Keeping a computer in Ch. 7? Friend of mine's vehicle repo'd by unsecured creditor!

[kileyj]

counseling

You can get FREE counseling. Call around in your community. If you go to church ask your clergy. Call your insurance company for who to go to in your area.

Can you file for just YOU? Your wife is going to end up in the same boat if she isn't careful w/ her spending and doesn't change her outlook soon. If she isn't going to go along w/ you on this then make sure your future cards/accounts don't have her name on it. Her boat is going to sink.

Can you sell the house and move into an apartment?

I hate it but we did that. We sold a very nice home - at the time we bought it we could afford it - but as years went on and things happened we were going into debt fast. We sold the house, barely made anything on it, and now we're in a tiny cramped apartment. We sold almost all of our furniture on Craigslist. And you're right, you won't make much on anything but you might as well take what you can and get a small apartment. The smaller the better. Why? Because you won't have a spot to put something new. It helps w/ cutting back on spending.

Get rid of the cards. Don't give any excuses. Get rid of them and get something that is very cheap. You'll find them on Craigslist.

My husband is going to be filing. He'll have to get rid of his car - which is paid off - and he'll have to get a car that is worth no more than $3,000. Sucks but you have to play by the rules if you want that clean slate.

The wife needs a serious wake up call and maybe if you let her sink she might see the light and come around. It sounds like it's already too late for her as at is so let her file for herself.

She may just be as stressed and scared as you are and is too afraid to come face to face w/ the reality of it all.

It sucks but it gets better. Keep telling her that.

[debtmonster]

These are all great replies. I was reading that if you go above the median income that it doesn't mean that you don't qualify.

I am sure that many people will benefit from reading these posts, not just me. That's the entire purpose of this forum. Now people can see my income and expenses and get an idea based on your replies if they are in a similar situation.

[scubaman]

I can only imagine with the payment, Ins. cost plus the cost of gas what your actual payment is for your SUV. just a thought.

[jpntx]

I feel bad for you, there's nothing worse than having a Husband/wife that is not supporting.

Your wife needs to realize that is just stuff, I would give the shirt off my back if it meant my husband not being stressed out. she seem to be fixated on owning a BMW. Life happens and perhaps the lifestyle you had before is not the life style you could have now.

We have all been there, where we fall on the credit trap, I have learn that if I find the need to charge things, maybe is because I can't really afford them to begin with.

Good luck to you.

[Mi Bankruptcy]

I warned my wife about using her credit cards too much. However, I threw up my hands and made her do the bills.. All of them. This was 2 years ago. As money got tighter and tighter.. she started to complain. I let her manage everything. I went into the hosptital in June. Although I have insurance it's going to cost us $$$ we don't have and we have already been garnished once for medical bills.

My point.. she dealt with the paying the bills and the stress of not having enough money. After the hospital.. I went to her and said "we both are to blame" for this and we both need to get out of this. I have done a majority of the BK work... However, I made her do some of the tuff paperwork.

In otherwords.. make this issue both your fault and she may come around. It is another difficult change she is going to have to endure... tell her that. Best wishes

One last thing.. being "the man/woman of the house" requires making some of the tuff decisions and acting on them.

[debtmonster]

I can only imagine with the payment, Ins. cost plus the cost of gas what your actual payment is for your SUV. just a thought.

Speaking of that, the insurance bill just came for both cars. $110/mo.

For about $70 I can go about 425-430 miles on a tank. Lately I'm not driving it much. Being unemployed, we hardly spend any money on gas now.

[debtmonster]

I warned my wife about using her credit cards too much. However, I threw up my hands and made her do the bills.. All of them. This was 2 years ago. As money got tighter and tighter.. she started to complain. I let her manage everything. I went into the hosptital in June. Although I have insurance it's going to cost us $$$ we don't have and we have already been garnished once for medical bills.

My point.. she dealt with the paying the bills and the stress of not having enough money. After the hospital.. I went to her and said "we both are to blame" for this and we both need to get out of this. I have done a majority of the BK work... However, I made her do some of the tuff paperwork.

In otherwords.. make this issue both your fault and she may come around. It is another difficult change she is going to have to endure... tell her that. Best wishes

One last thing.. being "the man/woman of the house" requires making some of the tuff decisions and acting on them.

I agree. But everything is in both of our names. She has to agree to sign the paperwork to file, otherwise I only get $1,000 of personal stuff to keep and our personal stuff exceeds $1,000.

[Never_Again]

I do apologize that you were offended...

However, I did not say that you were a troll... I said "At first, I thought you must be a troll."

Why? Because some things did not make much sense. You were coming up with reason after reason that you needed a BMW SUV. It just is not rational for someone in the situation you are in! "I can't pay my bills, and probably won't be able to after a bankruptcy, but I need that BMW!" Sorry, but sometimes tough decisions need to be made.

You know, getting rid of "stuff" really sucks at times. But, it is a correction. Hopefully, things improve from there.

I do wish you the best, and I hope that you get the help that you need on all fronts. You owe yourself that much!

BTW... Beemer can offer 1.9% on used vehicles because the rate has been bought down by the dealer. Anyone will offer that rate with sufficient buydown.

[debtmonster]

I do apologize that you were offended...

However, I did not say that you were a troll... I said "At first, I thought you must be a troll."

Why? Because some things did not make much sense. You were coming up with reason after reason that you needed a BMW SUV. It just is not rational for someone in the situation you are in! "I can't pay my bills, and probably won't be able to after a bankruptcy, but I need that BMW!" Sorry, but sometimes tough decisions need to be made.

You know, getting rid of "stuff" really sucks at times. But, it is a correction. Hopefully, things improve from there.

I do wish you the best, and I hope that you get the help that you need on all fronts. You owe yourself that much!

BTW... Beemer can offer 1.9% on used vehicles because the rate has been bought down by the dealer. Anyone will offer that rate with sufficient buydown.

I wish I could give it back, start fresh and get another brand new car... a cheap one... for like $200/mo. with $500/down. Whatever happened to those deals? We need the $10,000 cars back again. The last time I went to buy a Hyundai Accent, they wanted $17,000 for a 3-door, 5 speed at 16% interest with a much better credit score than I have now. Imagine going in there for the same car after a bankruptcy and having no money down since I paid it all to my attorney.

[JRScott]

These are all great replies. I was reading that if you go above the median income that it doesn't mean that you don't qualify.

I am sure that many people will benefit from reading these posts, not just me. That's the entire purpose of this forum. Now people can see my income and expenses and get an idea based on your replies if they are in a similar situation.

You can still qualify for a chapter 7 if you are above median income. It depends lot on your debt etc.

The only way you'd know for sure is to fill out the full means test. That said I really think that the cars and house would be found an undue burden and it is unlikely a judge or lawyer would sign the reaffirmation agreement.

In essence you'd need to say Hey we are reaffirming. Then get past the 341 and never sign the reaffirmation. Then if you have to let them go later you can't be held responsible for deficiency balance.

[debtmonster]

I'm going to see what my next checks come out to be. But based on last month's sales, it's not looking good. My income comes from network marketing right now, similar to those people doing Herbalife or Amway it's just my income ended up being much more than just a few hundred per month. I made $40,000 last year from this income in addition to the day job me and my wife had. This year I hardly had any day job income. My big issue is the self-employment taxes. They are a killer for me and are pretty much the main reason why I cannot afford the things I have. If I didn't have to put away that huge chunk to pay the IRS, I could just barely get by on the checks I am making. From January 2008 until August 2008 I have made $32,700 so far. I worked a day job for a couple months and made about $4,000 until I was in the hospital for chest pains and then I left the job from the stress. Then when my wife's mom came down with cancer, she left her full time job to be with her until she passed away last month.

Let me schedule the appointment and show the lawyer the whole ball of wax and see what he says.

Is there a web page I can enter all of my total debts, past due and current and my current gross income to see if I could pass or fail the means test?

[JRScott]

There probably is but I don't know where you can download the forms from the Bankruptcy site and then I think get most of the allowed numbers through web searches or maybe there as well.

[debtmonster]

There probably is but I don't know where you can download the forms from the Bankruptcy site and then I think get most of the allowed numbers through web searches or maybe there as well.

I think all of us should share our income vs. expenses in great detail. This will help out people a lot who are contemplating bankruptcy.

I had a friend of mine go bankrupt years ago on only $8,000!!! He got into a car accident and didn't have insurance. The people sued him. He went bankrupt on them. He has no credit cards or other debt to speak of. I told him he was nuts to go bankrupt on such a small amount. Back in those days you could go bankrupt for like $400 bucks. In my case, I should have went bankrupt numerous times back in the past, but I had zero income to pay any attorney. And then when I finally did get a job, I moved, changed phone #'s and basically started a whole new life again, just without doing the chapter 7. Now I have all of those things haunting me. They aren't doing anything right now... but I bet you they are just waiting for the day I get an asset paid for in my name and then WHAM! They will slap a lien on it and come take it... and then dangle it in front of me and say, "If you want it back, pay us thousands, plus thousands more in fees and penalties and you can have it back." That's why I want to go bankrupt so bad.

I would like to program my own web page after fully understanding the logic and then allow people to enter all of their data and have it give you an answer at the end, "Yes you qualify" or "no you don't" and then give suggestions at the end. I would like to make it totally interactive since I have never seen anything of this kind. Maybe lawyers have software that do this, but it would be nice for a web page to allow the general public enter and save their data. There would be no way to tell who the income or debts belonged to, so there's no harm in people entering their income or debts. Just like all of you here, I have no idea who any of you are personally. This is all anonymous. Nobody here is posting their address and phone number or anything to personally identify them.

[bookwyrm]

debtmonster and JRScott and anyone else who may be interested...

In all of my searches on the internet for bankruptcy and means testing, I found an excellent website http://www.legalconsumer.com that gives you state by state information on bankruptcy. Also, by plugging in your zip code on their free means testing calculator it will pull up means testing information particular to your state where you can input in your numbers and get an idea where you stand. It may not be perfect as far as specialized cases and there may be special circumstances that may not be accounted for in the form that only an attorney may be able to answer for you that apply in your area but it might help give you a basic idea of where you are.

[debtmonster]

That's a great start! Thanks for posting that link.