Beyond me

[MomIcantFindmy]

So I interviewed another lawyer (3rd). All the lawyers say the same thing........100% payback will cost us $2200.00 a month not including our car payments of $869.00. So debt payments alone would be $3069 and I am assuming we would have to defer the student loan of $128.

Now here is the catch. My hubby only brings home $2580 from a retirement check plus $622 each week. Subtract out the debt and I come up with $2206.33 of which our rent is $1200 and food is $600 gasoline is $300 (that leaves $106.00 left) to pay all the rest
electricity 225
water 100
Insurance Home and 250
Medical co pays and meds 135ish
clothing 200ish
Recreation 100ish
Drycleaning 40
Cable/internet 85
Phone/cell phone 220
and then there would be no money to renew car plates and do repairs etc....

Am I missing something or are the lawyers just worst casing senarios for me? I have done the worksheet J for myself and I do not come up with 100% pay off. Are they required to tell you that or what............I'm kinda worried.

[qwertysue]

So I interviewed another lawyer (3rd). All the lawyers say the same thing........100% payback will cost us $2200.00 a month not including our car payments of $869.00. So debt payments alone would be $3069 and I am assuming we would have to defer the student loan of $128.

Now here is the catch. My hubby only brings home $2580 from a retirement check plus $622 each week. Subtract out the debt and I come up with $2206.33 of which our rent is $1200 and food is $600 gasoline is $300 (that leaves $106.00 left) to pay all the rest
electricity 225
water 100
Insurance Home and 250
Medical co pays and meds 135ish
clothing 200ish
Recreation 100ish
Drycleaning 40
Cable/internet 85
Phone/cell phone 220
and then there would be no money to renew car plates and do repairs etc....

Am I missing something or are the lawyers just worst casing senarios for me? I have done the worksheet J for myself and I do not come up with 100% pay off. Are they required to tell you that or what............I'm kinda worried.

Do you have car maintenance/upkeep listed?
Home maintenance/upkeep?

[MomIcantFindmy]

Yea...I was just rattling things off the top of my head.....it just didn't make sense to me that I could be 100% payback. I cant see how it would work? Are they just trying to worst case things or scare me?

[lrprn]

With three bk lawyers telling you the same thing - 100% payback - there's something in how you are presenting your information that's leading them all that direction.

Take a look at all the expenses listed here - http://www.ca-bankruptcy-attorneys.c...alculator.html plus add periodic and annual expenses like property taxes, home association fees, etc. Go back through your checkbook looking for out-of-the-ordinary expenses and add them in as well.

You've been spending less on typical family expenses because, well, you're broke. It's all right in Ch 13 to use figures that are REASONABLE to spend in your neighborhood. (For example, you may not have been buying clothes every month because the money has been going elsewhere, but you need to include a monthly clothing cost that is reasonable for your area and your job. I hadn't bought any clothes for myself in two years, but when we were putting together our expenses, I asked my women colleagues what they averaged a month buying their clothes and used that figure for my part of our clothing figures on our Schedules.

See how your figures match up now with what you've been presenting to the lawyers. Are the amounts significantly different?

Remember, creating a good Ch 13 plan is more art than science. The more experienced the lawyer in Ch 13 cases, the better the Ch 13 plan will be. But the lawyer typically uses the figures you give them for the initial work-up. Look to see if your expense figures are under-estimated and that's why you are getting this unexpected result.

[MomIcantFindmy]

Thank you so much...that calculator really helps a lot!!