Not sure what I was thinking...

[SubPrimeME]

Did you put money down? A new Cobalt should cost more than $10k.

Yes, I put down my focus... LUCKILY they didn't question anything and I just went along with it, I took a few hundread dollar hit on it, but what I knew then was to just get rid of it.

So let's see how I did: cobalt 18,625 + tax + license = 20,384 less trade (5100), less negotiating(rebates, me crying etc) = 10,500.00 for a new cobalt at 12.99 apr <-- not bad I was looking at 06 mazda 6 at 19.5 apr.

DID I mention that part of the stimulus plan is to get a credit on the tax I paid on the car, plus all interest I pay this year on the car! I hope that's really the case- I read this on cnn the otherday!

[freshstartfl]

No offense meant to you personally when I say this, DM, but this isn't 1947. Women work, with or without kids. Sometimes out of necessity; sometimes out of preference. These days, it's a near necessity. A woman who wants to stay home with her kids and can afford to do so and has an agreeable spouse is one thing. A woman who not only doesn't have any kids, but who wants expensive things and won't contribute to squat? She gives women a bad name, period.

[debtmonster]

No offense meant to you personally when I say this, DM, but this isn't 1947. Women work, with or without kids. Sometimes out of necessity; sometimes out of preference. These days, it's a near necessity. A woman who wants to stay home with her kids and can afford to do so and has an agreeable spouse is one thing. A woman who not only doesn't have any kids, but who wants expensive things and won't contribute to squat? She gives women a bad name, period.

My wife doesn't work right now because we're trying to stay under the means test.

I just did my taxes and I now owe $8,000 because I hardly paid any money quarterly. Instead of paying taxes, we paid our debts. Now we are so screwed.

[OhioFiler]

My wife doesn't work right now because we're trying to stay under the means test.

I just did my taxes and I now owe $8,000 because I hardly paid any money quarterly. Instead of paying taxes, we paid our debts. Now we are so screwed.

You can fix your taxes if you just find more deductions. Keep looking.

[freshstartfl]

Ouch! My fiancee is starting to do contractor work since he got laid off. Approaching the tax situation, and finding some health insurance coverage for him and his daughter, are 2 of my main concerns. Scares me when you, a contractor, say things like that about taxes! lol. It's a new situation for us.

From your other posts I got the impression that she would NOT work, no matter what. If she's unemployed "just for now" to stay under the Means, tell her she can get a fancy car once she's WORKING again, but that you don't want your own name on it!

She wants a fancy car, and a fancy apartment. She won't swallow her pride and join you in "survival mode." I don't think BK is going to fix the underlying cause of your debt problems. I wish you luck and I wish her a more realistic attitude.

[freshstartfl]

If you gross 3k a month, DM, that's 36k a year. The means test in FL is a little over 40k for single and I think it's in the low-50's for married w/ no kids. There's room for her to work at least part time.

[OhioFiler]

Ouch! My fiancee is starting to do contractor work since he got laid off. Approaching the tax situation, and finding some health insurance coverage for him and his daughter, are 2 of my main concerns. Scares me when you, a contractor, say things like that about taxes! lol. It's a new situation for us.

From your other posts I got the impression that she would NOT work, no matter what. If she's unemployed "just for now" to stay under the Means, tell her she can get a fancy car once she's WORKING again, but that you don't want your own name on it!

She wants a fancy car, and a fancy apartment. She won't swallow her pride and join you in "survival mode." I don't think BK is going to fix the underlying cause of your debt problems. I wish you luck and I wish her a more realistic attitude.

Your first year as a contractor is a great year to expense all your personal tools you've acquired over the years. Schedule C allows you to capitalize all of it. You could lose quite a bit of money the first year you're in business, at least on paper and that's a good thing!

[freshstartfl]

Thanks for the encouragement. We do know to save every single receipt related to his business. What to do with them after that, we'll have to figure out when the time comes! He has to stock up on some tools, as well as pay for the licenses, but I don't think he'll have many expenses after that. He's going to be installing residental cable and getting his jobs directly from the local cable company, so the work is steady.

[OhioFiler]

Thanks for the encouragement. We do know to save every single receipt related to his business. What to do with them after that, we'll have to figure out when the time comes! He has to stock up on some tools, as well as pay for the licenses, but I don't think he'll have many expenses after that. He's going to be installing residental cable and getting his jobs directly from the local cable company, so the work is steady.

Every tool he already owns is expensible. Home office, computer...etc. There are tons of legitimate deductions.

[freshstartfl]

Interesting... I'm def going to scour the internet sometime soon to gather info on how people handle this. Do you know of any forums, similar to this one, where independant contractors gather and talk? lol.

[OhioFiler]

Interesting... I'm def going to scour the internet sometime soon to gather info on how people handle this. Do you know of any forums, similar to this one, where independant contractors gather and talk? lol.

Sorry, I don't have a forum for you to go visit. I can tell you I ran a contracting business for years and have been doing taxes for small business owners for some time as well.

Trust me when I say you can write an awful lot off when you're in business. Especially if you get a few 1099's each year. The IRS isn't interested in auditing little guys. Be agressive in what you deduct.

[debtmonster]

If you gross 3k a month, DM, that's 36k a year. The means test in FL is a little over 40k for single and I think it's in the low-50's for married w/ no kids. There's room for her to work at least part time.

We were grossing WAY more than $3,000/mo. In December I made $7600. That totally screwed up the means test. I used over $3,000 of that money to pay towards taxes but was not able to during the earlier part of the year. We had a ton of expenses, but the expenses we had are not stuff that is tax deductible.

We didn't pay the last couple months of the year's mortgage, so that's less mortgage interest that we get to write off.

My wife wants to work, but because of this new bankruptcy law, we are so screwed. I got a 1099 for $53,000, plus my wife worked and I had a part-time job making a few grand. The biggest part of our money came at the end of the year which killed our means test qualification.

So my wife will have to stay unemployed until July. The median income in Florida is about $50,900 or so. So you can't make more than $25,000 during the past 6 months. We made over $30,000 in the past 6 months.

I'll have to piss away a ton of money on business expenses to bring my net income down. The lawyer said I will need a profit/loss sheet, so now I'll have to blow an extra $500-1000/mo. on advertising to throttle my income down. Somebody working W-2 can't do this.

That's the good thing about contracting.

I wish I had known it was going to be like this. I would have spent more money in the beginning. It just SUCKS having $1050/mo. car payments!!!

The BMW for $740/mo. will be gone by the end of March and now we won't be able to use it in our means test. I was wanting to keep paying for it until July so that we can include it. We're 60 days behind right now.

I wish I lived in California right now. Those people seem to have it so easy to be able to go well over their means test and still qualify for a Ch. 7. I talked to 5 attorney's here and they all wouldn't touch me if I made over the means.