A little background. Divorced a little more than a year with one dependent child and thought I had a good plan to pay down my debt. The problem was that I was bringing in just enough to cover my credit card payments and some of my living expenses. I had to continue to put things like groceries and gas on my credit cards just to make it from pay check to pay check. That, of course, made it pretty much impossible to pay down the debt. I own my car outright, I live in a modest home (buying), and I do not live beyond my means. I did not want to file, but a friend finally convinced me that I really needed to. Up until this point, the only hit on my credit score was high credit utilization - easily at or above 90%. I had no late payments and I was not naive enough to be applying for any additional credit given my financial situation. I knew that I was not going to be able to keep it up much longer, and definitely could not once the child support payments stop. To further complicate things, I am a fed employee that was furloughed and went more than a month without pay. I am also currently working a second part-time job, bringing in about an additional $500 a month. Every little bit helps. At the advice of my attorney, I stopped paying on my credit cards in December - why keep paying when we are filing "soon" right? Well, then the shutdown happened and I had to delay paying the remainder of the fees to the attorney until after I got all of my back pay. They wouldn't file until they got their full payment. Well, flash forward and I am now 90 days late on everything except for the mortgage and am getting endless phone calls - which I hate. And I know that I could have come out of this with minimal damage due to my previously good payment history, paving the way to a quicker recovery. I am also absolutely sick about burning NFCU. I love NFCU and have been banking with them for more than 20 years. This, in itself, was nearly enough for me to try and continue to stick it out. Unfortunately, I owe them way too much (NFCU Rewards with a very generous limit - maxed out) to even think about trying to pay them before filing - which I know would be frowned upon anyway. Oh, and did I mention the PLUS loans I will have to start paying on next year? My daughter is in her final year of school, so that cloud is hanging over my head as well. I expect that the ex will share this expense as he has been good about things like this, but the loans are in my name only and it wasn't in the divorce agreement.
Here's my dilemma. I've been working with the attorney for a few months now. Initially was told that I should qualify for Ch 7 due to my income. After further review, it turns out that I make too much money for Ch 7, but only because I am working the second job. The child support I receive (which will end when my son graduates from high school in June) also helps push me over that threshold. My options now are as follows:
1.) Proceed with Ch 13. Waiting to hear back on what the payments would look like and how long I would have to pay. I think that with my income and the amount of debt that it will be manageable, though not ideal. Not thrilled with many aspects of this option, but am considering it just to get things moving. The stress is killing me.
2.) Quit the part time job, which I had not intended to do. Also waiting to hear if there will be some kind of waiting period after quittting the job because I don't want to delay any longer than I already have. It's only $500 a month, but I had planned to stay there at least another year to help me get ahead after the bankruptcy.
3.) Wait until I am no longer receiving child support in June/July. Not really considering this option as that is way too long to wait, but thought I should throw it into the mix anyway.
I have already waited much longer than I had intended and really don't want to wait any longer than necessary.
Anyway, looking for words of wisdom.
