Am I just way too worried about expenses?

[TTATWORK]

I hope so. I am going BK on a foreclosed home, a comsumer loan and some other smaller items. I am below the median income for my family wage wise, but SSI benefits I receive as a trustee for one of my children add an additional $10K or so. My attorney has told me that the SS will count as income, but not towards repaying debts (if I have to).

I guess I am worried because alot of the debt is marital debt. My stbx will have to file himself soon, also. I have not been paying on the marital debt, and have been paying on the medical bills just hit and miss. Knowing I was going to have to go BK I didn't worry about paying those things. So, the money I make monthly is more than adequate to pay my monthly expenses. I have incurred no additional debt such as credit card debt or other secured/unsecured debt.

So, in looking over my expenses, it is easy to see where I have money left over at the end of the month, but I'm nervous that some of the expenses are not "legitimate". For instance, I pay $1200 in rent/month. The IRS guidelines indicate around $900 or so. My medical expenses (not the ones I am going BK on) are around $250-$300/month. Not sure what the IRS guideline says, but I'm sure not that much for out of pocket for a family of 3. My utilities are higher, my insurance is super high, etc. Also, I had to send my juvinile delinquent (said with a frustrated love and a small grin) to a boarding school last year at cost to me of $650/month.

So, I bring home around $4200/month after taxes, and an additional $800 in SS for my son (his father is retired, this is considered child support).

I know that I need to be as close to my monthly income as possible. To top it off, I am confused about the software my attorney has for figuring expenses (stopmybills), so if I only plug in expenses requested on the software, it is even worse.

I spoke w/ my attorney today and told him I will need help w/ my expenses, and he didn't sound too excited. In a related topic, I told him I wanted to do an online pre-BK counseling/cerificate, but he encouraged me to go to the local CCCS as they have a good idea on what "acceptable" expenses are.

Oh, I am sure you can feel what a nervous wreck I am. Also, I am a smoker (go ahead, flame away! I need it), so I can estimate the cost of those, but will they want to see receipts?

TIA

[BKDefender]

When you say 'not the ones you're going BK on' it tells me that you don't have a full understanding of what bankruptcy is. You can't selectively discharge unsecured debts - you list them all, they're all discharged as to your liability. You have to list every single debt you owe, even if you don't want the person or company to know you filed bankruptcy, you have no option, it's required by law.

It sounds like you might be a good candidate for a Chapter 13. If you didn't have to pay your unsecured debts together (medical bills, consumer loan, credit cards), it sounds like you might be able to pay your secured debts (home/car) through a chapter 13 plan. If you have the income you say you have, then that might be your only option if you can't pass the means test.

A problem I see though is your assigned marital debts. If your divorce decree provides that you indemnify your ex for debts you that are assigned to you, and you fail to pay them by filing bankruptcy, you won't owe your creditors anymore - you'll owe your ex for your the payments your ex will have to pay to cover your assigned marital debt to your creditors. In other words, you could go through bankruptcy, discharge your liability to those creditors only to have them resurface as a domestic support obligation under your indemnification clause of your divorce decree. BUT if your ex files BK too then this is all moot. That's why when you divorce a person legally, you should also divorce that person financially with both of you filing bankruptcy.

Best Regards,
--William