Need Chapter 7/Divorce Advice!

[keepmine]

Stop paying the mortgage now if you intend to surrender the home. Foreclosure takes months. She won't be homeless anytime soon.
As someone pointed out earlier-you need to start worrying about yourself and not an ex. In this economic climate, it's gotta be every man for himself. Cut her loose.

[superruss]

I was told since we both have a separate residence, we would have to file separately. When reviewing the means test I have three income options:

married - filing jointly
married - not filing jointly - same household
married - not filing jointly - separate household

This appears to be true if I were not filing jointly. The paralegal asked several questions and I provided her the information on both myself and my wife. However, I wouldn't think our filing status would be any different than our federal tax filing status - Married filing jointly (or Married filing separately).

Both of us filing jointly would certainly change the means test as our combined average income would be below the NC minimum. There's certainly no fair way to evaluate my financial situation without looking at her's. I am paying rent, mortgage, EFT's for credit cards. Her income is essentially paying for gas, groceries, and utilities. We still share a joint checking account. I have worked pretty hard in to talking her in considering filing. I was disappointed to hear that we couldn't file jointly. This eliminates options for us.

[2Bshinyandnew]

I was told since we both have a separate residence, we would have to file separately. When reviewing the means test I have three income options:

married - filing jointly
married - not filing jointly - same household
married - not filing jointly - separate household

This appears to be true if I were not filing jointly. The paralegal asked several questions and I provided her the information on both myself and my wife. However, I wouldn't think our filing status would be any different than our federal tax filing status - Married filing jointly (or Married filing separately).

Both of us filing jointly would certainly change the means test as our combined average income would be below the NC minimum. There's certainly no fair way to evaluate my financial situation without looking at her's. I am paying rent, mortgage, EFT's for credit cards. Her income is essentially paying for gas, groceries, and utilities. We still share a joint checking account. I have worked pretty hard in to talking her in considering filing. I was disappointed to hear that we couldn't file jointly. This eliminates options for us.

If it works out best to file 1 petition for both of you, if file married-filing jointly-same household is the filing option works out best for you, that is what you use. Just because Married-filing jointly-separated is nto a choice, I'm not sure that automatically means you can't file a joint petition at all. Let us know what happens.