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Men and Divorce - A Word About Alimony
In a shorter term marriage, say 5 or 6 years, and there are kids involved then it gets a little trickier. If requested, your soon to be ex-wife will probably be granted some sort of alimony based on your previous standard of life. It's not written in stone, but you can figure that the alimony could run for about half as long as you were married (ie. If you were married for 6 years then alimony could be ordered for 3 years). Now obviously, this is completely different than child support, which gets into a whole different area.
But if you were only married for a couple of years, and you both were employed or at least have the ability to be employed, then you have good grounds to fight the request for alimony. But don't be shocked if your wife tries to grab some kind of spousal support from you anyway, especially if she is under the full influence of her divorce attorney. The only way that alimony may be granted in this case is if you have a very large income that she has become accustomed to. In which case, I would hope that you had a pre-nuptial agreement, if not, then prepared to be punished for your lack of good judgment. But if that was to occur then a settlement would be more in your favor than regular alimony payments.
Now here's a switch... Although it is less common, you can get alimony from your wife!?! If your wife had the income or wealth that was above and beyond your own, then you have every right to request spousal support. Especially if you had become accustomed to a different lifestyle and/or she had a more stable employment history. But the problem here is that you have to be able to prove that you don't have the ability to make that kind of living for yourself. And that's not always the easiest thing to do.
One more note... Don't try to be sneaky and quit your job just prior to your divorce, and then claim that you don't have the income to pay for alimony or that your wife now makes more money than you do. Because remember it's not just about your standard of living at the time of the divorce, it's based on the entire marriage. Now if you legitimately lost your job there is a time period that you will be given to re-gain employment, but if you continue to try and play games with the court then the judge can begin the alimony at any time, and you will basically be accruing to debt to your ex-wife. Not to mention that it doesn't make you look very good in anyone's eyes!
But if you were only married for a couple of years, and you both were employed or at least have the ability to be employed, then you have good grounds to fight the request for alimony. But don't be shocked if your wife tries to grab some kind of spousal support from you anyway, especially if she is under the full influence of her divorce attorney. The only way that alimony may be granted in this case is if you have a very large income that she has become accustomed to. In which case, I would hope that you had a pre-nuptial agreement, if not, then prepared to be punished for your lack of good judgment. But if that was to occur then a settlement would be more in your favor than regular alimony payments.
Now here's a switch... Although it is less common, you can get alimony from your wife!?! If your wife had the income or wealth that was above and beyond your own, then you have every right to request spousal support. Especially if you had become accustomed to a different lifestyle and/or she had a more stable employment history. But the problem here is that you have to be able to prove that you don't have the ability to make that kind of living for yourself. And that's not always the easiest thing to do.
One more note... Don't try to be sneaky and quit your job just prior to your divorce, and then claim that you don't have the income to pay for alimony or that your wife now makes more money than you do. Because remember it's not just about your standard of living at the time of the divorce, it's based on the entire marriage. Now if you legitimately lost your job there is a time period that you will be given to re-gain employment, but if you continue to try and play games with the court then the judge can begin the alimony at any time, and you will basically be accruing to debt to your ex-wife. Not to mention that it doesn't make you look very good in anyone's eyes!
There are a lot of people out there who believe that with every divorce there comes spousal support, otherwise known as alimony. And I will be the first to admit that before researching it and going through a divorce myself, I thought the same thing. But I found out very quickly that wasn't necessarily the case. There are some situations where you can expect to pay alimony regardless of what you try to do, but there are also cases where there will be no alimony awarded or at least it will be very short lived.
First, let's consider a situation when you will have to pay some alimony pretty much 99% of the time. If you had a long-term marriage, 10+ years, with kids and a wife who was a full time mom, then let's face it you are going to have to pay some sort of alimony. And it would be fairly brutal of you to try and deny that to someone who has pretty much dedicated her life to raising your kids as you work on furthering your career.
First, let's consider a situation when you will have to pay some alimony pretty much 99% of the time. If you had a long-term marriage, 10+ years, with kids and a wife who was a full time mom, then let's face it you are going to have to pay some sort of alimony. And it would be fairly brutal of you to try and deny that to someone who has pretty much dedicated her life to raising your kids as you work on furthering your career.
