<prompt> Human: My 29 yr old boyfriend makes a little over 50K a year however he does not know how to budget his money. He bought a house in 2012 that he can barely make the payments on- he is almost 3 months behind in mortgage payments now. It needs serious repairs that he cant afford. He has 10k-15k in debt. I think most of it is in collections. Over the past few months I have helped him start to budget his money with mint and it is very clear that he simply cannot afford the house let alone pay back any of the debt. He has 2 small children- no custody agreement- he has them every other week and pays for their insurance. He has past medical bills from his daughters birth and hospital stay. She was very premature and goes to therapy twice a week at 15 bucks a visit- which he has not paid. Ever. He covers both of the kids insurance. He should be able to afford the house- the mortgage payment is close to 900mo- however he is so far behind is constantly playing catch-up. He had so many unpaid speeding tickets his license was suspended and he has been paying a lawyer and paying his tickets off at the expense of his mortgage. He is also paying off a title loan and paying down his utility balances to keep his utilities on. He has a a vehicle that he still owes on- his mom is making the payments and gave the car to his sister. So she essentially bought it but it is still in his name and she has missed a few payments.He is trying to make some extra money. He has 2 cars and is trying to sell one but no one is interested. He also advertised for a roommate on craigslist. In the past month he has had 1 response. He started working 1-2 days a week with a friend who lays tile- its back breaking work and he is so incredibly tired all the time now just trying to work nights at his job, work a day or 2 laying tile and then spend time with his kids and me. He cant keep this up. He wants to be foreclosed on, declare bankruptcy and live with his parents. I think this is a terrible idea because it will ruin his credit and could affect our future plans of buying land, building cabins and starting a business while living more off the grid. We have had some pretty bad arguments regarding this issue. Ive advised him to go for non profit credit counseling services but he doesnt think they could help. So my questions- is this a bad idea? How badly would it affect his credit? How does the process work and what should he do with the house?  <response>: Declaring bankruptcy would be a disaster in my opinion because it only fixes the symptoms, not the root problem. The root problem here is that your boyfriend is managing his money terribly. The first thing he needs to do is create a reasonable budget and stick to it. Then he needs to sell some crap and get caught up on his mortgage if one of his cars isnt selling its probably because hes asking too much. Then we can discuss ways to save up and tackle the 15kish of debt, make home repairs or sell the house, and take care of the kiddos. On 50kyear plus extra part time work, Im very confident he has enough money to make this happen.If he declared bankruptcy now, whats to stop him from ending up in the same cycle 3-5 years from now? 