I'm sorry if I miss replying to anyone; please don't take it personally. I've been busy with a lot of stuff, some of which I'll detail below. Also, the model list is updated, and I found a bunch of the e-bods.
Have you tried looking for work in the Raleigh/Apex/Cary area? I think their rate of job loss has been less than the rest of the state and it's not as far as Charlotte.
I have, almost exclusively; most of the "local" jobs I friend are in Raleigh, Durham, Cary or RTP. It would be about a four hour commute for me, but that's the outside of what I think I can realistically do. With the job market being what it is, however, the few bites I've had have told e that they wouldn't hire me unless I lived in or near Raleigh. At this point I'm willing to do that in theory, but the cost of living would rise dramatically. Mortgage or rent alone would just about double. so, just to break even, i.e. be able to pay my bills, I'd need to command an extra $15-20k/year.
A little local media coverage might help to nudge them in the right direction. There is no shortage of people looking to lynch some banks and bankers. Having a newspaper or TV reporter asking questions might motivate them if you know what I mean.
This is a great idea.
Sorry to hear about your troubles.Dont forget you got that 360 block here in my husbands garage you can always sell that if you need to .Let me know if you decide to sell and need pics then you can ebay it or whichever and have them pick it up here in PA and send you the money or pay cash and we can send you a money order or whichever.
At this point I'm going to say put it up for sale. I'm unlikely to be able to do anything with it for the next several years.
New stuff:
I think I was misleading when I said that the tax bill was cut in half. The tax bill is taken care of in that I did lower it, and what's remaining will be addressed in payments. Overall, though, it's still huge.
Several friends urged me to talk to some professionals. All in all, it was pretty much worthless. I talked to a debt counselor, but they're pretty much set up to help people who don't know how to put together a budget. All they kept talking about was giving them all my money and they'd make sure the bills were p[aid and given me a stiped to live on. I kept trying to explain that I have no income, but this didn't faze them at all.
I also talked to a career counselor. They're set up to help people figure out what their dream job is, but not really to help people shift into a different career while minimizing income loss. Also useless.
A friend suggested that I go back and get another degree. Since the degrees I have are not worth the paper they're printed on, and I'm still paying for the privilige of having worked my butt of to get them, I don't think so.
Finally, I talked to a second bankruptcy attorney. Turns out that what the first guy told me was factually true (e.g., can't get rid of student loans unless I die), but this guy was at least a lot more helpful with other information along the lines of strategy, such as don't declare bankruptcy unless it's part of a recovery plan and not a reaction to problems.
I have a spare bedroom, and I'm going to look into taking in a boarder. I feel that I have to be very careful with this, which is why I've never done it until now. A friend did the same thing about 12 years ago and ended up having the boarder give her key to her boyfriend so he could come in with a group and steal just about everything valuable that wasn't nailed down.