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[RAnthony83]

Hello!

I am planning on filing ch13 after our child is born per my attorney's suggestion. I am the only one Filing, all of the unsecured debt is in my name.

I was working through a budget just for shits an giggles that included child care ( both my wife and I work FT) and budgeted current fixed expenses like cars, home, utilities, food, baby stuff and at this point I'm barley braking even with the new expenses from the baby.

I have 2 questions.

1. we will have close to 0$ left at the end of the month with necessities, how will they figure out a " payment plan" when i have $0 disposable income?

2. all of the debt was made from 2-2020- 9/2020.... will that impact my ability to file ch 13 in October after our sons birth. My lawyer mentioned that the creditors could review the purchase history and bring it to the trustee's attention.


Lawyer says I don't qualify for CH.7 either due to income ect ect and i feel like this is my only way out.

I hope this all makes sense, This is all so frustrating.... =(

any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.

[justbroke]

Congratulations on the expected birth of a new child. And, welcome to BKForum.

1. we will have close to 0$ left at the end of the month with necessities, how will they figure out a " payment plan" when i have $0 disposable income?

If you have $0 in disposable income (DMI) then you should be in a Chapter 7 unless you're trying to save property. Most people who did not choose Chapter 13 specifically to save property, usually have at least $250/month (or so) in DMI.

You can actually be in a $0 Chapter 13 plan if you were trying to save property and need the Chapter 13 to protect you from creditors. This does happen, but it's usually because the debtor intended to use Chapter 13 for those protections.

2. all of the debt was made from 2-2020- 9/2020.... will that impact my ability to file ch 13 in October after our sons birth. My lawyer mentioned that the creditors could review the purchase history and bring it to the trustee's attention.

For a Chapter 13 it usually doesn't matter although a creditor is still wise to make sure there were no major/luxury "eve-of-bankruptcy" purchases. I'm assuming that the purchases were for your health and welfare and do not fit the description of luxury, or were large cash advances. The more time between filing and any "luxury" purchase or large cash advances would make the objections less likely.

Lawyer says I don't qualify for CH.7 either due to income ect ect and i feel like this is my only way out.

You may want to wait a little longer if you are still going through a period of income instability. When are you expecting? I'm asking because I think your attorney wants to make sure that any hospital bills are also put in the Chapter 13, which is smart.

[RAnthony83]

Congratulations on the expected birth of a new child. And, welcome to BKForum.

If you have $0 in disposable income (DMI) then you should be in a Chapter 7 unless you're trying to save property. Most people who did not choose Chapter 13 specifically to save property, usually have at least $250/month (or so) in DMI.

You can actually be in a $0 Chapter 13 plan if you were trying to save property and need the Chapter 13 to protect you from creditors. This does happen, but it's usually because the debtor intended to use Chapter 13 for those protections.

For a Chapter 13 it usually doesn't matter although a creditor is still wise to make sure there were no major/luxury "eve-of-bankruptcy" purchases. I'm assuming that the purchases were for your health and welfare and do not fit the description of luxury, or were large cash advances. The more time between filing and any "luxury" purchase or large cash advances would make the objections less likely.

You may want to wait a little longer if you are still going through a period of income instability. When are you expecting? I'm asking because I think your attorney wants to make sure that any hospital bills are also put in the Chapter 13, which is smart.

Yes, we just purchased a home in prep for our baby so loosing our home was off the table, along with our vehicles.

I wouldn't call the card usage luxury.. A few items were not necessary,but at the time I fully intended to pay off the debt, but it just got out of hand so fast. We needed things for the house as well and once I took a hard look at costs for the baby, child care, my student loans that are due for payment q4 2021, I realized we were over our heads.

Aside for my wife being on STD, my income is stable. We are both salary and the plan is for her to go back to work post maternity leave.

Our due date is the 27th, so yea, he wanted to wait so we can include baby costs in our budget plan for repayment.

Thank you for the information, it was very helpful!