Ch 7, No 13, No 7?

When we got married, my hubby was a top software salesman in a company that was really going somewhere.  They had some of the best products in the industry and he is good at what he does.  He was pulling in more than enough money for us both to live off of, but I was also working retail, and later as a bank teller, so that we'd have some extra.  As his earnings got better, we eventually decided that I could now afford to do the housewife thing.  We built a beautiful house in a great neighborhood.  Nothing flashy mind you, and still well within our means.

Then the head of his company was indicted for fraud.  Seems there was something fishy about the company stock.  I still don't understand the ins and outs of it, but the company began to lose strength.  The CEO decided to cut back on the R&D budget first.  In the world of software, you have to have the newest thing or you're dead in the water, but that didn't seem to matter much to this idiot.  Later we found out why.

He was just planning to sell off the company anyway.  It was bought a couple of years ago by a big hardware company.  The hardware division was thrilled, but the software guys were still trying to sell a product that was way behind the industry standards.  Still no R&D.  Commission checks were late or not paid at all.  They messed around with his quotas until he just couldn't cut it.  The guy who had been given trophies for most sales several years running now couldn't even meet a simple quota.  They decided that if he's not meeting his quota, he gets NO commission, not even a little on what he did manage to sell.  One quarter the ENTIRE DIVISION got no commission.  I still don't know how that's legal.  I took a job here or there to help out, but since we now live out in the country, mostly I wound up making enough to pay for the gas to get to my job.  Gave up on that.  We could barely make the mortgage payment and utilities, much less pay any of the credit cards that had been piling up as the company tanked, so we filed bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, hubby was looking for something else.  He was working with several recruiters, but the economy being what it is, it's pretty hard to find much.  Last summer he finally found something.  It looked incredibly promising, and he'd be working for a guy who has long been respected and admired within his industry.  It would be a slight pay cut in base salary, but they had a good, strong product and we all knew he could sell it, so he would wind up making quite a bit more in the end.

Two weeks later his boss, this great upstanding guy, was fired.  Seems he wasn't willing to dirty his reputation by repeating the lies handed down by his supervisors.  To say this made us a bit nervous would be an understatement.

After having worked for the new company for only two months, hubby was laid off.  "You're a great worker, sorry to have to do this, not your fault, blah, blah, blah."  "Oh and since you've only been here a couple of months, you don't get a severance."

Now, back when we filed bankruptcy, we were told we could get a chapter seven.  We'd be able to keep the house, but he'd have to cash out his 401(k) to pay lawyers fees and such.  Ok, can do.  Went through the entire process, got to the last stage and were told we didn't qualify for Ch 7 anymore.  I don't really understand why -- our income had gone down, not up.  At any rate, we were just over the magical number that moves you into Ch 13 territory.  Fine, no problem.  We can do a 13 then.  We've been back and forth with the trustee so many times now, it's completely insane!  She wants us to pay like $500 a month or something toward the settlement.  If we could do that, we wouldn't be in this position in the first place!  Our lawyer has it set at $100, but the trustee keeps trying to bump it up.  We were set to confirm the 13 (again, since the last several attempts have wound up with a "get me this paperwork and we'll try again in two months" response) this month.  Now we have $0 income, $0 savings, and we're finally eligible for the ch7 again.  So I guess we're starting over on the filing.  I still don't know what will happen to the $100 a month that we've been paying in all this time.  I guess it will cover the rest of the lawyers fees or something. 

At any rate, most companies seem to have a hiring freeze right now.  Hubby's been on several interviews, but nothing seems too promising.  There are too many guys vying for too many jobs, and the fact that he's missed his quotas a few times counts as a strike against him.  Doesn't matter that it wasn't his fault or that a couple of times they changed the quota mid-quarter so that he had to scramble to try to reach it.  They don't want to hear about that. 

So now we're praying that we'll be able to make it until he finds something else.  I'm looking for a job too, but I don't know what I might be able to get that will pay enough to be worth driving to.  Everything here is at least a half hour away, and in that range it's pretty much just minimum wage.  The good jobs are at least an hour.  We just got word that it could take up to six weeks (!) for unemployment payments to kick in.  What on earth are we supposed to do for groceries, gas and utilities in a month and a half?!? 

I will be so happy when this is finally finished.  I just want to put it behind me and start over.  We're still fairly young, we should be able to rebuild our savings and live a normal life at some point.  I hope.