So many questions, very high income.

[mmo1]

Hi All, would love some opinions on my situation.

I am married. My wife is unemployed and a student. I make a base salary of 100K a year, last year prior to my wife loosing her job we made a combined income of 160k. I live in California. This year we will make approx 110k with a bonus I believe I will make.

My wife and I do not own a home, we rent.

We have approx 120k in unsecured debt. 80K of this debt is from a defaulted Home Equity Loan, from a home we lost to forclosure a few months ago.

We owe back payment to the IRS of approx 30k, and we make $1,000 payments a month to the IRS to this back payment.

Despite my large salary, we are so far in debt we can not seem to stop drowning. We have cut back our lifestyle severaly when my wife lost her job a few months ago, and we now live extremely frugally. We do not eat out, buy new things, we do not use our CC's, We have tried to make this work - but it isnt.

What am I looking at here? 13, 7 ?

[lrprn]

What am I looking at here? 13, 7 ?

With your $100K salary in a family of two in California (a community property state) and no home, unless you have other high-value asset payments or other expenses to offset your income, you are most likely looking at Ch 13.

However, there's really no way to say absolutely until an experienced bankruptcy attorney puts your financial figures through the required Means Test and Schedules.

It's best to set up 3-4 free intial consultations with lawyers who exclusively work with bankruptcy in your area. After you've met with all of them, you'll have a clearer idea of what to expect in your situation.

Glad you found us! Keep posting questions - we'll help you sort things out as best we can.