doomed Posted February 4, 2009 Posted February 4, 2009 I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place on this. I am separated and maintaining my own apartment and I’m also trying to maintain the family palace during this separation. My hopes of reconcilliation are diminishing and I’m trying to come up with a divorce and bankruptcy plan. The BK would be happening even if my marriage was bliss, so I’ve already gotten used to that idea. I would have filed chapter 7 (no brainer) but with the separation, I no longer have 9 people living in my household, I have only me, and that really affects the BK eligibility calculations. It’s unlikely that child support and any maintenance would be enough to let me do a 7, but I’m investigating that anyway while preparing myself for a chapter 13 instead. I’m trying to plan the practicalities now while I feel emotionally able to do so. So far I have been able to only muster up $250 to a BK attorney, which is enough to let me give his name out and stop the phone calls. Another $2000 and he’s good to start a BK, although he wants another $2000 if we end up having to do a 13 because of all the extra work he’d have to do (a 7 means he’s in court a couple of times and done, a 13 means he’s involved for years). That’s $4000 so far. I also need about $2500 to get started on a divorce. $6500 !! I’ve already had to skip paying January’s mortgage to get the out of the house (my only option). Now if I need $6500, that means I’d have to skip 3 more months of 1st and 2nd mortgage payments. I also have other goals. First and foremost is keeping the STBX and children in that house until: 1) I start getting garnished for enough money that the STBX can relocate in town to something affordable and not have to work. CS alone for me would be about $3000; and/or 2) until I can get her a QDRO for $25k (which is 100%) so she can get the best start I can give her. I think it’s fairly safe that in this economy, they could be in that house rent free easily until school is over. With BK papers in hand the attorney can put an immediate stop to any foreclosure proceedings. There’s always that hope that we’ll work through this crap and be back together, in which case I can easily afford to use chapter 13 to catch the mortgage arrearages up over 3-5 years while keeping current on the not-yet-in-arrears payments. I suppose I could try to divorce without an attorney and cost gets reduced to $177 filing fees, but that seems even dumber than skipping the month of mortgage payments that a divorce retainer would cost. Some plan huh ? I can’t think of anything better though. doomed
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