@Math_Rocks wrote:Thanks for sharing your story, Whirled. Again I'm sorry that you are facing this but it is good to know that we are not alone in this. To answer your question, we paid $500 to retain our attorney and didn't pay anything additional to do the credit counseling; the cost for that was part of the $500. The rest of the cost of the BK will be rolled into the payment we make to the trustee. We still don't know what those payments will be but I'm afraid that we wouldn't understand that number anyways out of context of seeing the entire budget that they set up for us. I know I just need to be patient for Monday and then I will understand the whole picture.
I have a lot of student loan debt as well, over $75000. What do you teach? You can probably see by my handle what I teach.
Sounds like Monday is a big day for both of us. Glad that you are aat peace about it. I am too for the most part. I am sad that it came to this but I trulyy believe that our lives will be better as a result.
Uhh... Math. LOL -- 9th grade Algebra and an 8th grade math remediation class. I started out in math, got switched to Social Studies, and after 10 years I'm back in math. And yes, my SL debt is disgusting. It's all undergrad and I've managed to get 18 grad hours w/o taking out loans, but I need to get to 30 hours to bump up my pay grade (those increases still exist, thank goodness). I have no idea how I'll pay for those 12 hours, but I will... I have to, as it's part of my repayment plan to expect a higher income in two years.
I think I paid 80 for the consulation, then another 500 or so directly to the atty, the rest gets rolled in. On Monday I will pay 281 in filing fees. I knew from the get-go he's not the cheapest, but was told by many that he was the best.
Cheers and enjoy the weekend!
I also picked an atty near my work, which is in another county, so we do have to travel a bit to appear in court together.
That's crazy, Whirled, that we both teach Math! Although I think you are a saint for teaching 8th and 9th grades. I can't handle them younger than college-aged and I still think they have too many hormones, LOL! 
Well, we signed all our paperwork on Monday. There were a couple things that needed to be changed but we should be filed by the end of the week. I feel at peace about it but I know we haven't hit that first hurdle yet, when our names get published in the paper. I dread that but I know we are making the best decision that we can and if someone doesn't understand, well, they are not in our shoes.
I was very pleased with the budget that they are submitting to the trustee and I hope that the trustee doesn't change it much. I think it is one that we can live with for 5 years, especially as the total payment is about 1/3 of what we are paying on debt now.
I was also surprised about our FICO score. The law firm pulls credit with score as part of the process. DH's score was 722 and the simulation shows that it should drop to about 659 when we file. (We'll get a copy of the report after we file; I didn't see my own in there.) I'm surprised that they don't expect it to drop more. Obviously, they could be wrong. I guess it helps that we are not more than 30 days late on anything as of filing. And, truthfully, our score doesn't really matter right now as we are not going to be getting any loans/credit anytime soon.
Where do you live that they publish BK filings in the newspaper? At least you don't have to worry about anybody seeing it because no one reads the newspaper anymore Don't worry about other people, continue to focus on your own household and you will make it through this. Good luck
Starting Score: TU 477 EQ 533 BK 1/27/2012I've never had an experience with the work thing... but let me tell you this...
Anyone YOU know that calls you after they read your name in the paper and offers no support at all, definitely needs to be eliminated from your circle of friends.
Besides, why is that anyone's business in the first place? I get that it goes into the paper, but I wouldn't be calling someone to find out why. That's just ridiculous.
So use this as a positive, you might get to know who your real friends are with this situation.
It's not the same situation, but 5 years ago I had a REAL personal situation happen, and even though it wasn't in the papers and it wasn't financial, a lot of people did find out. I was actually surprised by the wave of support I was given and the similarity of situations that a lot of people went through when compared to mine. I'm still grateful for that show of empathy and anyone who didn't understand the position I was in and took it upon themselves to criticize me was further eliminated from my life. There is a place and time for questions and calling someone up just because they can't understand a financial situation, is definitely not an appropriate course of action.
That's why I keep saying: Chin up
I guess living in Houston they would have to have a BK section in the paper. I know that it is public information and whoever wanted the info could see it. We get offers in the mail for BK car loans ever since we filed. That is just the capitalistic country we live in. You were having trouble with debt so why not get you more debt with a much higher interest rate. I throw all of that junk in the trash and I am open to anyone who I think needs to know. We made this situation for ourselves and we are going to deal with it. We have 3 children that do not know and will probably never know. They are healthy and we are able to provide for them with cash now. I think that is way more important than someone not understanding why we filed for BK.
Just a quick update: our case was (finally) filed on April 30th. We left the credit card with DH's employer out of the BK for now; we will probably pay the $50 to add it later. So, for now, we need to figure out how to keep making those payments and what to do about student loans. I called Sallie Mae and told them we are in BK. They said my federal loans could be put in forbearance but I need to keep making minimum payments on the private loan. Does this sound right? My Nelnet loans will come off forbearance in August and then I'll need to figure out what to do about them.
We haven't been getting the paper and no one has said anything so we don't know if they have published our names in the paper yet. Probably a good thing.
I'm actually looking forward to making our first payment to the trustee although we are not going to make our budget this first month. DH got into a wreck and we had to come up with $500 for the deductible on our insurance. Really hoping that our insurance premiums don't go up. But $500 is about what we need to set aside for non-monthly expenses so I am just grateful we were able to swing it. We'll start putting money aside for non-monthly expenses next month. Also really hoping that the trustee agrees to the proposed payments of $557.
We got notice of our creditor's meeting, which will be June 7th. The only problem with this is that I am doing Summer teaching and we go through a week's worth of material each day so I really cannot cancel class. I'm going to try to find someone to sub for me. We both have to be there, right? DH can't go without me?
Well, that is where we are at now in the process. I'll continue to keep my FICO friends updated.