A couple of questions for people who have been through chapter 7

[kibby97]

I always hate being new to a forum and posting questions that everyone probably has asked before but I figured you guys know more then anyone else since you have delt with this.

Filed 1/12/09
341 Meeting 2/11/09
Discharge Date- 4/12/09, I know from speaking with my lawyer and reading that it always takes a little longer then that.

My questions are

If their are any problems that may arise since the 341 meeting affecting my discharge, would I be notified before the court listed discharge date or just get a letter saying debt is non dischargable?

Also "fingers crossed" after discharge, w/ the little extra money that I can save since I won't have these bills, would trying to take advantage of the current stock market prices now, since Im only 30 and I want to do whatever I can to save and plan for the future. I have been told that now for someone that is my age and certain stocks being very cheap to buy and holding onto them since they have to go up sometime is a good idea.

I guess the bottom line is, does anyone watch your spending for the 1st couple of months after a discharge and can a discharge be reversed, I know thats probably a stupid question.

Any answers or suggestions would greatly help.

[keepmine]

Oh yea-they'll let you know if there are problems.
A discharge can be revoked if a basis for fraud is discovered at a later date or, you don't turn over a non exempt asset to the trustee.
Once discharged, your financial affairs are your business.

[Logan]

If you buy stocks don't put any money into the market that you cannot afford to lose because it will be a bumpy ride for the foreseeable future.

[kibby97]

Oh yea-they'll let you know if there are problems.
A discharge can be revoked if a basis for fraud is discovered at a later date or, you don't turn over a non exempt asset to the trustee.
Once discharged, your financial affairs are your business.

When you say fraud, I think of hiding assets and that kind of thing, if mine was just a simple no property owned and all my personal assests were covered so I was able to keep everything, so if there was some kind of problem and its been 41 days since my 341 meeting would I have been notified somehow by now.

Also since I signed up for a service where i can view my credit report anytime, I noticed that all the balnces from all 3 credit sites say zero balance and in notes at bottom it says balance discharged through bankruptcy chapter 7, is that anything to get excited about

[myhearts07]

Make sure that your reports are showing IIB- Included in Bankruptcy as well. The wording is important because sometimes the accounts in BK are reported twice and you end up with a double hit on your scores. Print your reports and dispute with the Credit Bureaus letting them know the accounts IIB. This was important for me to do 8 years ago.

check over on myfico.com about rebuilding your credit they have some very good posts. I hope it was ok to put their name and website, if not, please forgive me.

Hearts

[kibby97]

Make sure that your reports are showing IIB- Included in Bankruptcy as well. The wording is important because sometimes the accounts in BK are reported twice and you end up with a double hit on your scores. Print your reports and dispute with the Credit Bureaus letting them know the accounts IIB. This was important for me to do 8 years ago.

check over on myfico.com about rebuilding your credit they have some very good posts. I hope it was ok to put their name and website, if not, please forgive me.

Hearts

Well since I can view all 3 of them, they all say something different and some seem a little slower then others at being updated. Each bureau has something about my bankruptcy but each one words it different, like Bankruptcy Filed Or Bankrupcty Petition Filed, I belive it is Equifax or Experion that actually says "Included In Bankruptcy or Discharged through chapter 7" Transunion is a little slow, on both my capital one accounts, Exp and Equifax show 0 balance but Transunion still shows a balance.

Is it also normal to still be getting notices about new rates and offers on Identiy Theft, etc.. from these accounts even though they are closed or have known for 2 and a half months that I filed chapter 7. But Im not getting any statements, well I get one letting me know that my new online statement is available to online but if I tried to log on it says the account closed.

very very stressfull 62 days so far but if all goes well it will be well worth it

[JRScott]

Honestly, I would not invest in the stock market at this time. Buying single stocks is one of the worst investments for an individual. If you want to invest in the stock market I would suggest doing so by a mutual fund. You'll need to research which mutual fund is best for you.

The stock market has not bottomed out yet. It might take another year or two to bottom out. It is possible that it may get as low as 1000 or 2000 before it begins to have long term recovery.

[jeb]

Honestly, I would not invest in the stock market at this time. Buying single stocks is one of the worst investments for an individual. If you want to invest in the stock market I would suggest doing so by a mutual fund. You'll need to research which mutual fund is best for you.

The stock market has not bottomed out yet. It might take another year or two to bottom out. It is possible that it may get as low as 1000 or 2000 before it begins to have long term recovery.

To each his own but I disagree with this.

The market is going to be a roller coaster for sure - always is but more so for the next few months.

And until we get some "rules" to work with nothing has changed - what got us into this mess can still be done, legally.

Those that came before us learned a very hard lesson back in the '30 and going forward through the '40's and '50's put in place rules to regulate things so it couldn't happen again.

But with the relentless "less government" and "government is bad" from the Republicans and the election of Reagan those rules were dismantled.

The first result of this was the Savings and Loan disaster and the nail in the coffin was the bill Bush signed in Aug of 2000 taking all regulations off all the "new" investment vehicles that were coming about - leaving wall street to regulate itself. The growth of these "new" investment vehicles exploded like nothing that has ever been seen before and here we are today.

Ref what to buy, not mutual funds but instead an index. In effect they are like a mutual fund in that they contain a basket of different companies stocks but you can pick from many different ones and really narrow down just what areas of the market you wish to own. And they are cheaper to buy/sell than mutual funds. - jb

[JRScott]

jeb the government is the problem.

Had the various levels of government been doing their jobs none of this would have happened.

Chris Cox
Ben Bernanke
Chris Dodd
Hank Paulson
Barney Frank
Timothy Geithner (was head of NY Fed before was Treasury Sec).

Etc

They all let us down by not doing what they were suppose to be doing in their oversight roles.

Doing market indexes is fine I have no problem with that advice, but buying single stocks generally folks lose their shirt, and we won't be out of this in a few months.

We might could come out of it but to do so Congress will have to reject Obama's budget and pretty much all of his initiatives because we can't afford them and the tax proposals contained in them will further damage our economy. To date Congress has shown no will to stand up to him so hope is low.

[jeb]

jeb the government is the problem.

Had the various levels of government been doing their jobs none of this would have happened.

Doing market indexes is fine I have no problem with that advice, but buying single stocks generally folks lose their shirt, and we won't be out of this in a few months.

We might could come out of it but to do so Congress will have to reject Obama's budget and pretty much all of his initiatives because we can't afford them and the tax proposals contained in them will further damage our economy. To date Congress has shown no will to stand up to him so hope is low.

Don't agree - the GOVERNMENT isn't the problem, the problem is the "buy my vote" boys and girls that are controlled by the large corps and that we are dumb enough to keep voting for.

As you point out, Government has an important part to play but when someone like Reagan or Bush come in and destroy it's ability to do so, things go to heck in a hand basket.

They did this two ways - 1) Appoint people to run the FDA and other parts of Government that will carry out your, "smaller government" policy - in other words, "hands off", go do whatever you want. 2) Cut the budgets - you know, that "wasteful government spending" - which leads to firing the very people that are suppose to do the job.

The FDA is a perfect example - the Peanut Corp of America had never had an inspector in it's plant. People died because of lack of inspections at meat packing plants - - all because of the lack of budget to keep the number of inspectors to do the job.

Absolutely agree that lack of oversight was the problem, as I outlined - and your list will need to include virtually all your "pure capitalism" boys and girls.

Totally disagree that NOT passing President Obama's policies is the correct way to go - the ONLY way we will recover in the short term - not 10 years from now - is to pump enough money into the system to get it working again.

The danger is doing to little right now - which is what the right wing is trying to accomplish, make the policies fail to set themselves up for the 2010 elections and the heck with the people, the country or the world. Fine, upstanding people, they are. And they call themselves "Patriots".

Ref investing, when this market turns it is going to explode like we have never seen - there are tons of money sitting on the sidelines now just waiting and when it is all over all these "innovative" investments that have had money pumped into them will not be there so all that money will go back into stocks.

Indexes are a safe way to spread the risk and about the cheapest way to do so as well.

Hopefully, the one single good thing to come out of all this is the death of that "pure capitalism", "government is bad" and "smaller government" crap that gets pushed all the time.

We have had pure capitalism for thousands of years in this world and it has given us very, very rich people and very, very poor people. Only under a "controlled capitalism" did we see the growth of the largest middle class in history and only under it will we stop this downward spiral of the middle class we have had for the last 8 years.

[Logan]

Honestly, I would not invest in the stock market at this time. Buying single stocks is one of the worst investments for an individual. If you want to invest in the stock market I would suggest doing so by a mutual fund. You'll need to research which mutual fund is best for you.

The stock market has not bottomed out yet. It might take another year or two to bottom out. It is possible that it may get as low as 1000 or 2000 before it begins to have long term recovery.

1000 to 2000 will NOT happen. In fact it's just about impossible unless most of the companies that the Dow includes end up in BK.

[kibby97]

1000 to 2000 will NOT happen. In fact it's just about impossible unless most of the companies that the Dow includes end up in BK.

Everyone keeps telling me about GE. Its obviously very low now and you can buy it direct from them from their website, 50 shares for about $500.00. I know purchasing stock that has dropped from selling at almost $40/share a year ago to $9.00/share now doesn't mean that its going to go up anytime soon but would have to imagine that GE is not a company that is going to go bankrupt. Im meeting with a financial advisor tommorrow, Im sure he could answer all questions about weather or not this is a good idea.

Like i said, im only 29 and I and everyone else says now is the perfect time to do something if you have a little saved up and plan for the future.

[Logan]

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cp?s=^DJI


Above are the DOW components. If these stocks fall to levels that bring the DOW down to 2000 or below you better have some loaded guns in your home because this Country would be in a depression much deeper than in the 20's and we would NEVER climb out of it.

[kibby97]

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cp?s=^DJI


Above are the DOW components. If these stocks fall to levels that bring the DOW down to 2000 or below you better have some loaded guns in your home because this Country would be in a depression much deeper than in the 20's and we would NEVER climb out of it.

Ok I am just kinda learning about how to read and understand what the numbers mean and how at the end of the day what the DJI closes at means. Do you mean at the current number 7,278.38, if that number dropped to 2000 or more? BAD NEWS

[Logan]

Everyone keeps telling me about GE. Its obviously very low now and you can buy it direct from them from their website, 50 shares for about $500.00. I know purchasing stock that has dropped from selling at almost $40/share a year ago to $9.00/share now doesn't mean that its going to go up anytime soon but would have to imagine that GE is not a company that is going to go bankrupt. Im meeting with a financial advisor tommorrow, Im sure he could answer all questions about weather or not this is a good idea.

Like i said, im only 29 and I and everyone else says now is the perfect time to do something if you have a little saved up and plan for the future.

I would dollar cost average and maybe buy $100 a month.

Look into a ROTH IRA.