Couple Living Together But Not Married -- help!

[BankruptinNJ]

I'm thinking of filing bankruptcy in New Jersey. I know that I will have to list all of my assets. What do I include? I have no house, no car, no jewelry. I have a lot of cheap clothes, a couple of pieces of furniture, some artwork, and several hundred books, and a five-year-old laptop. Do I list every item, including each separate book? How do I know what something is worth? My furniture is nice but do I go by what a pawnshop would pay for it?

I live with my boyfriend. Most of the furniture was his before we moved in together. Do I have to declare his income or any of his possessions? He is on state disability, but has a part-time job which earns him very little money. Our combined income is well below the state average.

Thanks.

[Flamingo]

May I suggest that you get a few bankruptcy consultations with attorneys in your area. Most give free consultations and you don't have to commit to anything but will learn what you can and cannot do as to your situation in your state. Look in the phone book under lawyers and find a few that give free consultations. Call and make an appointment. Take with you a complete listing of your debts, monthly payments, sources of income (household income, which would include your boyfriend's income), paystubs, a listing of assets and copies of your most recent and federal tax returns.

Note that filing bankruptcy does not solve cash flow, low income or unemployment problems.

[AngelinaCatHub]

I'm in agreement with Flamingo. However to further answer your questions, price clothes as if you were buying them in goodwill or yard sale. Clothing is like used underwear, you buy them but nobody would wish to use them. (However we get good stuff at Goodwill). The books are almost valueless. A library is becoming rapidly obsolete since the Internet. Again price them as flea market. DO NOT let your sentimentality get into your way with price. A quarter a book or $10 a box of 100. The furniture is NOT yours until you marry. Go by the law. It cannot be taken from another person who owns it so don't list it at all. Since you are living in another house, your income is rent so what ever you contribute is your expenses and whatever you earn and get from BF is also income. In other words, you sound indigent on paper and that is the way the Court will look at it. Just because you share BF's place does not make it your property (until marriage depending on state) and is only your apartment or temporary housing if you may. (Temporary is a realistic legal definition in terms that if BF and you had a falling out, you would leave with what you came with. Consider your assets in those terms.)

Hope that helps a bit. 'Hub