Newbie here

[jodie3134]

Hi everyone. Well my husband and I made the decision last night that we are going to file for Chapter 7. This has been a long time coming and I feel is the best decision for us. My husband lost his job in January of 2009. Instead of getting a new job, he started nursing school in the fall of 2009. We also have 3 kids... so he is at home during the day with the kids while I am working. School is at night and on weekends. I make a good salary but we have too much in credit card debit and the bills are too much. I've been robbing peter to pay paul to make ends meet and I am done. The stress is too much.

I'm very nervous about the next steps. This is a last resort to me and I am afraid of how this will all shake out. I feel our case is pretty cut and dry. I want to stay in our house and keep our two cars. I basically want the $40+ thousand in credit card debt gone. With those payments gone, we can very well afford all of our other bills and have a savings (a new thing to us!!) We have an appt with an attorney on Wednesday. The fee is $1500 for everything. I think that sounds reasonable? I can pay that without paying CC bills for 1 month.

I am thankful for all of the information on this board. It is helping to set my mind at ease.

[buffetbuster]

Welcome to the forum! You are going to find a lot of useful information here, not ony text book information, but also personal experience which in my opinion was better than textbook explanations.

My wife and I were in your shoes a year ago. We are coming up on 1 year discharged in September. It is a scary thing, especially since everything from this point forward seems like "the great unknown". Have you contacted an attorney yet? Don't feel obligated to use your first attorney you talk to either. Shop around, they are the ones that are going to help you with your financial rebirth. We visited 3 attorneys, the 1st two we went to didn't seem to have our best interest in mind. They kept pushing for a Chapter 13 and wouldn't even consider a Chapter 7. The 3rd attorney, who we went with, actually was able to make things work for a Chapter 7 for us. We were able to keep our home and both our cars. We had medical bills, credit card bills in the tune of 40K and also 2 judgments against us, which all were discharged in the BK. Just want to point out, there is life after the BK too. We have credit cards again, trust me, barely using them and paying in full every month and just got a car loan through Capital One. All of which is helping us to reestablish credit. Keep your head up, keep all your options open and remember to post any questions you have. We've all been there and someone on here has the experience to answer your questions.

[keepsmiling]

Hi Jodie and welcome.
Couple important q's: what's your car/house equity situation? Critical points in considering a 7. Do your homework before you do anything.
And don't give the atty a dime til you talk to some others. You have time.

If you have minimal equity, everything will shake out fine and you will have a wonderful fresh start. If you have substantial equity, you may need to think this thru a bit more, and might need to think about a 13 or other alternatives.

Read the forum every chance you get. Best education out there. Good luck, and keep asking.

[frogger]

Hi everyone. Well my husband and I made the decision last night that we are going to file for Chapter 7.

Making the decision is the most difficult and critical phase of the entire process.

Now that you have made the decision, it's time to continue to study, plan, and look after your best financial interest. Don't rush or be rushed into anything.

And always, remember that bk is a process, not an event.

Good luck.

[jodie3134]

We have little equity in our home. Maybe $10,000 if we are lucky. The values in our area really dropped when the housing market crashed. As for cars. I lease both of them with low payments so $0 equity

[keepsmiling]

Excellent. (in this scenario, anyway -- the bass ackward world of bk)
You should have no worries.

[keepsmiling]

Ah. Just saw your other posts. Let's see what the experts have to say on the lease.