Hello... just a couple of questions from a new BK13 filer.

[TheBajan]

I've just come across this website today and I expect I will be visiting often. My husband and I filed on Feb 9 of this year and we had our 341 meeting last Thursday. The meeting was uneventful and no creditors came ( I was so nervous ). The plan is supposed to be confirmed on April 5th. The plan calls for us to make payments of $250 for 36 months. We live in Michigan and filed under Michigan laws rather than federal. I can't tell you I understand it all but I have confidence in our attorney. Pretty much all of our debt was unsecured and the one item that was secured we elected to surrender. We also had a second mortgage that was stripped off. The mortgage company did not object and so it was done automatically through default. I may be getting some of this termanoligy wrong so please bear with me.
Reading some of the posts here I am finding that a lot of the time it seems that things don't go too smoothly in the initial stages. Is that true? I've looked at some of the dates on the paperwork I was sent and it looks like even after the plan is confirmed in a couple of weeks, there can still be objections and changes made that may affect our payment and/or length of the plan. Is that true? Also... when does the 36 months actually begin counting? We already made a payment in February and are scheduled to make another payment the day after tomorrow but I don't know if that counts toward the 36 months or does it start counting at some future date on the schedule. For example, it appears that up to six months from now, things can still affect the plan even if it's confirmed (again, please correct me if I misunderstand this). So does that mean that the 36 months begins six months from now or did it already begin when we filed?
I have a couple of other questions regarding income changes. I finally managed to get a job interview (after 3 years of searching) tomorrow! IF I get the job, it will mean I'm bringing home about $600 a month. However, since we filed, my husband's second job has dropped to about half of what he was working and that means a loss of about $600 to $800 a month. We haven't told our lawyer about the income drop because we didn't want to make any waves in the process right off the bat. How should we handle this? I probably won't know if I get the job for a week or two still but I'm hoping I will.
Last question.... I raise puppies and sell them. This is a legitamate business and I report both my income and expenses on a schedule C when I file my taxes. I told my lawyer about it but he didn't include it as income because for the 4 years I've been doing this, I've always had a loss. I also told him I believe this year will be my first year to actually have a gain. My question is this, since he didn't consider it income, and I'm expected to report any "asset" that I sell, would these puppies be assets that I have to report each and every time I sell one or what would be the appropriate way to report the income? Long post.... thanks for bearing with me. Any help is appreciated!
Blessings,
The Bajan

[SMinGA2]

My theories:

For your side business, should you have a gain for this year, revisit the topic with your attorney. Your ch. 13 plan is based on verifiable income - your attorney would be doing you a disservice to propose you pay more now because you might make more by the end of the year.

If you get the job - you should certainly discuss the changes in income with your attorney. The income drop/gain may balance out - but you may also incur more expenses as a result of working. (Gas for driving to/from work, so on.) If you don't get the job, then there is a tough thing to consider: can you tighten your belt strings to keep making the $250 payment, with your spouse's drop in income? Doing the 13 means getting rid of your 2nd. Which I'm guessing is worth the $250 x 36, and is why you didn't try for a ch. 7? (I'm also guessing your payment on the 2nd would have been enough to help you sail thru a ch. 7 as it would have eaten up your disposable income but left you with a more upside down house.)

Some states count the # of payments from confirmation, while others count it from the plan filing date. Your attorney should be able to answer that one.

[TheBajan]

Staci,
Thank you. The second mortgage was $770 a month so the $250 lets us breathe easier. Our income over the past 3 to 4 years has dropped by about 2/3 due to loss of employment with the auto industry. We wracked up some credit card debt during that time hoping we could hang on long enough to turn things around and find jobs. My husband found a new job a year ago but it's less than half of what we were making so unless we stripped off the second, we were going to lose the house. Stripping the mortgage was one reason we are filing a 13. The other reason was to protect assets. Both of our vehicles are paid for along with a rental property that we own. Under Michigan law, we can protect that property although we do have to pay the non-exempt value of the vehicles back into the plan. Thanks for your input.

[SMinGA2]

It sounds like you probably cannot have your plan adjusted to a lower payment then. You need to pay enough into the plan to cover the non-exempt equity, plus any attorney fees if you didn't pay the attorney in full upfront. (And only 90-95% of your payment goes to debts, as the trustee keeps a fee.) One exception: you could modify to extend up to 60 months, if your expenses/income change so that you simply can't pay enough in 36.

I somewhat know where you're coming from... When our budget troubles started (income went down as expenses went up) we used credit cards to bridge the gap until that no longer worked. I guess we were in denial. Expected things to get better, not worse. Ultimately I did find a 2nd job (delivering pizzas, going on 2 1/2 years now) and now we're riding things out. We filed ch. 7 in 05. So we're on the fence, could file 13 or may be able to wait until fall of 13 and file 7. We're ok for now on the budget, but no hope of resolving all the bad debt. I did manage to modify my mortgage - lower payment, caught it up - no 2nd. So that helped some as well.

My current project: trying to get more $ at my main job, where I've been for nearly 6 years with no change in pay. So that I can drop hours at my 2nd job and finish school. (I'm 8 classes from my degree.) As long as no one tries to sue us, we can hold out.