Hi Everyone…Today I would like to touch on our Life as a family since we had to make a business decision 2 years ago to declare bankruptcy.
This bankruptcy not only included my husband and me but our 2 children Toby and Ali. This was because they had personal loans they had used to be part of our Share market and property developing business.
The reason I have decided to share this very private event with you is that if I (we as a family)can be an inspiration to others by what we have experienced then another good thing has come from our decision.
You may have noticed that I did say another good thing you will discover what I mean by that as you read our story.
Just to give you a little bit more of our history.
About 7 years ago we decided to become involved in Share Market trading and to build a property Portfolio. In that time we spent a lot of time and money learning our craft.
We were very success and bought and renovated 5 homes in 2 years
to do this we had highly leveraged yourselves. So with the down turn in the economy we had nearly lost all our capital that was tied up in the Share Market so without that income we had no cash flow to pay any of our loans.
We battled on for a while then had to make the heart breaking decision to declare bankruptcy this meant we also lost our home.
So with about 4 million dollars of cash and assets gone we were in a very big hole financially but emotionally I think the hole was even bigger.
Now the story of Living with Bankruptcy …
The first person I would like to Talk to you about is our baby of the family Alison (Ali) who now is 23 years old.(only 21 when she had to declare bankruptcy)
Ali has lived on the Gold Coast (Queensland, Australia) for quite a few years now. One of the homes that we lost was one that she was living in.
She did not want to leave the Gold Coast as she was practising Arakan which is a martial art and this is only available on the Gold Coast.
So her only option to stay on the Gold Coast was to look for just a room to rent and sell all her furniture.
The car that she was driving was leased through our business so that also was part of the bankruptcy. So we had to find a very cheap car for her to get around in. With us living 9 hours away she had to do all the car hunting herself.
She did find a great little car that is still going strong.
The next thing was to find a job because previously she had been making a living by the money she had invested in the share market.
Finding a job was not a problem as she had worked in hospitality before.
Ali has at many times worked in 2 or 3 jobs at a time to make the amount of money she wanted to create.
Now I did mention earlier that she had started practising the art of Arakan this is a martial art from Burma. This was her life line during all the emotional turmoil that we were going through as a family.
She then decided that the career she was really passionate about was becoming a Arakan Martial Instructor.
So for the last 2 years she has worked a 40 hour week in a place that she really hates but the money she earned allowed her to follow her dream.
What she has had to put up with from her work mates has not been easy.
(You will understand this if you have decided to leave the herd and to do something different for everyone else.)
Her work mates have been very rude and just making every moment at work very uncomfortable because how dare she decided to create a better life for herself.
But that all seemed minor to her because her goal was so strong and she stayed so focused on it that nothing was going to stop her.
While working 40 hours a week she also has had to train 20+ hours per week also.
Again focused on her goals …committed to achieving them..
Well I’m so very very proud to say that she has signed a franchise agreement while in bankruptcy to become the only female Arakan Instructor at her club on the Gold Coast.
I think that is an amazing achievement and shows you that when you are focused on your goals and I mean focused nothing will stop you from achieving them.
Ali you are living proof that there is LIFE after Bankruptcy
We are so very proud of you..
Next time I would like to share Toby’s story of his Life with Bankruptcy
