Addendum

[mistoffolees]

Wow, that was a huge number of replies. Thank you.

Background:
I did agree to contribute to college fund when my salary was 40% higher than now. However, this is no longer a realistic expense due to my reduced salary.

Her salary also decreased from $125K to $60K due to her part time work.
She admitted in court that she receives funds for living expenses from current husband to afford her expenses (which includes private school for our children).

When I received my reduction in child support from Judge, I did request to have her salary imputed, but he seemed reluctant to do that. I still do not agree with this decision.

My Question - would a Judge require me to abide by the addendum even though I have changed circumstances in my salary? Wouldn't the Judge clearly see that she can only afford this contribution because of the funds she receives from her husband?

Also, when I file for a change, is this considered child support modification, or a change to the divorce agreement?

Thank you again for all of your input and responses.

Courts do not like to impute income. They will do so when a person is not working at all, but may only impute minimum wage. She's already making $60 K, so it's unlikely that the court would impute a higher amount- as you've found.

You really need to get it out of your head that her new husband is providing income. It's really irrelevant and has nothing to do with the case. The fact is that she's abiding by a court order and you are not. Period.

I've already given you the answer. It is a court order. You have to follow it or you could be found in contempt of court. You can ask the judge to change it, but I already explained the issues there. But even if the judge changes it, you need to bring your payments current.

The fact that your income has dropped doesn't get you out of a court order any more than it gets you out of paying your mortgage. At the time the agreement was written, you could have added words to the effect that payments would stop if your income dropped by more than a certain amount, but you didn't do that, so you have a fixed payment.

No one can answer whether it is child support or something else because we don't have the full agreement. It may or may not be modifiable and it may or may not be to your advantage to ask for a modification. Take it to an attorney and ask them what it means. Meanwhile, you need to start following the court order.

 

[koshidog]

Thank You

Thank you for you reply. I do understand I am in contempt since I am behind on the college fund contribution. I will do my very best to keep it current until I can get a hearing.

What I don't understand is if I only worked part time and received only $60K compared to my potential of $125K, would the courts still have a hard time imputing a salary to me?

Why is it considered ok for her to work p/t? I thought it was the responsibility of both parents to support their children? I worked very long hours to put her through medical school and now she chooses not to work. I could care less about her working, but why should her salary not reflect her income when we were married?

 

[Bali Hai]

Courts do not like to impute income. They will do so when a person is not working at all, but may only impute minimum wage. She's already making $60 K, so it's unlikely that the court would impute a higher amount- as you've found.

You really need to get it out of your head that her new husband is providing income. It's really irrelevant and has nothing to do with the case. The fact is that she's abiding by a court order and you are not. Period.

I've already given you the answer. It is a court order. You have to follow it or you could be found in contempt of court. You can ask the judge to change it, but I already explained the issues there. But even if the judge changes it, you need to bring your payments current.

The fact that your income has dropped doesn't get you out of a court order any more than it gets you out of paying your mortgage. At the time the agreement was written, you could have added words to the effect that payments would stop if your income dropped by more than a certain amount, but you didn't do that, so you have a fixed payment.
No one can answer whether it is child support or something else because we don't have the full agreement. It may or may not be modifiable and it may or may not be to your advantage to ask for a modification. Take it to an attorney and ask them what it means. Meanwhile, you need to start following the court order.

I'm sure that OP thought that a clause such as this in the agreement wouldn't be necessary because a court or an ex with any common sense at all would have to know that you can't get blood from a stone and they would condsider you present circumstances when enforcing the order. WRONG!!

After all, if you don't pay your mortgage that you agreed to pay, you lose your house.

If you don't pay the absurd ex-wife's demands that you agreed you pay, you go to jail.

Divorce 101:

Split assets and debt 50:50 and don't agree to ANYTHING outside of that!!

 

[Bali Hai]

Thank you for you reply. I do understand I am in contempt since I am behind on the college fund contribution. I will do my very best to keep it current until I can get a hearing.

What I don't understand is if I only worked part time and received only $60K compared to my potential of $125K, would the courts still have a hard time imputing a salary to me?

Why is it considered ok for her to work p/t? I thought it was the responsibility of both parents to support their children? I worked very long hours to put her through medical school and now she chooses not to work. I could care less about her working, but why should her salary not reflect her income when we were married?

Your state has guidelines for child support calculations.

You were the "nice guy" and went beyond the guidelines and it has come back to bite you.

You should have NEVER agreed to the ridiculous college fund payment in the first place.

 

[Zigner]

Your state has guidelines for child support calculations.

You were the "nice guy" and went beyond the guidelines and it has come back to bite you.

You should have NEVER agreed to the ridiculous college fund payment in the first place.

Another idiotic response. The husband and wife BOTH agreed to this. Wife is holding up her end of the agreement.

 

[Bali Hai]

Another idiotic response. The husband and wife BOTH agreed to this. Wife is holding up her end of the agreement.

The point is that due to normal changes in life, the husband now cannot hold up his end of the agreement that he should have never agreed to in the first place.

Had the husband refused to enter into an agreement, there would be no agreement. Future reference for anyone reading this.

You are simply dealing with what the current situation is. I am offering a suggestion to PREVENT future occurances like this from happening to any would be victims out there.

With no agreement, husband doesn't legally have to contribute to any of the ridiculous college fund and wife can double, triple or quadruple her contribution to her stupid college fund notion.

 

[mistoffolees]

Thank you for you reply. I do understand I am in contempt since I am behind on the college fund contribution. I will do my very best to keep it current until I can get a hearing.

What I don't understand is if I only worked part time and received only $60K compared to my potential of $125K, would the courts still have a hard time imputing a salary to me?

Why is it considered ok for her to work p/t? I thought it was the responsibility of both parents to support their children? I worked very long hours to put her through medical school and now she chooses not to work. I could care less about her working, but why should her salary not reflect her income when we were married?

The point is that it's none of your dam**d business whether she works full time, part time, or not at all. She is meeting her obligations under the divorce decree. The court couldn't care less whether she won the lottery, inherited a bundle, or works at McDonalds to pay the bills. SHE IS NOT VIOLATING THE AGREEMENT-you are.

It COULD be an issue in child support, but you already got your support payments reduced, so even that is questionable. And, frankly, the court doesn't really have much incentive to impute a greater level of income when the kids' needs are already being met and you were already given a reduced support payment.