(Sorry for the long post, probably should have put it in the blog but traffic is pretty light there.)
Item 1:
We filed our tax return last week and we should be getting a good amount back. (No asset case, exempted tax refund.) The bad news is that my tax preparer says the system keeps kicking it back for various reasons and this is preventing it getting transmitted to the IRS. Some of the reasons are stupid, like it didn't like my change of employer, WTH? Well the last time was because I had a loss on rental property from 2007 that didn't carry forward for some reason, so they fix that and turns out I get an extra $900 back. Bad news is it's gonna take an extra week to get the refund. Oh well, I'll make that trade. I've learned not to spend money before I get it so no problem.
Item 2:
We elected not to keep our 5th Wheel. When our discharge came through I called GEMB and told them to come pick it up. Well today they came and got it, less than two weeks after discharge. While I'm a bit sad to see it go, it's one more anchor I won't have dragging me down now, plus I can drop the insurance on it.
Item 3:
This is the big one. When we filed for bankruptcy, we indicated that we wanted to "retain and pay" on our home mortgage. Not really a legal option but I'm not gonna recommit to $400k with real estate still tanking. We still have equity in the place and the loan payment is really low considering the value of the property. (I refinanced it about 4-5 years ago into an adjustable HELOC, and bought down the margin to .55%. My effective rate has been under 3% since the start and less than 1% for the past year. The highest rate possible is just under 7%.)
The payment was always made via automatic bill pay and I had it set to pay a couple hundred extra against principal. Well during the bankruptcy and relocation for a new job (wife staying in the house until kid graduates high school this year), I didn't really pay attention to my statements. We get to about three weeks before discharge and I open up my latest statement to find that they are saying we are past due. Not sure how that happened but with everything going on it could have happened. I'd been paying extra but what had been happening was that any extra I paid had been going against principal or escrow instead of the past due amount.
So on the phone to the mortgage company next morning, explain the situation and ask how to resolve it since I don't want to be in any kind of default once we are discharged. They tell me to write out how I want the payment applied, send it to a special address and they will take care of it. I do that in January and wait for the statement to arrive in early February.
Meanwhile, our discharge comes through on the 3rd of February and the case is closed on the 8th. My mortgage statement comes on the 11th and I'll be horn-swaggled, they did the same thing, nothing against past due amount, everything against principal curtailment!
On the phone next day asking what the heck? On the other end, "Let me put you on hold and check." Fifteen minutes go by and finally I'm off hold again. "Sorry about the delay but I needed to get my supervisor. I don't know how to explain this but it turns out we couldn't apply the amount you specified against your past due balance because you actually don't have a past due balance. Don't know why We'll apply the extra you paid to February's payment so you don't need to make a payment this month." You're kidding me, I'm not past due and in fact I get to skip this month's payment and still not be past due?!?!
From the dark days before filing to today, it's been a long hard road. The point of this message is that for those just starting to get turned around, there is hope and things can get better. Let go of the baggage from your past life (pre-bk) and move forward with purpose and hope.
Item 1:
We filed our tax return last week and we should be getting a good amount back. (No asset case, exempted tax refund.) The bad news is that my tax preparer says the system keeps kicking it back for various reasons and this is preventing it getting transmitted to the IRS. Some of the reasons are stupid, like it didn't like my change of employer, WTH? Well the last time was because I had a loss on rental property from 2007 that didn't carry forward for some reason, so they fix that and turns out I get an extra $900 back. Bad news is it's gonna take an extra week to get the refund. Oh well, I'll make that trade. I've learned not to spend money before I get it so no problem.
Item 2:
We elected not to keep our 5th Wheel. When our discharge came through I called GEMB and told them to come pick it up. Well today they came and got it, less than two weeks after discharge. While I'm a bit sad to see it go, it's one more anchor I won't have dragging me down now, plus I can drop the insurance on it.
Item 3:
This is the big one. When we filed for bankruptcy, we indicated that we wanted to "retain and pay" on our home mortgage. Not really a legal option but I'm not gonna recommit to $400k with real estate still tanking. We still have equity in the place and the loan payment is really low considering the value of the property. (I refinanced it about 4-5 years ago into an adjustable HELOC, and bought down the margin to .55%. My effective rate has been under 3% since the start and less than 1% for the past year. The highest rate possible is just under 7%.)
The payment was always made via automatic bill pay and I had it set to pay a couple hundred extra against principal. Well during the bankruptcy and relocation for a new job (wife staying in the house until kid graduates high school this year), I didn't really pay attention to my statements. We get to about three weeks before discharge and I open up my latest statement to find that they are saying we are past due. Not sure how that happened but with everything going on it could have happened. I'd been paying extra but what had been happening was that any extra I paid had been going against principal or escrow instead of the past due amount.
So on the phone to the mortgage company next morning, explain the situation and ask how to resolve it since I don't want to be in any kind of default once we are discharged. They tell me to write out how I want the payment applied, send it to a special address and they will take care of it. I do that in January and wait for the statement to arrive in early February.
Meanwhile, our discharge comes through on the 3rd of February and the case is closed on the 8th. My mortgage statement comes on the 11th and I'll be horn-swaggled, they did the same thing, nothing against past due amount, everything against principal curtailment!
On the phone next day asking what the heck? On the other end, "Let me put you on hold and check." Fifteen minutes go by and finally I'm off hold again. "Sorry about the delay but I needed to get my supervisor. I don't know how to explain this but it turns out we couldn't apply the amount you specified against your past due balance because you actually don't have a past due balance. Don't know why We'll apply the extra you paid to February's payment so you don't need to make a payment this month." You're kidding me, I'm not past due and in fact I get to skip this month's payment and still not be past due?!?!
From the dark days before filing to today, it's been a long hard road. The point of this message is that for those just starting to get turned around, there is hope and things can get better. Let go of the baggage from your past life (pre-bk) and move forward with purpose and hope.
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