How long after BK Chapter 7 should I make sure not to find a high paying job?

[swampwiz]

Of course, I've had difficulty finding a high paying job for a while (which is why I am here ), so why should I expect to do any better? Post BK, I am going to lower my demanded rate of pay, so I should find a job and get some income (if I decide to.) I am just wondering if there is some pro-forma aspect that would trigger a re-evalutation of me putting down that I did not expect a change in income, other than withdrawing from my 401K at least the bare minimum to survive (and since my mother would be helping me out, I could probably even get by with saying even that.)

I would think that so long as I did not have a job lined up, I could plausibly say that I did not expect to have an increase in income. I should be able to know in my mind that I will be looking for such work the day after the BK is complete, but since I would have no control over whether or not I would get some work, I could plausibly say that I did not expect a change in income.

Should I put out advertisments saying that I expect to be available for work after XX-XX-20XX, and would be available for an interview at that time? Or just lay low until BK?

[debbie42]

We were in a similar situation...a new job that pays well is finally on the horizon and I was so scared the question of "do you anticipate a significant increase in income" would come up -thankfully it did not...my plan was to answer it with something like "no, but I sure hope so", etc. Our trustee did question a little bit about what my husband does (I am a full time mom) he asked if he was licensed in his field, etc. but given the economy and the profession, trustee did not seem surprised p/t work was all he has found so far.

I asked our lawyer about this a lot! They said when you're talking about a profession that's known to be high paying/white collar, etc...they do not expect you to not start making a much higher salary eventually. We were also told unless you have an actual signed contract for a high paying job, etc. it's not 100% definite, no way to prove it. Also, as I am sure you know, they really are only supposed to be looking at the 6 months prior to and including the file date. What happens after should not matter.

My personal opinion is, if you can wait until after the 341 it's safer, but you don't want to not take a job because of this either - I know the question can come up and because of my husband's profession, I fully expected that question but we got lucky. We are in S. FL and they had so many cases they blew through them all. So that worked in our favor.

I am not sure if I really answered your question but hopefully helped a little Good luck!

[DebtEnder]

Bk is a snapshot your fiances now. Not a what-if down the road.

Unless you have done work and expect to get paid a huge amount you can't be sure you will get a job. It's a what-if. Do you hope to be making more, sure. Are you positive that you will? You can say I'm looking for a job but who in this economy is not.