Time to pull the trigger

[BrewCity]

Got into see the attorney, filing jointly isn't as easy of a BK as it would have been as filing single but it's doable. So now I have a little over two weeks to come up with the money for the attorney, marriage license, find someone to marry us, oh, and get heath insurance because between the two of us we make a little two much money. Apparently having an extra $200 at the end of the month (not including payments to CC) is too much when you owe a combined $50k in unsecured debt and don't make close to that in a year. I hate the holidays as it is so I'm not looking forward to the next two weeks.

[mountanddo]

I would just tell people that you don't have anywhere to put gifts right now but you might have more room say in 9 months.

[oregonpilot]

I thought the same but i had to get in my smart little remarks...hehe
We didn't even tell anyone we were doing it....Called my daughter & son to let them know just as we were going out the door to go to the judges home.
ANd gifts aren't a given...huhhhh....LOL

[mountanddo]

Essentially we are married, just haven't made it official so this might not be the worst idea. We have been living together, paying our bills together and merging our incomes into the same bank account for at least 7 years. Everyone has been bugging us to get married for a few years now, the question would be though, how would any wedding gifts be treated in the BK?

What wedding gifts? People have a year from when you get married to give gifts.

[BrewCity]

Though I've only meet with one attorney, I've pretty much decided to go with her as she is close, nice to deal with and she quoted me at $1300 for the whole deal which includes a $250 retainer fee. Without even hiring her she told me that if I had any questions to just call or email and she would be happy to answer them.

I think were going to have a few things to talk about tonight and then I'll have to give the attorney a call tomorrow.

[ValleYum]

You'd need to be able to exempt the gifts you got BEFORE the filing date. Any gifts you receive AFTER filing shouldn't part be of your bankruptcy estate, AFAIK.

A quick trip to a free BK attorney consultation or three would give you lots of answers and also could be the first step towards your happily ever after!!

[oregonpilot]

Essentially we are married, just haven't made it official so this might not be the worst idea. We have been living together, paying our bills together and merging our incomes into the same bank account for at least 7 years. Everyone has been bugging us to get married for a few years now, the question would be though, how would any wedding gifts be treated in the BK?

We were like that too...most people thought we were married. Just never corrected them. Lots of people will judge you for your living style so kept it to ourselves. WE had and still do. have a pan that each month we put in the same amount of cash and all living expenses come out of that pan...we call it our dough pan
One of the reasons we finally did get married was to financially protect me a bit. with the house and his SS when i get to that point if he is not around. I'm 60 and he is 78
Gifts...thats a good question. Any money could help pay the atty fees....LOL Ohhh did i say that.

[BrewCity]

Essentially we are married, just haven't made it official so this might not be the worst idea. We have been living together, paying our bills together and merging our incomes into the same bank account for at least 7 years. Everyone has been bugging us to get married for a few years now, the question would be though, how would any wedding gifts be treated in the BK?

[oregonpilot]

OK VY how come my washer doesn't look ike that.

Brew....We got married last Nov. after the 341 and before discharge & closing. My atty said do it..no problems.
We had talked about getting married for yrs...we had been together nearly 10 yrs. I was scared to take that leap again. Got married in the living rm of a local judge. She was in her judges robe and her fluffy slippers. It was great.

Yrs ago when i finally fessed up to him that i was in financial trouble and trying to keep myself & my business above water using my credit cards. He separated his financial stuff from mine. He had put my name on his house the yr B4 when we talked about getting married and i said, why would we want to do that...LOL.
He took my name off his house and it was 2 yrs after that , that i filled for BK...was still trying to work things out with my finances and finally decided there was no way with the small income that i had was i going to get out from under the debt. (big medical & credit card)

[mountanddo]

You are too funny Valleyum! Actually starting off your marriage with two new fresh starts might just be the thing to do. Now if you get married JUST for that reason I might say no but if you were going to do it anyway why not start out on the right foot?

[ValleYum]

Hell, I would get hitched! If you chose Federal BK exemptions (avaiulable in WI) you can double them all and protect more property and cash with that wonderful WildCard (if not trying to protect much equity in a homestead) AND only pay 1 lawyer bill!!



Start out your marriage with a stop at the Bankruptcy Laundromat and come out 90 or so days later with your Fresh Start!!

As always, your washer and dryer's debt cleansing abilities may vary and you should check with your attorney!!

[BrewCity]

It's just been one of those things were there is never any money and we keep saying we'll do it next year. She would probably laugh if I suggested it and would say, oh so this is what it takes. First it was going to be a normal wedding, couple years later it was going to be Vegas for a long weekend, then the last couple years it's just been like lets go to the court house and get it over with.

[mountanddo]

We have been engaged for something like 8 years, I'm sure a quick hitch before filing would look bad but it's something I could ask the attorney.

Well, you could do that since her credit is worse than yours. I did a google search and there is nothing illegal about it. Not sure how your other half would feel about starting out a marriage beginning with a "quick hitch" as you put it. LOL I guess it depends on why you have waited for 8 years. But if you are planning on getting married anyway.....

[BrewCity]

We have been engaged for something like 8 years, I'm sure a quick hitch before filing would look bad but it's something I could ask the attorney.

[mountanddo]

Yeah, the law suits are starting to come in, the first one is scheduled for the 19th for a card that I stopped paying on more than a year ago. On top of that I've gotten a couple letters from other attorneys saying they represent so & so and I have 30 days to reply, blah, blah, blah. I don't have the money and just letting them garnish my wages isn't an option. After we get the money together for my filing, the other half will need to file as she is in much worse financial condition but we were able to keep up with cards for longer.

I assume you aren't married then because you aren't filing together?