Alimony

[John2004]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Colorado

I have been married for 14 years. We both work full time. My take home pay is $7000.00 a month and hers is $1600.00. We have no kids. I have already agreed to pay all of the bills which comes out to $70,000.00. I also agreed to pay the house payment which is $1400.00. She would be debt free. I am trying to find out if I would have to pay alimony with doing all of this? If I do what a rough guess on how much that would be.

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by John2004

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Colorado

I have been married for 14 years. We both work full time. My take home pay is $7000.00 a month and hers is $1600.00. We have no kids. I have already agreed to pay all of the bills which comes out to $70,000.00. I also agreed to pay the house payment which is $1400.00. She would be debt free. I am trying to find out if I would have to pay alimony with doing all of this? If I do what a rough guess on how much that would be.

OK....lets look at this from a different perspective.

Property settlements and alimony/spousal support are separate issues. The home, the debts, and any other assets that exist are part of the property settlement.

That includes, all debts, and all assets and normally you end up with a 50/50 split. That includes, real estate, bank and brokerage accounts, 401ks and IRAs etc.

So, if you are keeping the 70k debt, and making the mortgage payments, in exchange for keeping a comparable amount of assets..cool. However, if you are thinking to keep assets in excess of what's comparable, its not going to happen.

Basically, you need to add up all the assets, subtract all the debts, and divide the balance in half. If you each "net" assets equal to half, it works.

Alimony/spousal support is a separate issue. With the length of your marriage and the disparity in your incomes, you are likely to be facing alimony for at least a few years. Alimony is based on gross income, not net, because alimony is tax deductible to you and taxable income to her. There is no set formula for alimony so no one can really predict what might happen.