Calling Divorced Men

is it going to be a messy divorce? my ex and i work everything out ourselves. i don't get monies from him and he doesn't get monies from me.

Re: Calling Divorced Men


First of all, let me preface this with a lot of big warnings. What you MIGHT end up paying and what you WILL end up paying can be almost anything. So for my response, I'll give a "typical" situation.

Most states have established guidelines for child support so you need to do some research for your state and take a look at what the numbers are. That should give you a BALLPARK idea. If your current spouse also works then they are usually expected to contribute to child support too and the court usually splits the support payments based on each parents income.

Usually it works something like this: Let's say your income is $60K/year and her income is $40K/year. Also that the state says that 2 kids will need $1000/month in support. Since you make 60% of the total income you would be expected to pay 60% of the total child support so you'd be at $600/month in child support and she'd contribute the other 40%.

You might also be required to provide health/dental insurance or towards tuition if they are attending a private school, etc..



Alimony doesn't happen as often any more. Nowadays it's usually when one spouse can't work for some reason or it's for a short term to allow then time to find a job. Regardless, alimony levels are seldom set at levels that would prevent you from living on your own. It happens on rare occassions but usually the guy does something stupid to bring it on themselves or the financial situtaion between the two people is extremely lop-sided (i.e. she's poor and you are a millionare. ).



No. "No fault" means that there doesn't need to be a reason for the divorce other than that one of you wants one. The "50/50" setup is based on "Community Property" (your state may or may not be a "community property" state). Community property is any property (assets) that were aquired during the marrige. Anything you had before the marriage remains yours, anything she had before remains hers. What you aquired together gets split 50/50. I'm not sure how debts are handled.



You'll need one anyway. Most will give a free initial consult so go see a few now. You can get a lot of your questions answered professionally and it'll also give you an idea of which one you'll want to represent you when the filings begin.

Messy? Well, I really haven't made up my mind as my wife still thinks we can work it out. I would like to avoid divorce at all costs but I also have to be honest with myself - I don't think we will make this work. Both my wife and I love our kids to death and they have always been our top priority in the extreme. This leads me to believe that we will work together for the kids sake.

Having said that, my wife hasn't worked in a few years and I thought that might be a factor.

I am hoping that we could agree on a child support amount, split all assets and debts 50/50 and move on. I would give her primary custody of our two kids (14 and 11). Wishful thinking?

To answer one small part of the question, garnishment for child support cannot exceed 50% of disposable income, which is what is left after mandatory deductions for taxes, and sometimes, union dues. Exception - certain states like California and Colorado permit 60% garnishment, but only in the case of an assessment for arrears.

Now, what can be garnished has nothing to do with what the children can be awarded.

get a lawyer
You ought to hire a family law attorney. If you refuse to hire an attorney, you ought to spend mega hours on the internet researching the laws (and the application of the laws) in the state where you reside.