Finally almost finished.

[memuzz]

I just an email from my attorney that we are officially almost done! We only owe the court $5.24! We paid off the amount with my husband's check today!
We are home free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This has been one of the hardest practices of faith that I've endured in my life. I've endured quite a bit. However, this is a different type of adversity.
It's knowing that you have a car payment, rent, utilities and other living expenses. Trying to explain to your spouse that he can't afford to buy things he wants
is hard also. It isn't things that are useless. It's things like supplements that help with his health that are really necessary. It's not being able to visit family in PA (we live in NE Ohio) because the price of gas is so high. Waiting to pay to get your car fixed for maintenace. We've put off getting new tires for our car because of having little money.

But, also, we've learned that having money doesn't bring happiness either. We've taken trips to a free park outside of Cedar Point that is absolutely beautiful for nothing. The restaurant next to the park offers almost half price meals at lunch time. It's a 5 star restaurant that costs just as much as a casual restaurant to eat it. That was our vacation for 5 years straight. It was a one day trip but we both love it there!
It's paying $8 a month to watch endless movies on Netflix. We get a lot of movies for hardly nothing.

It's caused us to appreciate the things we've been blessed with in the past 5 almost 6 years. We filed in November 2006! Long story.
Our credit rating is already a lot better than when we started out. My husband's was 370 and mine was better then at 675. My husband's credit is why we filed. My husband's credit score is nearly 600 and mine is lower but still good at 625. We are now going to start to put away money to purchase a condo or small house in 2 years. We have goals set and now will have the funds to accomplish these goals. I hope anyone is having a challenge in their case to realize that the finish line is possible with blood, sweat and tears! Don't give up. My advise is to be proactive with your case I learned that early in my case. If I had been more proactive then I would have realized not to hire the attorney when I filed my case. These big firms sometimes can't offer you the help like a private firm can. I went to the local county lawyer referral to hire my new attorney. She has been so helpful with our case after the mess we had when we first were confirmed.

[Megatron]

Congratulations! We are half way and looking forward to finish line.

[karm43]

Hooray!!! I know exactly what you mean! Good Luck!

[kornellred]

I have one more payment to go in my Chapter 13 plan. My FICO score is 666. I am looking into buying a house - I have been a renter my entire life. Should be fun!

[memuzz]

FINALLY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS. Got word from my attorney this morning that my plan is finished and paid off!!!
We are now waiting on the final audit which will take about 8 weeks according to the Trustee's office. I even got a
huge compliment from my attorney that I did a good job monitoring my case and patience with the whole process.

I will post here once again when the discharge comes through towards September or October. I know can go look at a new car in a few months without having to ask the court to incur debt. I am taking the refund I am getting from the court to put down on the new car.

I thank all the moderators, fellow debtors that have posted and given advise here on the forum when I was facing problems with my case.
Again, thank you so much, I wish the best to all of those still in the process. There is an end to the journey. Best wishes.

[memuzz]

Finally, today we got notice from my attorney that the Chapter 13 Trustee sent out a notice to stop the wage garnishment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We should shortly have our full paycheck! It has been the ultimate rollercoaster ride! The highs and lows of this experience make you value every dollar that you earn or have in your pocket!
We filed in November 30, 2006. Our case should have been over in August of 2011. It was because of legal misrepresentation that we ended up basically a year longer! My first lawyer had us increase our withholding allowances way too high at 10. I understand he did this so that we would not get a tax refund. We never received one prior to our filing. I even questioned him why he thought we'd get one in the first place. We usually owed money to the IRS! We had more money to fund our case also.

In January 2007, I was advised by my doctor at the time to quit work. 18 months prior to that I was working as a nurse aide and hurt my right arm pretty bad. I quit working as an aide and was working in a grocery store. It wasn't much but close to $1000 a month. I called my attorney at least 3 times a day with no call backs at all from him. I emailed him, went to his office. He was never available. The case was confirmed anyways. The payments to the court at that time left us around $900 every two weeks to pay for living expenses. We almost had to go a food bank for groceries! After 3 months of almost being penniless, I called the local lawyer referral service to see if they could recommend a good attorney. They gave me the name of my current attorney. She advised me to talk to the Trustee's office. The trustee representative advised me to fire my current attorney and hire a new one because of no representation. I then fired my first attorney and hired my current attorney.

She filed an emergency request for modification. The case was modified to 55% instead of 100%. The payment was adjusted down to where we could live but barely. The next year we owed close to $7000 to the IRS. The money owed was absorbed into our case. It took 2 years to finally readjust the withholding allowances that we owed nothing to the IRS. We almost had our case dismissed because of the mistake. In the end we owed over $9000 to the IRS which was absorbed into the plan. Thus, the length of the case. We don't owe the IRS anything. We should get a refund next year for the first time in 7 years.