Rebuilding Your Finances From Zero After Divorce

From the outside, being a stay-at-home parent might look like a dream come true.  It might look like your time is spent on cultivating family togetherness and, for a certain number of hours per week, on enjoying the peace and quiet of your own home.  It can work out well if you and your spouse trust each other and agree about how to manage money.  Financial stress is hard on any couple, even if both spouses are employed, but it is even more stressful when the whole family lives on one income.  If you and your spouse agreed that your family economy involves you being a stay-at-home parent, then you can feel powerless if your relationship with your spouse deteriorates.  In some cases, starting from zero is easier than divorcing a wealthy spouse on whom you depended financially; you can focus on the future instead of fighting about how much of the marital property you deserve, given that your name was not on any of the paychecks.  A Birmingham divorce lawyer can help you if you are a stay-at-home parent leaving a marriage where there is little marital property to go around.

Being a Single Parent Is Tough, but At Least Your Spouse’s Gambling Addiction Can No Longer Hold You Back

In 2020, an Alabama woman started a new life after a troubled marriage, but it was not easy.  The couple married in 2008, and the wife left the workforce when the couple’s child was born.  When the wife filed for divorce in 2020, the parties’ child was ten years old, and the husband’s income was $11,000 per month.  The family was in financial trouble, though, because of the husband’s gambling addiction.  The wife and child moved in with the wife’s aunt, since they had nowhere else to go.

By the time the divorce became final, the wife had reentered the workforce, and her income was just over $2,800 per month.  The court ordered the husband to pay the wife several hundred dollars per month in rehabilitative alimony.  This type of alimony is for former spouses who have been out of the workforce for a long time; its purpose is to provide a financial cushion while the recipient trains for a new job or earns a starting wage that increases over time.  The husband challenged the court’s alimony order.  He argued that he was unable to pay, since he had gambled away $23,000 during the pendency of the divorce case.  The court ordered that gambling was not an unavoidable financial hardship, and that the husband was still responsible for paying the rehabilitative alimony.

Contact Peeples Law About Rebuilding Your Finances After Divorce

One of the things you should discuss with a divorce lawyer is how to rebuild your finances after a financially troubled marriage.  A Birmingham family law attorney can help you if your spouse’s actions or inaction have left little marital property to divide.  Contact Peeples Law today to schedule a consultation.

Source:

scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=4043210521589965385&q=divorce+addiction&hl=en&as_sdt=4,61,62,64&as_ylo=2014&as_yhi=2024