Federal vs State (TX) Exemptions

[Mrogdog078]

The short of it:
Lost my job Jan '10
Wife divorced me a month later. Child Support $1200 per month.
Unemployment for 3 months, then found another job.

I was behind on my Student loans since Jan, hadn't paid mortgage since March, current on car (gotta have it), hadnt paid CC's since November.

I did a means test and it looks like CH7.

My question:
Should I take the federal exemptions or State of Texas?
I do not want to keep my house, as I cannot afford it now.
I do want to keep my car, tv, computer, gun, couch, bed, tools, and a old jeep I want to restore for my son.
Since I dont want to keep my house, i could take the federal exemptions and use the wildcard exemptions (texas doesnt have one), plus the $10k homestead exemption to keep my car, jeep, tools and last of personal stuff.

Am I understanding this correctly?

If I take the Federal exemptions and give up my house, I can add $10k of unused homestead exemption to protect other assets. Is this right?

Any advice?

What about an online Credit Counseling agency that gets it done quickly?

[NewDawn]

How much equity do you have in your house and car? Do you have multiple vehicles? Hubby and I filed Chapter 7 in Texas, but we used the federal exemptions because we had no equity in a home, just multiple very used vehicles and the usual household used stuff. So we used the unused homestead exemptions and the wildcard to cover the other vehicles.

I have read online on a bankruptcy lawyer's website in Texas that if you have little to no equity in a home in Texas, most of the time it makes sense to use the Federal exemptions. The fed exemption for a car is much lower, but the wildcard/unused homestead exemptions will usually make up for it. We were sweating it until I learned about the unused homestead and wildcard exemptions. After learning that, our decision was easy.

You just need to go down each category of item to determine which way puts you on top. In Texas it is one vehicle per licensed driver. That might make a huge difference for you right there. Is your son a licensed driver and living in your household? Are both vehicles titled in your name currently? I don't think you can exempt two vehicles for a single person under the Texas exemptions. Just wanted to add that in.

Also, are your tools used in your trade or profession? You might have another exemption category under the federal exemptions as tools of trade as well.

[Mrogdog078]

I got no equity in the house, and upside down on the car. Project Jeep is paid for!
Some tools are used in the trade that I am in. I could exempt some of them.
Sadly, the things I want to protect are my TV, PS3, Xbox360, clothes, used furniture, my son's future Jeep, my car, and my wages.

[NewDawn]

Then I don't see how you could go wrong with going with the Federal exemptions. I believe the unused homestead exemptions/wildcard exemption can be used on any property. So you should have your bases covered. You can even stack the exemptions on top of each other. For instance, for my husband's semi-truck, we actually used the tools of trade exemption, some of the unused homestead exemption, and some of the wildcard exemption all for that one item. You just have to cite all three of the exemption laws as well as the dollar amount exempted under each of those laws. The Nolo book explains all of this.

If I remember right, we also some of the unused homestead exemption to cover a small amount of money in our bank account as well as unpaid commissions. Hope this helps.