Divorcing - Fair Split?
Married since college, wife employed through husbands grad school. Husband’s income with RSUs 8X wife’s annual income. House has 2mil in equity, mortgage/ property tax too high for wife to pay with income. What is a fair split for the divorce?#personalfinance #investments #divorce
Unfortunately most likely it’s going to be half and half even though you contributed 8x more.
lol is it all about income? Your partner has bigger impact in your life than your job. A lot of woman has to deal with abusive husbands. Talking about contribution as if tc decided not only blind tax but also house contribution. What a sick mentality in 2022.
TC or GTFO
Lawyers decide now.. 50/50.. Didn't have kids maybe worse sacrifice.. Had kids also sacrifice..
This is why I will not marry without a pre nup that overrides the default 50/50 bullshit laws.
lol sorry to inform you but that prenup would be easily invalidated for any assets acquired post marriage, even if someone signs it, a judge can declare it invalid fairly easily
The ease of declaring a prenup invalid depends on a variety of things. Sure a judge can always decide it’s bull but unless life situations have a drastically changed assuming both sides have legal representation when signing….
Half half, California law - anything acquired after marriage is 50/50
Husband's income was likely 0 when they got married - so literally all income, house payments etc came during marriage. So definitely 50/50 is the fair split, and can't imagine any other outcome re: alimony -- it's also fair (and expected from the courts) that the wife can maintain a similar lifestyle after divorce. Sounds like that can't happen without alimony, so that is expected too The only exceptions I can imagine are if the wife did something egregious to cause the divorce (not just cheating, perhaps did something harmful and illegal), or is unfit to handle finances. Even in that case, I would still assume a similar split but perhaps with a trust and trustee doing distributions instead of directly to her
Yikes. And people still ask me why I'm not married 😳
Whether or not can maintain a similar lifestyle after the divorce should depend on whether or not the lifestyle bar was achieved during marriage or after. IE marry rich while poor doesn’t earn you the right to stay living rich. Marrying poor and then becoming rich as a couple is a different story. It’s hard to say what you might have achieved individually without the couple when you start poor the gains are made with each other’s support. I’m getting married sometime soon make decent FANG SWE wage and fiancée is a victim advocate. That’s the path we were both on before we met. We will have a prenup because of the income disparity, but it wouldn’t feel fair (she agrees) if down the line we get divorced and because she married someone who make more money than her chosen career path she gets that even if we decided to dissolve the marriage. The courts don’t necessarily (state dependent) agree by default but creating a prenup should help smooth out.
married longer than been single, wife supported through grad school and had more assets before marriage. Husband had no desire to go through stress of buying home in the Bay Area, wife did all the work there and it is the largest asset. Reason for split is irreconcilable differences. People do change after 20plus years. Still much mutual love and respect but I guess it might get ugly. Responses have been really interesting. shows a lot of peoples personal fears and projections.
Thanks for the added details. Not speaking as an expert, sounds to me like it all would be joint property now and split evenly It's not unreasonable to go to a lawyer, not because either of you wants to fight but just because they are the most experienced at seeing all situations and know what makes the most sense
She helped put you through school. Your success is due to what she did for you (the both of you). 50/50 split, alimony. Plan that into your future with the new wife. First wife deserves it.
Ideal split would be 50/50 and go their own ways. But in reality, 8x earner is taken to cleaners and will pay alimony until s/he dies (if husband/wife decides not to work)
Statistically speaking, most alimony is temporary. Like 5 years max.
This is why I'll never marry in the west. NEVER!
Which direction will you marry in lol
SXSW