Have a Question.

[Silver26]

Do you feel like since you filed your worse off? Right now me and my wife are keeping up with the bills. We don't own a house and a majority of our debt is in Credit cards. My wife is a nurse who makes good money and I make about 1/3 what she does. About a year ago we decided to stop using Credit cards and have only used them once for about 800$. We enrolled in a money management program and have been very unimpressed with it so far. A Majority of our debt was outright declined by the companies so we have been paying those regularly. So even though were keeping up with everything our savings is dwindling month after month with small unexpected bills. Ive already contacted a attorney and have a appt with him tomorrow to see what he says. I guess my concern is if we decide to file were going to end up with a outrageous monthly payment and not be able to live reasonably. We have stuck to our budgets and dont live crazy lives. So how have your lives changed since filing?

Thanks Kyle

[lrprn]

If you are sticking successfully to a budget now, you won't find much difference if you file Ch 13. After trying debt management with the same results you are finding, we filed a little over 2 years ago. It was the best decision we ever made. Not a single regret....not one. In Ch 13, we pay our trustee 29% instead of 100% and increasing with outrageous 29-33% interest every month to uncaring, cold cc's and other creditors who didn't do a single thing to help us, no matter how deserving we were.

Instead of constant worry, stress, and arguments over money, we now work together as a team to stick closely to our budget. It's rejuvenated our marriage and made our lives liveable - even joyful - again. That would have been impossible if we hadn't filed. In our situation, Ch 13 truly was the only answer.

[Silver26]

Thanks for the response... I have a feeling we will end up filing. Even if we have to pay back 100% I would really like to have the protection and not have to worry about CC's raising our interest rates or minimums( Amex just did that to us ). I did some calculating tonight and with just our Amex card its going to be maxed in 4 months because we cant afford to pay more then the minimum payment and the interest is pretty brutal now because we were a few days late on payment.

Our current living situation is pretty good but there is no light, We had hoped we would see one while working the money management company but i just don't see it working and i feel we will be much worse off after. Even with all of our other debt paid off thru the management company our Amex card will have increased thousands and even with applying debt management company extra it would take us about 3 years to pay it off at the earliest. If we can have everything paid off in 5 years and move on that would make us very happy. Thanks again.. Ill post what the attorney tells me tomorrow.

[crookedoak]

everyone will be different. Initially the it was the best thing I ever did. I elected to keep my vehicles, and it cut them almost in half as far as payments go.

My only issue was the vehicles became unusable 2 years in, and I have not been able to to easily get new ones.

I am recovered 99% financially except for obtaining new credit, but hopefully will be discharged within 8 weeks

[Silver26]

Vehicles are my number one concern as we only have one. Its a 2007 Toyota Yaris so i hope it will last 5+ years as my other toyotas have. We are fortunate to be able to work at the same hospital and somewhat similar hours. Im also fairly sure we will be able to save a reasonable amount of money and if needed buy a used car. We also only work 3 days a week so that helps with wear and tear.

[Mark80]

We had 1 newer car and 1 very old dieing car, my Attorney instructed me to go out and dump the old car and pick up something I thought could make it the 5 years. I was lucky enough to get a loan and do just that, that way heading into the plan we are covered on autos. In any event I would ask yours when you get one the same thing. You are allowed two cars in the plan, one for you and your wife. In any event I looked at it this way, I was due to payback around 620 a month to my creditors. (all unsecured) With the auto I now only have 260 a month left over to give them, so for the same payback amount I get to pay the plan AND have a newer auto to drive!

Makes me feel much better knowing I wont have to try and find a replacement mid-plan!

[NowImDownInIt]

I don't think your 2007 Yaris should be anything for you to worry over. Toyota's are very dependable and with regular maintenance that car will last 10 years. lol... even longer probably.

[AngelinaCatHub]

If you are asking how we feel, I’m still in a bit of disbelief as we are an asset case and have to pay about 10k back and that will be February. It is only one hurdle in our Bk, but we also have an Adversary Procedure invoked by the enemy who contributed to our demise. When that is over, maybe we can start living again. Am I glad I did it? Well we had no choice. Would I do it again? Under our circumstances yes. It has given us a bit of relief but I would expect more. Being in constant stress for years, it will just not leave overnight. ‘Hub

[woeisme]

I am 1 year exactly into my CH 13, and think it was the best financial decision we could have made. We are paying a fair amount back, the base plan was 65% but not all our creditors filed claims so we'll be paying 75% of the filed claims back by the time we're done. So that "discount" off the original debt is great (35K less we'll be paying back) but what is more important is the interest and penalties, which would have kept us locking into debt for the rest of our lives. Have we had some struggles? Sure! There are months we are barely scraping by, but then other times when things just worked out miraculously for us. Right now we have $1000 in savings in case of an emergency, I want to get that back-up fund higher because we have old vehicles that could die any day, but we would have had the same problems without a CH 13 plan. Just 4 more years to go!

[Silver26]

I just hope what we hear today mimics what the money management company told us initially. Our payment to them was supposed to be around 1100 total for all of our unsecured debt and we would be done in 5 years. It never happened that way. From what i understand our payment should be the same or less considering there is no interest. With the mmc we were still paying 10% interest on the accounts that were approved. If we can stick around the 1100$ a month payment we can still live pretty comfortably for a while.

[jwbbx]

Careful Silver, careful. Make sure you understand chapter 13 and how the payments are calculated.

It sounds like you're under the impression that the Chapter 13 payment will have some relationship to what your minimum payments etc are now. This is not the case. It all depends on what's left over after expenses. 100% of that is considered disposable income available to the plan, so getting your expenses correct is the crux of Chapter 13. It's important to remember you're developing an expense picture for the next 5 years, it's NOT 'what did I spend last month'.

By that I mean that things that don't occur every month but WILL happen within a 5 year window need to be considered and included on a pro-rated basis. Do you wear glasses? Have any upcoming dental work not covered by insurance or that you've put off? How about furnace filters, softener salt, gas for the mower, ice/snow removal chemicals, garden supplies, etc. All this stuff needs to be considered so that you don't cheat yourself out of expenses you should be able to declare. Yes, you don't have them every month. No problem, they get pro-rated. I have made spreadsheets out of my anticipated expenses by category and pro-rated those over a 5 year plan.

At my 341 hearing, the Trustee asked about medical expenses because mine are above normal. I was able to show the fact that I get new glasses every 2 years on average, that I have a dental appliance that will need to be replaced in that 5 year time, etc. I told her I included those costs and prorated them over 60 months and she had no problem with that.

Start thinking about not only your monthly spending, but the long term once a quarter, once a year, even every other year stuff. Itemize it and see where you are. This gives you a better idea of Chapter 13 payments.

The formula is really simple. Income - (Declared expenses over 5 years / 60) = payment to trustee. It's getting agreement on that declared expenses number that's the rub....

BTW - all that considered; this 13 is so far great. I have not been confirmed yet, but there have been no objections and it's really nice not worrying so much about payments etc.

[Silver26]

We sat down with the attorney and he said we have a very simple chapter 7 case. I was pretty surprised, I thought for sure we were a 13 case. He went through the entire process what we should do and what we should not. Me and my wifes income is going to change over the next 90 days by about 30% so he said to wait until that happens but to go ahead and retain him now if this is what we wanted. His fee seemed reasonable to me @1500 if we pay upfront and 1700 if we pay over time. All in all im pretty happy with the meeting we had. Is there anything you guys reccomend asking him the next time we see him? Thanks again

Kyle