3 ms·

I was mostly interested in the mechanisms in his story because I'm concerned that could happen to me one day.

• JohnFen 2y ago
  I can't tell his story, but I can tell mine. I had experienced a divorce that left me destitute as well. The difference with me is that I had friends who carried me until I could get back on my feet. In my case, unknown to me, my (now ex) wife had incurred an eye-watering amount of debt. When we divorced, I discovered that she had drained all of our savings on top of the debt. By the time I'd figured everything out, it was all gone. I was left with less to my name than I had when I moved out of my parent's house as a youth. I could have prevented that, though. I had personal savings that she didn't have access to. But as she kept putting our shared account into the negative, I just kept making it good again, and paying the fees, out of my personal savings. I did that for a long time. When we finally split and all the accounts were put on the table, I had enough money to pay off the accumulated debt, but no more than that. Denial is a real thing, and it's what did me in on this count.