I have been lurking here for a few days now and I want to thank the many posters here. It is a comfort to know that I'm not alone in this, while my situation is unique to me and where I live, others have been through simular situations and survived it.
Having been raised to be accountable for my actions and raising my children the same way I'm sure most of you can relate to the gambit of emotions you go through when finally facing a sinking ship. Confusion, anger, frustration, sorrow you name it, I can't begin to tell you how many times over the past few months I have apologized to my wife as we have had to withdraw out of her retirement to pay bills because my paycheck just was not enough.
I work for a railroad in Arizona and only get paid when I can take a trip, due partialy because of medical reasons (the FRA frowns on you running trains under the influance of certain medications) and partialy due to the economy my paychecks have become less and less, which as the major bread winner of the family just adds the the frustration. With the holidays fast approaching I do not see it getting any better either, as a general rule we (the railroad) slow down from late nov until march and in the past I have managed to hold a position during this slowdown period but with the economy being what it is that will be questionable this year.
We have been current on all our payments as of today, I just don't see us making it next month without tapping her retirement again which we just can't bring ourselves to do anymore nor is there much left there to tap into.
We have about 66k in CC debt, some of which are dept stores, sears newegg paypal dell home depot levits best buy Kerby (vacume cleaner/shampooer) etc. I have a car loan that has 7k remaining on it, looking up the car on kbb it's only worth 2300 trade in or 5100 retail, it was involved in a hit and run ealier this year (person was never caught) so I had to pay to have it repaired insurance covered most but had to pay the deductable. The house was apprased in sept of 2007 for 170k so we refinanced our first to get out of a bad variable loan and into a fixed rate so I have a first and second on the place owe 120k on the first and 28k on the second (with a balloon on the second in 2020). With all the forclosures in the area the house right next door just sold for 90k so I can imagine the value of ours is in the tank. We would like to keep the house.
We had a plan at the beginning of the year to get out of this mess, with increasing interest rates, my health and work slowing down I just don't see how at this point and so I began to read about bankruptcy. To say it is confusing is an understatement. From what I have read so far it became even more so since 2005. Thanks to all the folks posting here as the confusion and stigma about it is lessoned some.
How complex my case will be will depend on an attorney and his/her knowledge from what I have been reading. One thing I will say after making some calls over the past few days. Not all attorneys are created equal.
I do not know if it will be chapter 7 or chapter 13. After looking at my gross income over the last 6 months it averages 1k over the medean for Arizona. If I include what we took out of my wifes retirement account it is a bit more than that. The last month of the six was way below and the month before was just above. Some of the attorneys that I have called do not handle over medean cases and some flat out say over medean cases are chapter 13 which is confusing because I thought there was a calculation there?
A question on income, my daughter who is in the service sends me a check once a month to cover her bills which I pay. One of her bills is in her name but the others are in my name (I get a better discount on some things cell phone, car insurance then she would so it was finacially better for her). Should I include what she sends me as income?
When pulling a credit report I found levits (furniture) on my wifes report. I had not purchased furniture in years. Come to find out she let a friend in another state purchase a bedroom set and other things 2 years ago on it. Her friend makes the payments on time the bill gets mailed there but is in my wifes name 5k worth still on it. How will this be viewed?
Thanks for all the posts and for anyone who reads and replies to this.
Having been raised to be accountable for my actions and raising my children the same way I'm sure most of you can relate to the gambit of emotions you go through when finally facing a sinking ship. Confusion, anger, frustration, sorrow you name it, I can't begin to tell you how many times over the past few months I have apologized to my wife as we have had to withdraw out of her retirement to pay bills because my paycheck just was not enough.
I work for a railroad in Arizona and only get paid when I can take a trip, due partialy because of medical reasons (the FRA frowns on you running trains under the influance of certain medications) and partialy due to the economy my paychecks have become less and less, which as the major bread winner of the family just adds the the frustration. With the holidays fast approaching I do not see it getting any better either, as a general rule we (the railroad) slow down from late nov until march and in the past I have managed to hold a position during this slowdown period but with the economy being what it is that will be questionable this year.
We have been current on all our payments as of today, I just don't see us making it next month without tapping her retirement again which we just can't bring ourselves to do anymore nor is there much left there to tap into.
We have about 66k in CC debt, some of which are dept stores, sears newegg paypal dell home depot levits best buy Kerby (vacume cleaner/shampooer) etc. I have a car loan that has 7k remaining on it, looking up the car on kbb it's only worth 2300 trade in or 5100 retail, it was involved in a hit and run ealier this year (person was never caught) so I had to pay to have it repaired insurance covered most but had to pay the deductable. The house was apprased in sept of 2007 for 170k so we refinanced our first to get out of a bad variable loan and into a fixed rate so I have a first and second on the place owe 120k on the first and 28k on the second (with a balloon on the second in 2020). With all the forclosures in the area the house right next door just sold for 90k so I can imagine the value of ours is in the tank. We would like to keep the house.
We had a plan at the beginning of the year to get out of this mess, with increasing interest rates, my health and work slowing down I just don't see how at this point and so I began to read about bankruptcy. To say it is confusing is an understatement. From what I have read so far it became even more so since 2005. Thanks to all the folks posting here as the confusion and stigma about it is lessoned some.
How complex my case will be will depend on an attorney and his/her knowledge from what I have been reading. One thing I will say after making some calls over the past few days. Not all attorneys are created equal.
I do not know if it will be chapter 7 or chapter 13. After looking at my gross income over the last 6 months it averages 1k over the medean for Arizona. If I include what we took out of my wifes retirement account it is a bit more than that. The last month of the six was way below and the month before was just above. Some of the attorneys that I have called do not handle over medean cases and some flat out say over medean cases are chapter 13 which is confusing because I thought there was a calculation there?
A question on income, my daughter who is in the service sends me a check once a month to cover her bills which I pay. One of her bills is in her name but the others are in my name (I get a better discount on some things cell phone, car insurance then she would so it was finacially better for her). Should I include what she sends me as income?
When pulling a credit report I found levits (furniture) on my wifes report. I had not purchased furniture in years. Come to find out she let a friend in another state purchase a bedroom set and other things 2 years ago on it. Her friend makes the payments on time the bill gets mailed there but is in my wifes name 5k worth still on it. How will this be viewed?
Thanks for all the posts and for anyone who reads and replies to this.
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