcy.com. And that’s where all the other podcasts are. You can see past episodes of radio shows and a whole bunch of stuff on there. Got a lot of free resources and I really encourage you to take advantage of them. And again, please give us a call 7708818449 It’s a free consultation doesn’t cost you anything. You don’t have to come to the office. We can do everything over the phone right now. It’s one of the few benefits of of this COVID mess is there there we can file the case without going to court your your court hearing can actually be done over the phone. We can review everything with you without you having to come in. Give us a call. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Have a good one.