Fair amount of alimony in Massachusetts

[bertoe]

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

I am getting divorced, neither myself or my spouse had any legal advice. We filed the paperwork and settlement agreement ourselves and had a walk-in court date. The judge granted the divorce. This was 2 weeks ago.

We were married for 6 years and she has been a stay at home mom for the whole time. She has a B.S. in Business Administration, but hasn't worked since college. We worked out joint custody where she will have the 2 children during the school year and I will get them during summer and alternating holidays.

I make ~$7700/mo (gross). My child support payments are $494/wk (which is $1976 with months w/4 payments and $2470 for months w/5 payments) I agreed to an additional $1287/mo in alimony for 3 years. I will be paying $3263 - $3757 a month in both child support and alimony. That leaves me with as little 51% of my gross monthly income to live off of. Because I will be getting the children during the summers, I still have to maintain a residence to support 2 children. With only 50% of my gross this may be hard to do.

Am I paying too much in alimony? Should I go back and contest the settlement agreement and ask for a modification? What is a fair amount of alimony on top of child support (if any) for my ex to get back on her feet?

 

[LdiJ]

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

I am getting divorced, neither myself or my spouse had any legal advice. We filed the paperwork and settlement agreement ourselves and had a walk-in court date. The judge granted the divorce. This was 2 weeks ago.

We were married for 6 years and she has been a stay at home mom for the whole time. She has a B.S. in Business Administration, but hasn't worked since college. We worked out joint custody where she will have the 2 children during the school year and I will get them during summer and alternating holidays.

I make ~$7700/mo (gross). My child support payments are $494/wk (which is $1976 with months w/4 payments and $2470 for months w/5 payments) I agreed to an additional $1287/mo in alimony for 3 years. I will be paying $3263 - $3757 a month in both child support and alimony. That leaves me with as little 51% of my gross monthly income to live off of. Because I will be getting the children during the summers, I still have to maintain a residence to support 2 children. With only 50% of my gross this may be hard to do.

Am I paying too much in alimony? Should I go back and contest the settlement agreement and ask for a modification? What is a fair amount of alimony on top of child support (if any) for my ex to get back on her feet?

It is far too late to contest anything. You submitted an AGREEMENT to the courts. You could have chosen not to agree and to allow the judge to decide child support and alimony, but you did not.

 

[Bali Hai]

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

I am getting divorced, neither myself or my spouse had any legal advice. We filed the paperwork and settlement agreement ourselves and had a walk-in court date. The judge granted the divorce. This was 2 weeks ago.

We were married for 6 years and she has been a stay at home mom for the whole time. She has a B.S. in Business Administration, but hasn't worked since college. We worked out joint custody where she will have the 2 children during the school year and I will get them during summer and alternating holidays.

I make ~$7700/mo (gross). My child support payments are $494/wk (which is $1976 with months w/4 payments and $2470 for months w/5 payments) I agreed to an additional $1287/mo in alimony for 3 years. I will be paying $3263 - $3757 a month in both child support and alimony. That leaves me with as little 51% of my gross monthly income to live off of. Because I will be getting the children during the summers, I still have to maintain a residence to support 2 children. With only 50% of my gross this may be hard to do.

Am I paying too much in alimony? Should I go back and contest the settlement agreement and ask for a modification? What is a fair amount of alimony on top of child support (if any) for my ex to get back on her feet?

The next time you decide to jump off a cliff, ask if you should jump BEFORE you do!!

The "fair amount of alimony" in your case is what you thought it was when you LEGALLY AGREED to pay it.

My advice:

A "good deal" when buying a car is what YOU think it is.

 

[Ronin]

Beyond the alimony, it appears you also agreed to pay more child support than you would normally be required to for your gross income

But as already noted, since this was all by an agreement you willingly entered into, there is no turning back, and you now are on the hook for the child support and alimony

Three years is not really that long

Keeping this in perspective, if you both had attorneys and fought this out in court you might have paid one year of alimony rather than three. But a good chunk of the potentially ~25K you might have saved would have gone into both your attorneys pockets.

Although your ex currently has half your gross income, keep in mind she has to support a family of three most of the year, and her net disposable income (and time) will be less than yours. Given the market these days, a slightly dated BS degree in business with no work experience is not worth a heck of a lot. At best this will require starting somewhere at the bottom of the pay scale, with a long hard road to a respectable income.

Bottom line is you agreed to these terms, and you are now bound by them.

 

[Isis1]

The next time you decide to jump off a cliff, ask if you should jump BEFORE you do!!

The "fair amount of alimony" in your case is what you thought it was when you LEGALLY AGREED to pay it.

My advice:

A "good deal" when buying a car is what YOU think it is.

i predict this OP to be a future Bali.

wow. OP. wow!

 

[Bali Hai]

i predict this OP to be a future Bali.

wow. OP. wow!

Not likely.

This OP gave his ex-wife the knife that castrated him.

Bali fought tooth and nail and the court cut his balls off.

 

[Tayla]

OT:

Bali, I think you are about to gain a student with this poster.

 

[Ronin]

OT: Bali, I think you are about to gain a student with this poster.

Nahh...

This poster waited until AFTER their mutually agreed upon pro se divorce settlement was final to do the math, and is now starting to realize he got screwed??

Some things you just can't teach

 

[keyster67]

you should have went to the MASS child support guidelines website that has the "rough estimate" as to how much you would pay. In the state of Mass. since 2009 changed alot of the guidelines it is the total amount of both parties combined into a figure now. But as my fellow threaders have said, you have already agreed to the amount. You have to wait the 3 years or wait for something substantial to happen that would cause you to file a modification--of course that's like finding a needle in a haystack! Good luck and pray your ex will do the right thing with all of that money you give them!