Originally posted by Mike62
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Typically, spouses who can make a good argument that they sacrificed their own earning potential in order to enhance the other person's (for instance, if one spouse switched jobs or gave up opportunities so that the other spouse could advance, or if one spouse stayed home with the kids to enable the other spouse to work full time outside the home) may have a case for spousal support. The same is true for spouse who worked (unpaid) for family businesses or contributed in other ways to their spouse's financial success.
In your case, if your wife is employed full-time and has good prospects coming out of the marriage, she may not be able to claim that she is entitled to compensation for sacrifices she made during the marriage.
In any case, spousal support can be negotiated. it doesn't have to be a lifetime commitment. I would recommend not opening up the issue of spousal support. If your ex brings it up, consider what you think would be fair - a time-limited monthly payment, a lump sum, a "step-down" arrangement in which the amount is gradually reduced over time to enable the receiving spouse to transition to financial independence. There are all kinds of ways to structure spousal support - there are no firm guidelines like there are for child support.
The decent thing to do is to ensure that you and your spouse come out of the marriage on a roughly equal footing for life after marriage, but that doesn't mean you need to support her financially for the rest of her life, and it doesn't mean she is entitled to the same standard of living you enjoyed during marriage (both of you are going to be looking at a reduced standard of living because there are now two households being supported by the income which used to support one).
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