lawyer meeting

[monkatom]

well we had our first meeting with a lawyer and she seemed pretty good. my wife loved her since she was really family oriented and explained she would be unaviable over Christmas etc. couple of quick observations. she said not to worry about the engagemnet ring since most people will not buy a used ring so not to worry about it. she mentioned we may lose the tax return since it is usually around 11K which we are fine with and we will most likely lose a car and time share. she did not seem overly worried/interested in other household items like furniture, dishes, etc so it appears we will have no problems keeping those. also her price was about 700 cheaper than the other lawyer we are supposed to meet she wants 1800 he wants 2500. wife thinks we should just use her since we both liked her she was upfront and honest etc any opinions on this? has anyone just met with one lawyer and pulled thr trigger? also does her confidence reagrding the ring sound right. BTW we are in San Diego

[HHM]

You are really stressing too much over the ring. The lawyer is right, the trustee is not going to care, plus, most states have exemptions for personal property that generally cover the "true" value of average jewelry.

An $11k tax refund...do yourself a favor and adjust your witholdings TOMORROW, my goodness, do you claim any deductions?

If you feel comfortable with the lawyer...you can pull the trigger, but it is hard to judge how a lawyer will actually perform with your case based on the initial meeting.

[monkatom]

wife and I are both changing exemptions today on the computer. she claims 2 and I claim 1 but since she buys so much stuff as a teacher for her students teaching in a low income school we generally get a lot of our money back. yeah hard to say how she will handle in court but she came highly recomnend from a friend so we shall see. thanks again for all the advice.

[ssdsco]

You might consider getting your 2007 refund and spending it on living expenses before you file. Maybe some/all is covered by an exemption.

[325Falcon]

$11,000 tax refund!!!!!! WOW! Why would you loan that kind of cash to the Feds!

[Keebler]

I get my refund before Decemeber 31st every year in the form of evenly spaced payments.

Wouldn't your family have been better off with an extra $900 every month instead of letting Uncle Sam hold on to it for you?

Read the W-4 form and follow the instructions. You'll find that it's no longer one allowance per person -- it's frequently more.

I claim Married and 7 allowances (or maybe 9) and they've taken out a little over $100 from my paycheck so far this year -- and I'll still get a refund.

Change your witholding so your paycheck can be as big as possible and then there's no reason wait for a refund.

[CindyLou]

claim married and 12 on your last few paychecks!
OR
If you are going to lose your refund, then why go through the trouble of itemizing and take the risk of an audit. Why not just to a straight 1040 and call it a day??????????????

[monkatom]

we changed the exemptions today and the lawyer wants to file in January since my wife does not get checks in July or august so our income appears lower. I have no problem letting teh trustee take the tax refund but I will not pay my preparer 600 bucks to do my taxes this year if that is the case.

[monkatom]

BTW we used to like getting the large refund as we would use it fopr property taxes 3400 bucks plus take a vacation and pay some cc bills but i agree it is much smarter to get extra money each month rather than give the governmnet a free loan