Today, your credit score is 325, down from the 800 it was just two years ago. You cannot borrow a dime now and no one is interested in your sad story. You are missing payments for the mortgages and the vehicle loans. Your mailbox, once full of credit card offers, is now filled with letters threatening foreclosure and repossession.

Your e-mail is choked with credit-repair offers to erase or change your credit history or give you a new credit identity. There are offers to consolidate your debt. You get information on starting your own work-from-home business, getting a college degree within months and about investment opportunities too good to be true. You know they are scams, so you do not open links. The last thing you need is to become a victim of identity theft.

Bankruptcy starts to look better and better; sure, it has its downside, but it has to be better than what is happening now, right?

Actually, no. It’s costly, complex and it can affect more than you would think possible, like your ability to get a job. It does not wipe out all debt, as some believe. It is painful to watch a bankruptcy court liquidate your property and assets (good bye, big TV). It seriously impacts your credit score for 7 to 10 years. That limits your financial options, big time. You will not be getting a new car any time soon.

How could this have happened to you? You handled credit wisely! You had a job and your health. You were happy. You had stuff. You were well travelled. Your FICO score was 800! Enough bleakness. Let us go back to the bright days when you were happily applying for your first line of credit and how this hand could have been played out, if only you had understood the game better.