Will I qualify?

[njsinglemom]

I'm a single mom and the dad does not pay his child support option. While I make over 6 figures, I got stuck with all of his debt from the divorce and have been attempting to get the amounts consolidated, but I can't seem to get ahead and every month I seem to be digging deeper and deeper into debt. The divorce was two years ago and I can't even buy a house. I am tempted to empty my 401K to lessen the amounts outstanding and give me a better shot of making the future better, but then I also think that I should consider BK.

Installment Unsecured Loans - $65K ($1850 monthly payments)
Credit Card Debt - $35K ($650 monthly)
Student Loans - $70K ($425 monthly)
Car Loans - $35K ($850 monthly - two vehicles)
Monthly Housing Payment - $2500
Childcare - $1000

Can anyone explain if I would be eligible? The whole means test is confusing to me.

[Chrysalis]

Scroll down to the middle of the page and see where your income is ~ in comparison to the median income for your state. This is dependent on the # of people in your household. (I assume that you are the provider for your children and you claim them on your taxes). That is the first step: How far over are you?

http://www.newjerseybankruptcy.info/means-test/

[njsinglemom]

Like $50K over the median income. I know I would have to do the means test, but I don't really understand it.

[Chrysalis]

Have you tried the means test at legal consumer? Really, all you do is give them your zip code (or maybe just your state) ~ plug in the numbers it's asking for, and voila. It can give you a *pretty good* idea of whether chapter 7 is within your reach or not. If you have specific questions while you are doing that, there are people here who are happy to help. Otherwise ~ we really can't tell you if you'd qualify at all. $50k is quite a bit over the median. I am certainly not qualified to answer that one for you. Definitely start lining up some free consultations with bk attorneys. Nothing to lose by talking + lots of knowledge to gain.

[justbroke]

I could not have said it better than Chrysalis. I would do exactly that!