Filed yesterday!
Just thought I'd share my experiences with you from our appointment with the attorney yesterday and having filed our chapter 13.
We fell under the median income by just $800 and we had about $100 DMI. We discussed filing ch13 vs ch7 and basically there was three reasons why we went with a 13: 1) 18 year old son just came back home from college to live with us and the attorney said that our household size would be questioned and we would probably have to go through litigation for a ch7 since our median income was so close 2) our house payments are excessive for our area (Missouri...in an Amish community) and it would have to go to a high level U S Trustee for approval in a ch 7 and 3) I have about $6K a year in business expenses that I receive payment on that are not included in my median income. Basically we are at our limits on everything needed for a ch 7and he thought it could be litigated longer, thus costing us more in attorney fees and delay in getting it confirmed .
The result: We have a 3 year plan of $125/month to discharge $107,000 in unsecured cc. Another good thing is that we won't have to surrender one of our vehicles and the other $2,000 in attorney fees (for a ch 13) are wrapped into the plan.
One thing I didn't know that my attorney did for us, is he prorated our estimated tax refund next year into our anticipated income. Then he expensed it out so that we can keep our tax refund next year without having to surrender it to the trustee. I didn't know about that so for those people who haven't filed yet, you can try to make this work for you too.
All-in-all this went well. I do feel a little bit like we were swayed towards a 13 instead of a 7 and wonder if the attorney would have fought for us if we had decided on filing a ch 7. But if you look at it in a financial sense, we are paying $125 x 36 months= $4,500 in the chapter 13 that includes keeping one car and wrapping in the attorney fees. If we would have filed ch 7, we would have had to pay the attorney $800 more for his fees on our own for a ch 7 and we would have lost a vehicle valuing about $3,500 which totals $4,300.
The hardest part of the 13 to me is feeling like I'm on financial probabtion for 3 years and not being able to buy/sell any assets and to have to ask permission to do things. Plus, my father and mother are elderly and I hope that they don't pass away during this time because obviously I'd be heart broken but also any inheritance would go to the trustee. But I did incur those cc debts and I do feel the proposed result is fair.
Here's hoping it gets confirmed without much problems...
We fell under the median income by just $800 and we had about $100 DMI. We discussed filing ch13 vs ch7 and basically there was three reasons why we went with a 13: 1) 18 year old son just came back home from college to live with us and the attorney said that our household size would be questioned and we would probably have to go through litigation for a ch7 since our median income was so close 2) our house payments are excessive for our area (Missouri...in an Amish community) and it would have to go to a high level U S Trustee for approval in a ch 7 and 3) I have about $6K a year in business expenses that I receive payment on that are not included in my median income. Basically we are at our limits on everything needed for a ch 7and he thought it could be litigated longer, thus costing us more in attorney fees and delay in getting it confirmed .
The result: We have a 3 year plan of $125/month to discharge $107,000 in unsecured cc. Another good thing is that we won't have to surrender one of our vehicles and the other $2,000 in attorney fees (for a ch 13) are wrapped into the plan.
One thing I didn't know that my attorney did for us, is he prorated our estimated tax refund next year into our anticipated income. Then he expensed it out so that we can keep our tax refund next year without having to surrender it to the trustee. I didn't know about that so for those people who haven't filed yet, you can try to make this work for you too.
All-in-all this went well. I do feel a little bit like we were swayed towards a 13 instead of a 7 and wonder if the attorney would have fought for us if we had decided on filing a ch 7. But if you look at it in a financial sense, we are paying $125 x 36 months= $4,500 in the chapter 13 that includes keeping one car and wrapping in the attorney fees. If we would have filed ch 7, we would have had to pay the attorney $800 more for his fees on our own for a ch 7 and we would have lost a vehicle valuing about $3,500 which totals $4,300.
The hardest part of the 13 to me is feeling like I'm on financial probabtion for 3 years and not being able to buy/sell any assets and to have to ask permission to do things. Plus, my father and mother are elderly and I hope that they don't pass away during this time because obviously I'd be heart broken but also any inheritance would go to the trustee. But I did incur those cc debts and I do feel the proposed result is fair.
Here's hoping it gets confirmed without much problems...
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