401k, kids savings, ect. kind of long

[mechanix]

A little history. Me and my wife have 2 kids, She stays at home to watch the kids. We live in Detroit,MI. I make approx $50K a year. I have approx $40K in unsecured debt(cc's, loans, ect) that are currently up to date. I have a mortgage that I am up to date on. We have been keeping up barely on all our bills. We have been paying the min payments. Now a couple of our cards have bumped their intrest to 29%, which has doubled our min payment. Trying to keep up with that has put our bank account into the red. And now on top of it all the bank has charged me over $450 in fees because my check book is all screwed up. I am also hearing that a couple of my credit cards are going to be doubling their min payments, Which will then make it impossible for me to keep up.

Do I sound like a good chapter 7 candidate?


Also when filing ch7,
-can they go after my 401k? I have around $25K in my 401k.

-How about kids savings accounts? I have 2 kids and we have approx $2k between 2 accounts that have both me and my kids names on them.

-My wife bought some plane tickets to Disney earlier this year. We had planned on going in the end of November this year. Will we be made to sell these tickets?

-$1000 of our debts is for a loan that we used for an investment that won't be seeing the rewards until around Nov. Will this be seen? And would we be able to collect the profits from the investment?

-Would it be a good idea to try to refinance my house for a better Interest rate before my credit goes to to hell?

-how about vehicles? I have a 86 Jeep CJ, a 76 Kawasaki motorcycle, and a 94 suburban. They are all paid off, and none of them are really that nice. Will they be sold off?? The motorcycle and Jeep are work transportation. The suburban is the family vehicle.

Thank you in advance,
Fred

P.S. Is there anyone in the Detroit northern suburb area that can reccommend a good lawyer, that you've had good luck with??

[HRx]

You're debt to income ratio appears to be ideal for Chp7. Your 401k can be exempt. Consider converting your children's saving account into something like along the lines of a Coverdell Education Savings.

How much money do you have left each month after paying all your fixed monthly expenses, and credit related debts?

Your plane tickets to should be fine............how long ago did you'll purchase them? How much extra money will refi'ing your mortage put in your pockets each month? Standby on doing this do determine whether or not doing so will work against your Chp7 plans.

Just make an appointment with a few BK attorney's in your area, and tell them your situation, and listen to what they have to say. Then simply pick the attorney that you feel most comfortable with. Just be sure to select an attorney that handles a few BK per month, vs one that only does a handful each year. Attorney's that process more BK's will be more knowledeable and more willing to fix mistakes and such, because it's an everyday habit for them.

Good Luck!