Originally posted by trueblue22
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Case 1
The wife would have been earning $120k per year, but because she dropped out of the workforce to raise the kids, she is only earning $40k per year. There is a loss of 80k per year from this mutual decision that was made by both the wife and the husband. It is not fair for the wife to take the entire amount of that loss, and so spousal support is ordered to share the loss between the two.
Note: Most decisions taken during a marriage are mutual, even unilateral decisions. If your spouse is making a bad decision, get divorced quickly.
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Case 2
The husband earns $250k per year. However, if the husband had helped to raise the child instead of flying all over the world for business, he would have only been earning about $150k per year. This extra 100k in income every year (that the husband can earn for the rest of his life) is an asset, and a gain from the marriage. This asset needs to be split, so spousal support is ordered to split the asset that is the income stream.
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Case 3
Husband and wife both earn 100k. Husband gets sick and can no longer work, so his income drops to 20k. While nobody was to blame here, the loss occurred during the marriage, and needs to be split. Spousal support is ordered to share the loss between the two.
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Note, in all these cases, the person with less income usually is not fully compensated. If your income is $80k lower for life, and you have 25 years of working life left, you are going to get much less than $2million in spousal support. It was more the concept that I was explaining, not the numbers.
In your particular situation, you are probably more like Case 4:
Case 4
Husband earns a lot more than the wife. A lot lot more. Spousal support might be ordered because the wife has "need". It probably won't be forever, and it can easily be stopped. Expect lots of court cases in the near future
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The problem here is that you gave up a good income, and your current income is a bit nebulous. You might be hard-pressed to show need.
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