My mother called me last night and asked if I could come over, I could tell something was wrong. She was at home trying to figure out her and my dad's taxes. He works out of town remodeling stores like Mervyn's and such, so he was not home.
A little history first, bare with me please. My dad was out of steady work for about 10 years due to a back injury and my mom basically supported him and herself with what she made as a waitress. A blessing finally came and my father landed a job as a Project Supervisor for this remodeling construction company, so to speak, where he's not required to do any heavy lifting. Anyways, all seemed well, until last night. My mother found that my dad had hidden the fact that while they were going thru the tough years he'd apparently accumalated some credit debt trying keep the fire burning. She knew he had to some extent, but last night she realized it's over $30,000 worth. Along with that came the realization that at 60+ years, her dreams of retirement just went down the drain, because when we figured what they make and what the bills amount to, they're going backwards. We all know there's no way to pay off credit cards that large unless you dump mass money into them; mass money they don't have, nor do I, otherwise, after seeing her in tears (which was heartbreaking to say the least), I would pay off every penny had I not sold my house a year too early or had any other means to.
It's apparent that my father makes enough to pay the bills but not enough to sustain everything else that comes up so he credit cards it, and has been for some time now. I know my dad, and he thinks he a survivalist and I'm sure figures he's doing what he has to do, although I haven't spoken to him about it yet. This leads to my question.
My parents are facing an impending doom, it's become very clear. My first impression of the Chapter 13 deal wasn't that bad. I used a calculator provided from some bankruptcy website to estimate what the payments would be if my parents filed and the results were very attractive. My dad I figure is paying out over $1000 a month in just credit card payments. That along with his truck, according to the calculator, could be reduced to $420 for 5 years, and done deal, back in business. But from what I'm reading here in these posts, it sounds terrifying. Sounds like there's much much much more to this and the 420 figure I got would probably not be close. Would suggesting my parents file Chapter 13 be a mistake?
Thanks in advance for any info and/or advice anyone can provide.
God Bless,
A little history first, bare with me please. My dad was out of steady work for about 10 years due to a back injury and my mom basically supported him and herself with what she made as a waitress. A blessing finally came and my father landed a job as a Project Supervisor for this remodeling construction company, so to speak, where he's not required to do any heavy lifting. Anyways, all seemed well, until last night. My mother found that my dad had hidden the fact that while they were going thru the tough years he'd apparently accumalated some credit debt trying keep the fire burning. She knew he had to some extent, but last night she realized it's over $30,000 worth. Along with that came the realization that at 60+ years, her dreams of retirement just went down the drain, because when we figured what they make and what the bills amount to, they're going backwards. We all know there's no way to pay off credit cards that large unless you dump mass money into them; mass money they don't have, nor do I, otherwise, after seeing her in tears (which was heartbreaking to say the least), I would pay off every penny had I not sold my house a year too early or had any other means to.
It's apparent that my father makes enough to pay the bills but not enough to sustain everything else that comes up so he credit cards it, and has been for some time now. I know my dad, and he thinks he a survivalist and I'm sure figures he's doing what he has to do, although I haven't spoken to him about it yet. This leads to my question.
My parents are facing an impending doom, it's become very clear. My first impression of the Chapter 13 deal wasn't that bad. I used a calculator provided from some bankruptcy website to estimate what the payments would be if my parents filed and the results were very attractive. My dad I figure is paying out over $1000 a month in just credit card payments. That along with his truck, according to the calculator, could be reduced to $420 for 5 years, and done deal, back in business. But from what I'm reading here in these posts, it sounds terrifying. Sounds like there's much much much more to this and the 420 figure I got would probably not be close. Would suggesting my parents file Chapter 13 be a mistake?
Thanks in advance for any info and/or advice anyone can provide.
God Bless,
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