Hi everyone,
I've been browsing the forum for a while now and at this point have a nuts and bolts idea of what we're considering getting into here. I do, however have a couple of questions specifically related to our situation, and a couple that are more general...
First a little background: I lost my job 6 months ago and have been trying this whole time to find something respectable and worth it (anyone paying for daycare will understand that one!) My husband is self-employed and has hardly worked at all since mid-December. We've managed to stay afloat during this time by cashing out my 401k (wasn't much, don't yell at me!
), got some daycare expense reimbursed from my work plan, we sold our motorcycle, I cashed out a small insurance policy that had a cash value, and we have cut back on absolutely everything we could. We had to use the CC a few times but nothing too major except for December when my husband had to go overseas to take care of some legal stuff with his uncle and also wanted to go to a doctor for some health issues since we don't have insurance anymore here (Cheaper to buy the plane ticket since we didn't know what was wrong with him). We wrote a $3K check from the CC, put it in our checking account, paid January's mortgage payment and some utilities, he took 5- or 600 cash with him, and I drove up to MN (we live in IL) for the holidays. He also separately charged the plane ticket which was about $900. He was gone for a month, and when he came home, that's when we sold the bike - to a friend overseas. Part of the money from that sale is still overseas to assist with the legal stuff going on, the other half we used to pay the next mtg payment, buy some groceries/diapers, and paid tuition for my husband to attend a school to get his CDL license in an effort to find some work (and gee, that's going awesome!). March's mtg pmt is the first time we have not paid it, so we're only 23 days late right now. We've managed to pay the minimums or a smidge more on everything else. We've paid everything first and put food in the fridge second. At this point hubby is working on and off for a guy he's done work for consistently over the past couple years (but that guy's in a pickle too right now so it's very unstable and it's day-to-day). So, here we are...trying to figure out where the hell we go from here!
So, my questions:
1) If we file, is there anything we need to consider regarding the sale of the motorcycle? And also, it's still in our garage. We're waiting for a friend who is sending a container over there to get his act together so we can put the bike on the container. Can that be considered an asset since we sold it but still have possession? Likewise, it's still titled to hubby...not sure what they do to the titles overseas.
2) We have two cars that are paid for, and in IL I guess there's a $2400 vehicle exemption. Our 98 Saab is probably fine, but we have an 06 Ford F150 that we have been planning for some time to send overseas as well. Can the trustee sell the truck? Additionally, it's titled in my husband's former business name (which was incorporated) but we closed the business Dec 08 due to said slow-down of work. Does that make a difference in whether the trustee can sell it?
3) Is the $3K CC check and $900 airline charge going to make us have to wait to file or not necessarily considering what we actually used it for? We also recently transferred $8K from that card's balance to a new card because they were offering 0% interest for a year...thinking this would at least mean our measly payments at the moment would go to principle reduction). Can someone explain why balance transfers are to be avoided? It's not like it's "new" money spent.
4) I've read a lot of posts regarding what you can spend your money on - is this in the time leading up to the time you file or once you file? We certainly haven't spent on any non-necessities - except Starbucks, but hey, we're allowed to have SOME semblance of our former lives, right?
5) We're at the point now where we'd have to take more money off the CC to be able to keep paying everything on time, which is totally dumb but seemed logical because were desperate to keep our good credit. But we don't have a crystal ball and cannot stand living in limbo like this anymore, not knowing when the next paycheck might come and then watch how fast it waves bye-bye! So if we're seriously going to file, when's the time to stop paying the CC's?
Whew! I know this is a long post, but I'd rather address everything in one spot so I don't lose track of multiple threads I posted! Thanks to everyone who made it this far and feels compelled to respond!!!
I've been browsing the forum for a while now and at this point have a nuts and bolts idea of what we're considering getting into here. I do, however have a couple of questions specifically related to our situation, and a couple that are more general...
First a little background: I lost my job 6 months ago and have been trying this whole time to find something respectable and worth it (anyone paying for daycare will understand that one!) My husband is self-employed and has hardly worked at all since mid-December. We've managed to stay afloat during this time by cashing out my 401k (wasn't much, don't yell at me!
), got some daycare expense reimbursed from my work plan, we sold our motorcycle, I cashed out a small insurance policy that had a cash value, and we have cut back on absolutely everything we could. We had to use the CC a few times but nothing too major except for December when my husband had to go overseas to take care of some legal stuff with his uncle and also wanted to go to a doctor for some health issues since we don't have insurance anymore here (Cheaper to buy the plane ticket since we didn't know what was wrong with him). We wrote a $3K check from the CC, put it in our checking account, paid January's mortgage payment and some utilities, he took 5- or 600 cash with him, and I drove up to MN (we live in IL) for the holidays. He also separately charged the plane ticket which was about $900. He was gone for a month, and when he came home, that's when we sold the bike - to a friend overseas. Part of the money from that sale is still overseas to assist with the legal stuff going on, the other half we used to pay the next mtg payment, buy some groceries/diapers, and paid tuition for my husband to attend a school to get his CDL license in an effort to find some work (and gee, that's going awesome!). March's mtg pmt is the first time we have not paid it, so we're only 23 days late right now. We've managed to pay the minimums or a smidge more on everything else. We've paid everything first and put food in the fridge second. At this point hubby is working on and off for a guy he's done work for consistently over the past couple years (but that guy's in a pickle too right now so it's very unstable and it's day-to-day). So, here we are...trying to figure out where the hell we go from here!So, my questions:
1) If we file, is there anything we need to consider regarding the sale of the motorcycle? And also, it's still in our garage. We're waiting for a friend who is sending a container over there to get his act together so we can put the bike on the container. Can that be considered an asset since we sold it but still have possession? Likewise, it's still titled to hubby...not sure what they do to the titles overseas.
2) We have two cars that are paid for, and in IL I guess there's a $2400 vehicle exemption. Our 98 Saab is probably fine, but we have an 06 Ford F150 that we have been planning for some time to send overseas as well. Can the trustee sell the truck? Additionally, it's titled in my husband's former business name (which was incorporated) but we closed the business Dec 08 due to said slow-down of work. Does that make a difference in whether the trustee can sell it?
3) Is the $3K CC check and $900 airline charge going to make us have to wait to file or not necessarily considering what we actually used it for? We also recently transferred $8K from that card's balance to a new card because they were offering 0% interest for a year...thinking this would at least mean our measly payments at the moment would go to principle reduction). Can someone explain why balance transfers are to be avoided? It's not like it's "new" money spent.
4) I've read a lot of posts regarding what you can spend your money on - is this in the time leading up to the time you file or once you file? We certainly haven't spent on any non-necessities - except Starbucks, but hey, we're allowed to have SOME semblance of our former lives, right?
5) We're at the point now where we'd have to take more money off the CC to be able to keep paying everything on time, which is totally dumb but seemed logical because were desperate to keep our good credit. But we don't have a crystal ball and cannot stand living in limbo like this anymore, not knowing when the next paycheck might come and then watch how fast it waves bye-bye! So if we're seriously going to file, when's the time to stop paying the CC's?
Whew! I know this is a long post, but I'd rather address everything in one spot so I don't lose track of multiple threads I posted! Thanks to everyone who made it this far and feels compelled to respond!!!
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