Means Test Question

[DivorceRuinedMe]

On Schedule J,.......... What your attny enters will be a mix of real life (mortgage/rent, insurance, utilities, and such) expenses, and what the Court is used to seeing (food, clothes, school lunches, etc).

Here's a quick and dirty Means Test calculator for you:

http://www.legalconsumer.com/means-t...ator/index.php

Just enter your Zip Code, plug in a few numbers, and it will spit out a result. It won't show what to enter where, but at least you'll get an idea of where you stand.

Thank you ! That site is awesome!! I haven't had a chance to go through it all yet, but my fiance and I will this weekend.

[DivorceRuinedMe]

As for the question of if they use IRS standards or actual costs that can vary from district to district. Ours was somewhere inbetween. The attorney filled out the forms with numbers the trustee was used to seeing, and did'nt use our actual numbers or the IRS numbers. I think I posted in another thread today that she put in $50/month for food for a family of 4 (including teenage boys)!

You say you cashed out your 401k for a downpayment on your house. How much was the downpayment? That could effect a chapter 7 filing. Some states allow for quite a bit of equity, but for example in my state its only $2500 in equity for a house.

I live in Florida and your total homestead is exempt. We have no equity in the house though - we cashed out just enough for the very meager down payment and closing costs. We didn't want to shoot ourselves in the foot by cashing out our 401Ks but we needed a place to live and couldn't risk renting due to the bankruptcy. I'm actually amazed it all went off without a hitch the way it did. I did some serious planning to be able to make it work.