<prompt> Human: So I basically went from ,making around 1200 a week to zero a week and have been unemployed for about 3 months. I just got a new job but I will be making a fraction of that. Just enough to cover regular bills and household expenses. My car was repossessed owing about 53k because I got into it upside down pretty good. I have not been the wisest with my money as it came fast and I grew up very poor so I was not smart enough to do anything with it while I was making it. So now we have about 60k in collections, not including doctor bills. We dont make enough money to save and settle, we could start to make payment arrangements but I feel like it would take at least 20 years to pay everything off with interest and making below min payments. I am afraid they will start to garnish our wages. I told my husband our best bet may be to claim a BK but he says its a losers way out. I never intended to lose my job or not pay my debtors, shit happens. Especially these days. Our credit is ruined. We can not even get direct tv without a 300 deposit. Would it be wise to claim a BK, have a fresh start and maybe be able to buy a house in 10 years or try to catch up on payments, will that make my credit worse? Because it would still show a significant debt to income ration for a very long time and those marks will be there for several years. Thank you.  <response>: Having a clear idea of your income and debts amounts, and rates is going to be necessary to give advice. BK is definitely an option you should consider, but Id do the math first.Also, with collections, if you let them know youre seriously considering bankruptcy, thats one way to get significant compromise from them. In the event of bankruptcy, they generally get 0, so thats one piece of leverage you have with them. 