First time poster long time lurker
Hello all,
Been lurking around here since around Feb right after I filed Chapter 13.
Wish I had found these forums prior to my initial filing but all things happen for a reason, I guess.
Here's my story in a nutshell. Married my dw a few years ago and she brought with her our 11 yo dsd. Wife has a custody agreement with her ex that mandates that dsd must attend a certain school district. Up until last fall the ex had been playing nice and allowed us to use his address. All of a sudden he decided to not play nice anymore and we were forced to pay about 7k a year in tuition for dsd to attend the school in that particular district.
Considering the tuition took 100% of my wifes income and I was way upside down in he house that I owned we were hosed....
Add in the fact that I owed approx 20k on CC's we decided to get out from under all of it and try to get a fresh start.
So..... 1/30/08 I filed Chapter 13. We moved into the school district and now rent a house. The other house has been foreclosed on and is no longer a headache.
Now, had i came to these forums sooner I would have learned a few things a whole lot easier. First and foremost, don't get in too big of a hurry. We easily could have stayed in our house another 4 months basically free.
Second thing I learned is if your expenses aren't close to your income in a chapter 13 you get socked with a major payment. I had no idea at all the amounts that were allowed to be claimed as expenses until I had visited here and found the link to the Trustee Website.
Well after being nailed with a $1000 dollar a month bankruptcy payment on our combined income of about 3500 a month, we figured out that we could convert to a 7 and amend our expenses to more accurately reflect reality.
So we payed the fee, converted over to a 7 and had the 341 meeting on 7/11/08. It was pretty much a joke. The only hangups were that the trustee couldn't find the file for a second or two. She also couldn't believe that I work 72 hours a week as a Paramedic. She kept say "You mean every two weeks right?"............ After the 4th time of me saying "No, I work 72 hours a week, every week" she finally seemed to get it.
So here we are 10 days later and I just checked out the ole PACER website out of curiosity and I see
55 Filed & Entered: 07/15/2008 Chapter 7 Trustee's No Asset Report
Well that is a good sign I guess.....no objections so far.....
I Will do my best to keep updates on here regularly and let people know how it goes.
pmed8
PS Trustee never asked about our tax return or the Stimulus check. I asked the lawyer about them and he said that since we would need money for a safety net she probably wouldn't take them. He said to hang on to them just in case but not to worry about it. /crosses fingers
Been lurking around here since around Feb right after I filed Chapter 13.
Wish I had found these forums prior to my initial filing but all things happen for a reason, I guess.
Here's my story in a nutshell. Married my dw a few years ago and she brought with her our 11 yo dsd. Wife has a custody agreement with her ex that mandates that dsd must attend a certain school district. Up until last fall the ex had been playing nice and allowed us to use his address. All of a sudden he decided to not play nice anymore and we were forced to pay about 7k a year in tuition for dsd to attend the school in that particular district.
Considering the tuition took 100% of my wifes income and I was way upside down in he house that I owned we were hosed....
Add in the fact that I owed approx 20k on CC's we decided to get out from under all of it and try to get a fresh start.
So..... 1/30/08 I filed Chapter 13. We moved into the school district and now rent a house. The other house has been foreclosed on and is no longer a headache.
Now, had i came to these forums sooner I would have learned a few things a whole lot easier. First and foremost, don't get in too big of a hurry. We easily could have stayed in our house another 4 months basically free.
Second thing I learned is if your expenses aren't close to your income in a chapter 13 you get socked with a major payment. I had no idea at all the amounts that were allowed to be claimed as expenses until I had visited here and found the link to the Trustee Website.
Well after being nailed with a $1000 dollar a month bankruptcy payment on our combined income of about 3500 a month, we figured out that we could convert to a 7 and amend our expenses to more accurately reflect reality.
So we payed the fee, converted over to a 7 and had the 341 meeting on 7/11/08. It was pretty much a joke. The only hangups were that the trustee couldn't find the file for a second or two. She also couldn't believe that I work 72 hours a week as a Paramedic. She kept say "You mean every two weeks right?"............ After the 4th time of me saying "No, I work 72 hours a week, every week" she finally seemed to get it.
So here we are 10 days later and I just checked out the ole PACER website out of curiosity and I see
55 Filed & Entered: 07/15/2008 Chapter 7 Trustee's No Asset Report
Well that is a good sign I guess.....no objections so far.....
I Will do my best to keep updates on here regularly and let people know how it goes.
pmed8
PS Trustee never asked about our tax return or the Stimulus check. I asked the lawyer about them and he said that since we would need money for a safety net she probably wouldn't take them. He said to hang on to them just in case but not to worry about it. /crosses fingers
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