| Melody |
| (Carpal \'Tunnel) |
| 01/30/05 12:41 AM |
In California, child support is based on income
|
differences as well as parenting time split. In my case, when we first divorced, on paper, we had a 51/49% split (my favor) because Dissomaster, the program used by most counties, does not allow for 50/50. So...into the program go the incomes and allowable deductions and the timeshare (51/49). Even with the "50/50" split, CS is still awarded because of the disparity of incomes. Unless you and your ex have virtually equal incomes, if yours is higher, you WILL be paying CS. Go to this website: www.alllaw.com/calculators/childsupport and choose the California calculator. It's quite close to accurate to what the Dissomaster figure would be.
CA is a community property state, so any assets acquired during the marriage should be divided equally. This can have a variety of options, though. You need to sit down and itemize everything you have and draft a proposal of how to divide it. Your STBX may agree with some or all of it, or there may be some areas where you will need to negotiate. If it's important to you to have the big screen TV, then you'll need to give in a little bit on something she covets as much. The idea is for you to both walk away with an equal share of the assets and for you both to be satisfied with what you walked away with. Don't use purchase price when determining current value. You need to use a realistic present market value, in other words, what you could sell it for (and don't be ridiculous in doing that - people do NOT pay top dollar for used stuff...and you can't count on EBay...I mean garage sale or classified ads). If you have some highly valuable items...such as antiques, collectibles, you may need to have them formally valuated. Jewelry likely belongs solely to your ex because these would have been considered gifts.
And yes, spousal support could still be ordered, if her income is quite lower than yours. Mine was a 17 year marriage with 2 remaining minor children (by the time we filed, the oldest turned 18). Ex's income was five times greater than mine. I receive both child support and spousal support and on top of this ex must reimburse me 50% of all costs for the children's private education and unreimbursed medical expenses. This was when we had 50/50. We now have 90/10...I have sole legal and physical custody.