Filing Meeting Tomorrow

[mtngirl47]

Tomorrow is the day! Thanks for all the great posts on this forum I feel like I'm ready with all the paperwork I need and all the questions I want to ask. Before I found the forum I wasn't sleeping or eating and I felt like the world's biggest failure...Now I spend some time here each day reading and learning and realizing that stuff just happens.

We have a complicated case...$137k in unsecured debt which includes business debt that is personally guaranteed; a huge reduction in income due to a natural disaster--the last 6 months we're below poverty; a mortgage clause that says we could be in default for filing bankruptcy; and a credit union that has cross collateralized a credit card to our truck which we only owe two more payments.

The lawyer we picked seems pretty confident that we can work it all out. Also, curiously, when I talked about the fact that our income will go up when the disaster is over (two rock slides blocking traffic to our area), he said that it won't matter...that our payment will be set. That's one of my main questions after reading this forum since folks talk about having to report income increases and tax refunds, etc.

Anyway--Thanks to you all for sharing your knowledge and personal stories! Wish me luck!

[lrprn]

We all wish you luck, mtngirl - hang in there! Glad to know the forum is helping you, and glad to see that you are sharing to help others here too. Good for you!

[mtngirl47]

Spent all day yesterday at the attorney's office. Due to the equity in our property, and a family home that has my husband's name on the deed....and the amount of money we made in last 6 months...we're at 20% to unsecured, 60 month plan, at approx. $1100 per month....may be able to get it down to $835 after they hear from our mortgage company and the IRS. He's hoping that we will be able to pay our mortgage directly--$4788.00 per month ...instead of thru the Trustee which would add his 10% each month.

Attorney says that the property is protected just like if it were a home instead of "owner occupied commercial." And that the nasty default clauses don't hold water.

Regarding the cross collateralization by our Credit Union for a truck with only 2 payments left...The truck is a 2000 Toyota Tundra...We wouldn't get the title until the very end of the plan, at which point the truck will be 15 years old and pretty worthless. Attorney recommended just treating the Credit Union Visa like any other unsecured creditor...and let them pound sand.

It was a day of ups and downs emotionally. Today I have only had 2 creditor calls and told them both to call the lawyer....Think they have put the word out? Usually I get 10 or more calls per day!