Should I trust lawyer... does this make sense?

[trader19]

My wife is a teacher that has a contract for about $56,000. I am a newly hired teacher that has a contract for $49,000. We also have LLC net income of about $6,000 a year. Doing the math, that is about $111,000 a year. The median income in NJ is $101,000, so we are over. However, he said that once we deduct our mortgage $3,500 a month + child care costs we will be well under. We have not paid our mortgage in a year, are currently in foreclosure, but hoping to keep the house via mediation. But he thinks he can deduct it anyway since it is our intention to work out the mortgage.

Does his math work?

What can be deducted off the gross income to get successfully get under the means test?

Thanks!

[159515951]

As I understand it, you can deduct the amount of mortgage payments that WILL be contractually made, not those that you've already made (or not made). Same goes with child care.

[justbroke]

Trust your attorney (period). They do this every day and they understand what is acceptable in YOUR specific District. They may even know most of the Panel Trustees in the District as well as the United States Trustee (UST). There are many Chapter 7 filers that make well over six figures and receive Chapter 7 discharges. What makes it work for these debtors, is the mortgage payment and other expenses! Don't worry about being $10K over, as that's only 10%. Worry about what your allowed expenses are going to be. The larger the family, the more likely you have compensating expenses.

If you want to know what is allowed, just try one of the Means Test calculators, such as the one from Legal Consumer. You can put in the numbers, as prompted, and see what comes out the other end. Of course, this is preliminary. Your attorney will work with your DETAILED financial information and make a determination. You should trust your attorney, especially an attorney that tells a high-income over-the-median debtor that they CAN receive a Chapter 7 discharge! (Trust me on that!)

[BilboBaggins]

Yes. Same thing happened to me. Don't LEAVE THE HOUSE or you can't.