“Dear Steve,
Signed up with MMI (MoneyManagement Intl) about 1 year ago. Now my wife is not working full time which is about 2000 hit to our monthly income. It’s possible that in the next 6 to 12 months she’ll have a better paying job than she had – in the mean time were are about $1,000 short per month. Our MMI DMP payment is ~$1,300.00. Also, the budget I did which leaves us about $1,000 short is very tight and assumes nothing happens which would cause us to have to spend any more money (major care repair, home repair, etc…)
We have some back taxes we are paying on just under $10,000.00 to the IRS. Also, city, state and local taxes less than $1,000.00 in total.
Paying on some medical expenses, probably less than $1,000 total. Just paying enough to keep them from going to collections (about 75 per month).
We have only 1 car payment now (only have 1 car).
I like MMI they have been very helpful and have reduced our debt by about 10K in about 12 months. I have a meeting with them soon to discuss our situation…
What options do we have. Really don’t want to do bankruptcy – if we can avoid it. What about debt settlement? Is this really a viable option? I hear of so many scams where people loose there money and the debt doesn’t get settled, because the company goes under. Can you do this settlement process yourself? Help, really don’t know what to do.
Paul”
Dear Paul,
Feel free to use my online How to Get Out of Debt Calculator to check the most common options.
For me the situation comes down to this, you can’t afford your debt management plan minimum payment so we need to look at alternatives.
I know you want to avoid bankruptcy but do you really want to do that for a logical reason or an emotional one?
About 70% of bankruptcy filers qualify for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and discharge their debt in a few months. If you did that you can easily rebuild your credit, lessen the stress on your current life and finances and most importantly, put yourself in a position to save money now when you most need a financial safety net.
Let me ask you just one question, do you want to spend the next five years trying to fix the past or the next two years fixing the future?
Please post your responses and follow-up messages to me on this in the comments section below.
You are not alone. I'm here to help. There is no need to suffer in silence. We can get through this. Tomorrow can be better than today. Don't give up.
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Hi Paul,
Based on the information you provided in your question above, I assume the amount of debt you enrolled into the DMP is some where around 60k. If it has been paid down 10k your account balances now hover around 50k.
The loss of income situation you have finds you 1k short of your monthly budget. If you only have 300 dollars out of monthly cash flow to apply to a set aside fund that can be built up over time in order to fund settlements, and where I assume your need to raise 25k (half of what I estimate your current balances to be) in order to settle the accounts, it would take you roughly 7 years to settle your accounts. Not a good plan.
Your wife gaining employment and aggressively adding to the set aside funds would change the picture I paint, but you should work within the frame you are in right now. That said, here are some what ifs:
What if you were able to add 1k a month to your set aside funds? You would then be looking at roughly 2 years to complete settlements. Settlement now becomes something to at least consider.
What if you had access to some source of bulk funds that were not based on monthly cash flow? Depending on the amount, you may be better positioned to weigh settlement vs bankruptcy.
What if you qualify for chapter 7 bankruptcy, but filing would force the liquidation of certain assets that could have been sold and the money raised used to settle accounts instead – allowing you to stave off bankruptcy
Given the information you provided, speaking with a bankruptcy attorney and gathering the details of how that may benefit you and your family is the next step. If you learn something from the attorney that will give you pause in proceeding with filing, than perhaps some part of my comment will be helpful.
As far as doing the settlements on your own, yes, you can work through the settlement process on your own. If you were to hit a tough spot and needed outside assistance on one or more accounts you could then consult with some of the good performance fee based companies (that do exist) to get you over the finish line.
Best of success to you in your efforts!