Going crazy with the waiting

[BKman]

Delay in getting filed because of the fact that I didn't know my wife had some more stocks so had to ammend the file. Being self employed sucks! If they ask for proof of income for January I'm fine, if they ask for December I'm afraid they may take my income. Can't they only look at the 6 months before you file? Would they just take all of my income in December and leave me nothing for January? Like I said, I'm a self employed stay at home parent. I want/have to go chapter 13. I'm going to look at my income in the next 6 to 9 months and maybe convert to a 7. I just don't want them to take all of my money away before I can make some more.

Still waiting for my file letter & 341 meeting.

Anyone know how things may work??????? I know I keep posting the same stuff, buy I don't see all that much information/posts on the self employed.

[lrprn]

Can't they only look at the 6 months before you file?

Whether the filer is/filers are getting regular paychecks from an employer or is self-employed, the income from all sources over the last full six months before the filing date are used to calculate your disposable income on the Means Test and Schedules.

Would they just take all of my income in December and leave me nothing for January?

The challenge of filng Ch 13 being self-employed is the wide variation in income levels that can happen from month to month.

When you file, the amount of disposable income that's used to calculate your Ch 13 payment is based on what you made during the last six full calendar months before the bk is filed. If those months were "flush" months with high income, then your payment is also going to be high. If those months were "lean" months with low income, then your payment is going to be low.

Looking back the last six full calendar months, was your income from all sources about average, too high, or too low?

The trustee won't take all your money unless your monthly payment *is* all the money that you earned for that month.

The key to surviving Ch 13 as a self-employed person is realizing that every time you have a "flush" month, you *must* save all the extra to cover the "lean" months that will also inevitably happen.

You need to work with your lawyer to figure out what income configuration is going to give you a low-to-average income to use for calculating your DMI (disposable mean income). That's when you want to time your filing.

[BKman]

That's what we did. The last 6 months were low income on my part. My wife (didn't file) has about the same income each month. I had a great December, but it looks like Jan/Feb are going to be zero. I hope to save the income from Dec to cover those months. Like I said before I stay at home with my son so if my income doesn't pick up soon I may try and convert to a chapter 7 later. Only problem with that is that I will have to pay to keep my car (paid off) and my wife has $3000 in stocks they may want.