Growing up we were always told if you work hard you will succeed. We were both working full time working hard. We saved enough for a down payment for our first home. We were just 23, thrilled that we were now homeowners. I am sure you can imagine the excitement we felt.
Never did we imagine that by purchasing a condo our lives were going to be turned upside down.
Thinking we were being smart we bought a new condo with a homeowners warranty. About 8 months into this we started smelling mold in the living room. Others in our building were noticing the same thing. After some complaining to the property managers there was testing done on the condo and discovered that it was leaking. The roof and walls were mushy and full of mold. We purchased for $125k and slapped with first a $5k bill and then a $32k bill. Oh my gosh we were heartbroken. Overnight our condo dropped in price to $50k. We were still responsible for the mortgage plus now the special assessment.
With being pregnant with our first child we sought out legal advice. Of the three people we spoke to they all advised walking away, we would never recover the money from it. With the New Homeowners warranty going bankrupt leaving us with no protection, to the government who failed to protect us leaving us with no other choice but to walk away.
Just after the birth of our son we declared bankruptcy. Yep that word scared the life out of us. This would stay on our credit for 7 years. Oh those were the longest of years. I didn’t think it would ever end.
The financial troubles all began in 1998 when we signed those papers for bankruptcy. Don’t get me wrong we knew this was going to be rough but, we also thought we would bounce back quickly. After all we both had decent paying jobs.
We spent many years struggling from this point on. Never thinking we would get ahead. Our dreams of traveling seemed so far away. There was just something about traveling that we both longed for.
Talking a leap 7 years ago into a better lifestyle has allowed us the opportunity to travel multiple times a year. We are no longer living pay cheque to pay cheque.
We would love to show you how we have become financially independent and traveling the world.
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