Chantelle is yet to turn 25 and she’s already declared bankruptcy.
The Gen Zer, who works full-time for an energy company and earns $60,000 [Australian, approximately $39,000 USD] a year, was forced to declare bankruptcy after finding herself $75,000 [Australian, approximately $48,000 USD] in debt and unemployed.
Chantelle’s very open about her debts and recently went viral on TikTok and amassed more than 300,000 views by sharing her story.
The young worker explained that going bankrupt had “helped her” even though she was originally “against the idea”.
Chantelle, 24, found herself completely in over her head when she lost her job earlier this year, earning $75,000 [$48,000 USD] at the time, and she was left to try and pay a debt that was the size of her yearly wage.
She explained that she ended up in debt because she took out two personal loans and had numerous credit cards.
She pointed out that the bank chose to give her a “ridiculous” amount of money and she was surprised to find out how quickly she could spend it.
Chantelle declared bankruptcy in September this year.
Bankruptcy is a legal process where you are declared unable to pay your debts. A person who declares bankruptcy can be released from most debts and be allowed to make a fresh start.
However, there are consequences that come along with taking this course of action. It normally lasts for three years and one day and, during this time, it may affect your ability to get credit, travel overseas or gain some types of employment.
You also need a registered trustee manager your bankruptcy, who you will need to get permission from to travel overseas and who also has the power to sell your assets.
She said that she took out a loan to go on an international holiday with her boyfriend, an international student that works part-time as an UberEats driver.
Chantelle figured she’d be able to pay it back when she got home because she’d work overtime, but things fell apart when she fell ill.
“After the holiday, I got Covid, and something went wrong. I started feeling faint all the time, and my vision was blurry,” she said.
Chantelle said that she kept trying to go to work but eventually realized it was impossible due to her illness.
“I couldn’t focus and I didn’t register where I was. It started giving me panic attacks and freaking me out,” she said. “I took all my sick leave, went to doctors, and even went to a long Covid clinic but no one could help.”
She attempted to go on a management plan and said she reduced her hours, but her health didn’t improve.
“It got so bad that I was scared to even leave the house at all,” she said. “My job said that my role wouldn’t support me working from home, and they didn’t offer alternative options.”
Suddenly, she found herself already in debt with no income, which ultimately led to her getting into more debt.
Chantelle said that when she left her job she had no “savings” and she was also trying to get her health back on track by going to the doctors frequently.
“This all cost money and I only had credit now and no income,” she explained.
Things became even more difficult when she was hit with a rental increase of $250 [$158 USD] per week and realized she and her partner needed to find a cheaper place, and moving costs led to more debt.
“We then had to move and buy furniture. Then after six months I still was trying to find a job, using credit to pay for rent and food and using one loan to pay another, and it was snowballing,” she shared.
Which is how she ended up $75,000 [$48,000 USD] in debt at age 24 which she said was “a lot” for one person to manage.
Chantelle became stuck in a vicious cycle of using one debt to pay the other and barely paying off the interest every month. It felt like she was paying back nothing.
So what is a young person to do in this situation, well, she considered her options and came to quite the realization.
“You are like, I’m going to live only once … I will die one day … who cares if I was bankrupt? Who cares?” she said.
Chantelle decided she could “scrimp and save” and be “miserable” or declare bankruptcy and opt for an immediate “fresh start.”
She explained that she came to this conclusion because she felt out of options and that the bank wouldn’t do “anything” to help her.
“I called around to see the outcomes of all my options and bankruptcy was the only thing that would help me based off my situation,” she said.
Chantelle admitted that she’s made some “bad choices” and should have “saved money” when she had a good-paying job but she didn’t have enough foresight.
“I was fit. I was healthy. I always worked overtime. Because of those choices when something did go wrong, I had no safety net, and it fell apart so quickly,” she said.
Chantelle said she had “learnt her lesson” but that sometimes you had to make choices and just “do it for the plot,” so she filed for bankruptcy in September this year.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
