Which way is better ???

[newlife2007]

Hi Guys -

I am about ready to pull the trigger on our bk.

I have an issue, do to an injury and the loss of that income ( I am self employed ), we have fallen late ( 2 months ) on our mortgage.
We are in Massachusetts and pass the means test with flying colors ( about 10K below median ).
We are back on our feet and plan to keep the house ... Do we do a Ch 13 or borrow $$ to get current on the mortgage and still do a chapter 7 ?

If we did a Chapter 13 to spread out the late mortgage payments ... How would they calculate our payments if we are very negative every month ??

Thanks !!

[woeisme]

It would be awful hard to have a CH 13 fly if you are negative (which shows the trustee that you wouldn't be able to make your CH 13 payments). You have to have disposable income to fund the plan, if you are really negative each month, you need to do some serious budget adjustments regardless of what chapter you file, but CH 13 is definitely going to be real tough. If you can get the money for your morgage, you'd be much better off in a CH 7 (assuming you don't have a lot of non-exempt assets you are trying to protect.) But if you are still negative in your budget, then you might need to ask yourself the question of whether or not you can really afford the house and whatever other big ticket items that are making your budget go so negative. I understand that you are now back to making more money, but be realistic about what you can really afford for the long-term, because you won't be able to use the protection of the bankruptcy law again for a long time. Good luck!