A Debt Settlement Story

Funny this links up to my recent computer fiasco, once these things happen in such synchronicity it's weird for me to think everything is not connected. I feel like a life cycle of mine is coming to an end and another one is starting.

I bought a Toshiba laptop over 2 and a half years ago after my divorce. I didn't have money for it, but I needed it for work, so I charged it up on a debit card that did not have funds, over-drafted and never looked back and paid for it. I then proceeded to close that bank account and started a new account at a new bank, I know, mature. I felt a lot of guilt about this for a long time, and there were many times where I could've paid for it but I didn't. The only reason for that was my maturity just wasn't there to understand the importance of paying off your debts, not only to make good on the money you borrowed but also for your feelings about yourself.

I owed this $500+ since the Summer of 2009. I lived with it, I got calls and letters and my feelings towards it were filled with guilt but not enough guilt to make me work a little harder in the savings department to pay for it.

This past Summer 2012, when I finally got my sh*t together I got an offer in the mail to settle this debt for $285, still, I didn't pay for it. Till one day I picked up the letter and called the collection agency, I told them I wanted to settle but didn't have the money, of course they asked "how much do you have"...I said less than $200.

They in turn offered to settle with me for $225 and I did, I paid right there and finally got this out of my life. I don't even have that laptop anymore. I dropped it and broke the side of it and used it for a few months like that until my parents gave me a new computer for Christmas in 2011.

I don't feel proud about settling for less than half what I owed, one thing I do feel though is a much stronger sense of maturity. I believe that is 70% of finally getting your finances straight, the other 30% involves action and actually doing it.

Do you have/had any debts laying around that maturity kept you from properly paying back?