I am less than a year into my chapter 13 (5 yr plan). I have a 30 yr first mortgage on my house I got to keep. The first 10 yrs are interest-only. I bought it in 6/06 so I'm 5 yrs into the home. We pay the Mortgage bank directly - not part of our payment to the trustee ea mo. Any extra applied to the principal reduces every future monthly mortgage pmt as a reward for the reduced principal - until the interest only period ends.
Again, I have about 5 yrs left, and then the remaining 20 yrs will be fully amortized at which point my minimum payments will go up significantly if I will have not paid down the principal. I can save up $ in the coming 4.5 yrs and throw it all into the mortgage just before the i/o period finishes...just after discharge. However, the smart thing would be to pay whatever we can reasonably put aside into the monthly payment.
I'm talking paying an extra $100-200/mo into the mortgage ea mo (I pay over 2k/mo into my plan so this would be small in comparison). That said, my attorney cautioned me against this while we were filing. Now, it's hard to get a hold of him so I'm not sure what his position would be now that we're well under way post-confirmation. Wondering if anyone here on the board has some insight on this? Can I get in trouble for paying down the first mortgage during the pmt plan period? Others have told me to save up for the next 4.5 yrs and when I come out of discharge throw all that $ into the first mortgage. I just figured why not save $ along the way if I can with lowering interest paid in the coming 4.5 yrs. Thoughts? Thx in advance.
Again, I have about 5 yrs left, and then the remaining 20 yrs will be fully amortized at which point my minimum payments will go up significantly if I will have not paid down the principal. I can save up $ in the coming 4.5 yrs and throw it all into the mortgage just before the i/o period finishes...just after discharge. However, the smart thing would be to pay whatever we can reasonably put aside into the monthly payment.
I'm talking paying an extra $100-200/mo into the mortgage ea mo (I pay over 2k/mo into my plan so this would be small in comparison). That said, my attorney cautioned me against this while we were filing. Now, it's hard to get a hold of him so I'm not sure what his position would be now that we're well under way post-confirmation. Wondering if anyone here on the board has some insight on this? Can I get in trouble for paying down the first mortgage during the pmt plan period? Others have told me to save up for the next 4.5 yrs and when I come out of discharge throw all that $ into the first mortgage. I just figured why not save $ along the way if I can with lowering interest paid in the coming 4.5 yrs. Thoughts? Thx in advance.
Bankruptcy Wizard
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