couple of questions

[monkatom]

I borrowed the NOLA books from the library and started reading them and they are great. i do have a couple of questions. If we file chp 7 will the wife have to sell the wedding ring? Value when we got it appraised which i think is high was over 15K even though we only paid 5K for it. should she just leave it at her moms as it was bought 8 years ago with cash? or can we get in big time trouble for that?

Second question is if we end up filling 13 and have a set paymnet for so many months if I get a raise down the road will they change our monthly paymnet or is it fixed.

BTW we live in California

Thanks

[woeisme]

I think they use pawn shop value, what the trustee could actually get for the ring if you had to hand it over, not the appraisal values. So even though the ring appraises for 15K, and you bought it for 5K, it's possible that if you took it to a pawn shop they might only offer you 1K (or less) for the ring, and that is the value you'd report for it on your forms. Hopefully you have enough exemptions in California that it would be allowed. As to whether or not you should try to "hide" the fact that you have the ring, I don't think anyone on here would want to give you advice to do something fraudulant, so that's really going to be something you're going to have to decide on your own. The fact that you had it appraised, creating a paper trail if a creditor wants to get nasty, might be something to consider, although chances are low that if it were bought with cash many years ago they'd be able to ferret the infomation out.

[woeisme]

As to a change in income for a CH 13, it really varies from trustee to trustee. I think for small changes in income, they don't worry about it, since those are most likely going to be offset over the years of your plan by inflation (especially if gas and food prices keep going up!) But a really large change in salary might cause the trustee to up the payment amount. They do get copies of your income tax returns, so would see if your income went up drastically, which might cause them to raise the payments. I've heard some trustees don't really care as long as you make the original payments, others care if your salary increases by 10% or more, so is really trustee-dependent.

[Carlysmom]

When we talked to our attorney on this she said that you are allowed to keep your wedding band without problems. This is at least in NY you can also have a watch valued at $35 here...have you spoken to an attorney yet?

[monkatom]

I am in the process of setting up a couple of meetings with a couple different attorneys. hopefully they cna shed a litle more light on my particular case. Thanks again for the info.

[mysterie91]

When we talked to our attorney on this she said that you are allowed to keep your wedding band without problems. This is at least in NY you can also have a watch valued at $35 here...have you spoken to an attorney yet?

When we met with the attorney he said that in NY you can keep (exempt) any wedding ring given as part of an official marriage ceremony. An engagement ring does not qualify for exemption. You take it to a jewelry store and find out how much they would give you for it and that is the value. There is a small exemption for jewelry in NY as stated above.