Comment by leelin | Hacker News Reader

Comment by leelin | Hacker News Reader

Awesome story and congrats. I second pgbovine's point that maybe the diplomas that grant instant kinship to fellow alums is worth quite a bit. I wonder if we can hack the kinship part without the tuition part?

Another question. Paying down your debt at $6K/month is fantastic (implying you are above and beyond you and your spouse's living expenses and the interest on the debt). However, based on your last post that debt was $70K credit card and $30K IOU to co-founder.

Now that you are back on your feet, have you considered declaring bankruptcy or defaulting on the credit cards? It'll ruin your credit and stress you out, but saving $70K while building a $6K a month nest-egg seems worth considering.

I hate suggesting that people walk away from their debt, but 7 years of bad credit vs. $70K today is the trade. Bankruptcy / consumer credit laws exist to help the little guys; the ABS traders and investors who package and buy your debt price in a certain delinquency / default rate in all their credit card deals. That comes from my own experience working on a hedge fund ABS desk. You'll probably miss the $70K a lot more than the people who have an unsecured claim on it.

Edit: OP responded with a firm "NO" to defaulting on the debt. Congrats again, much respect!

> have you considered declaring bankruptcy or defaulting on the credit cards?

No. While I believe bankruptcy is an incredibly useful tool to help people take risks and recover from bad situations, I don't want to abuse it. I have plenty of earning power, and a year and a half of modest living won't kill me.

That, sir, is a very noble answer to an issue that doesn't deserve to be treated nobly. For most people, the snowballing effect of fees on maxed-out credit cards' interest rates + fees = impossibility, and bankruptcy is the only option. For a long time there was no cap and no limit on how much credit cards could gouge people, and that alone was the profit engine of banks. The fact that the US government made it much more difficult to declare bankruptcy (2005 or so) does not help.

Now that you are back on your feet, have you considered declaring bankruptcy or defaulting on the credit cards? It'll ruin your credit and stress you out, but saving $70K while building a $6K a month nest-egg seems worth considering.

Maybe he thinks he is part of a society larger than just himself, perhaps he has some kind of moral framework, some notion of wrongness, or some self-respect that would stop him from reneging on his promises.

Not to mention that declaring yourself bankrupt when you have such a good income is almost certainly illegal.

Not to mention declaring bankruptcy with a high steady income guarantees that judge/trustee will not rule in favor of walking away from debts. The most that will happen is a longer payment time on some of those debts.

Yeah. I'm no bankruptcy law expert, but I'm pretty sure you have to show that you can't possibly pay back your debts, not just throw up your hands and say "Whoops, bankrupt! Can't possibly pay back the debt I'm currently paying back at $6K a month!"

Unless you're Donald Trump!

With the immoral practices of most credit card companies once you're in such deep debt, defaulting almost seems more than fair.

Morals work two ways.

> I wonder if we can hack the kinship part without the tuition part?

Y Combinator? Seriously, it's' the future graduate school that teaches you how to be an entrepreneur and pays you to do it! You know what the kinship to fellow alums is like in the Y Combinator network :-)

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