Baby due in May, should we wait to file?

[topekajack]

We are expecting a baby boy in late May. We qualify for a 7 so we are planning to file very soon. Is there any reason to wait until after the birth? We are over the median but we pass the Means test easily. Adding another dependent helps with expenses but it isn't needed to pass the test.

[nerves]

Congratulations on your one in oven. I hope all goes well and mom and baby are healthy. The advantage of waiting to file is if you have a lot of medical bills from the birth. The littlest complication can be very expensive. As I stated previously, I wish the best for everyone.

[mkuki]

The advantage of waiting to file is if you have a lot of medical bills from the birth. The littlest complication can be very expensive.

^^this is great advice...i've seen it first hand

[aces67]

Congratulations on your one in oven. I hope all goes well and mom and baby are healthy. The advantage of waiting to file is if you have a lot of medical bills from the birth. The littlest complication can be very expensive. As I stated previously, I wish the best for everyone.

This is great advice and would be a very good reason to wait a while.

Congrats on your new baby!

[ANewLeaf]

Thanks for bringing this up. I too am expecting (due in June) and have wondered the same thing. I know I might have medical bills that will be anywhere between $500-$2,000. I guess I should also speak with my attorney about this matter, but I do see what PP are talking about and would think it might be best to wait. I'm just torn and would really like to file soon, and hoping that if I wait any longer that nothing else would be a problem.

[munchkn813]

I would wait too just in case! My first daughter just turned 4 and we expected everything to go fine with her birth/delivery but she ended up in the NICU (was full term, but had a partially colapsed lung, hole in the heart, murmur, and GBS (despite me getting 3 times the amount of meds for it because I had a 72hour indiced labor) It was NOT cheap and I JUST finished paying the last bit of it off last month!! With all of our other bills we were never able to put much towards it each month which is why it took so long, but you never know what could happen. Congrats to you and good luck!

[jingle47]

I am in the same boat. Baby due late summer. We decided to file now and not wait.
And I am not judging anyone for their choices with regards to when to file, but I just wanted to post the internal struggle I had with this question.
I have a hard time justifying waiting until after the Birth to file bankruptcy. That means I am racking up more debt without the slightest intent to pay. Now I can only speak for myself but I liken this to charging a bunch on the credit cards knowing it will all be forgiven... Just my $.02.

[JEM]

I am in the same boat. Baby due late summer. We decided to file now and not wait.
And I am not judging anyone for their choices with regards to when to file, but I just wanted to post the internal struggle I had with this question.
I have a hard time justifying waiting until after the Birth to file bankruptcy. That means I am racking up more debt without the slightest intent to pay. Now I can only speak for myself but I liken this to charging a bunch on the credit cards knowing it will all be forgiven... Just my $.02.

IMO...medical is VERY different than charging up credit cards and then filing. Charging on the credit cards would be a CHOICE.....UNEXPECTED, UNAVOIDABLE, UNPLANNED medical expenses would be a whole different situation.

That's JMO though.

[jingle47]

I agree that debt incurred on CC and debt incurred due to Medical bills is very different (In fact my BK involves a lot of both, and it was alot easier to justify to myself filing for the medical than for the CC) but I see both those things the same way as far as incurring future debt. Whether I stand at the counter of Best Buy or the hospital check-in, both people on the other side of the counter expect to be paid for their services. And for me(and I only speak for me) to stand there giving the "false impression" that I intend to pay for said services is not something I can do.

[koolwhipman]

We have a second child due in May as well. Our plan was to file in March, but this is has got me thinking. I'm going to look into this further.

Thanks for bringing it up.

[keepmine]

I agree that debt incurred on CC and debt incurred due to Medical bills is very different (In fact my BK involves a lot of both, and it was alot easier to justify to myself filing for the medical than for the CC) but I see both those things the same way as far as incurring future debt. Whether I stand at the counter of Best Buy or the hospital check-in, both people on the other side of the counter expect to be paid for their services. And for me(and I only speak for me) to stand there giving the "false impression" that I intend to pay for said services is not something I can do.

You're about to do something very foolish. You better start thinking about your and your family's best interest and not some misguided morality.
If this isn't a routine delivery and/or something your insurance won't cover your second chance will be history as creditors start dunning you for bills that could reach 5 figures.
We've had 2 posts recently from people who filed bk and shortly after discharge ended up with large hopital bills they can't pay. Don't run the risk of being in that position. Bk isn't about ethics or morality. It's about making a good business decision.

[JEM]

You're about to do something very foolish. You better start thinking about your and your family's best interest and not some misguided morality.
If this isn't a routine delivery and/or something your insurance won't cover your second chance will be history as creditors start dunning you for bills that could reach 5 figures.
We've had 2 posts recently from people who filed bk and shortly after discharge ended up with large hopital bills they can't pay. Don't run the risk of being in that position. Bk isn't about ethics or morality. It's about making a good business decision.

I agree.

For me personally....my 3rd child was an emergency c-section. At the time, my husband was in the Army, so we didn't have large medical bills afterward. However, I can only imagine the 10's of thousands of dollars that would have cost.

Within the last 3 months, I've had two friends deliver preemies. One of them had TWIN preemies. In both cases, the babies will have spent about two months in the NICU.

I don't think anyone thinks anything like this will happen to them.

[jingle47]

I think it is rather unfortunate that you feel this way. Does noone see any difference between forgiving Past debt and expecting future debt to be forgiven?

[jdcat]

I'm on the fence with this one. I am currently going through some medical issues and have been struggling with the fact that I'm having all of this testing done *knowing* that I cannot pay. It doesn't feel very good.

At the same time though if I wait until after we file bk I still won't be able to pay. Our situation is a bit different than others in that when we stopped paying our credit cards we didn't all of a sudden have that money freed up monthly. My job was covering our cc bills each month and I'm no longer working. So we don't have that "extra" money each month.

So what does someone in my situation do? I can't pay now and I don't know if I'll be able to pay later because I don't know what's going on with me physically so I have no idea when I'll be back to work. In the meantime I'm living with a lot of discomfort mixed with some times that are just down right painful. Painful to the point that I had to leave my job.

[frogger]

I'm on the fence with this one.

I can see both sides of the fence, however I would agree that no one should file while the potential for huge medical bills is a possibility in the short term.

It's nothing more than the best business decision that can be made. When you're facing bk, all of the decisions can be painful.

Take care of you and your family first.