Jay, FL Divorce Law Firms & Lawyers

Permanent alimony does not kick in until the marriage is over ten years. In your case you should expect to pay temporary alimony for no more than a year or two until your wife gets into the job market and back on her feet. If she has an MBA she should be able to earn a living, and by going back to school and earning her MBA it appears that she intends to go back to work. You may need to hire an expert that can testify to your wife's earning capacity in the current job market. Alimony is based upon her needs and your ability to pay. Child support is based upon both you and your wife's income, child care costs, and health insurance costs, all input into a computer program that calculates guideline support. Without knowing the specifics for the above numbers it is not possible to predict your alimony or child support numbers. Your total support obligation including alimony and child support should not exceed 50% of your income.

Permanent alimony is normally not awarded for a marriage that is less than ten years.  Temporary alimony can be awarded on any marriage if there is a demonstrated need. Temporary alimony is for a very short period of time such as twelve or twenty four months. Even if the marriage is ten years or longer, the court must determine if there is a need and ability to pay. As for need, the spouse requesting alimony must show that his expenses are greater than his income and thus a demonstrated need. As for the paying spouse, there must be proven income in excess of expenses and thus a proven ability to pay. The decision for alimony is actually more complicated, in that the party seeking alimony may be unemployed or under employed and as such, may have the ability to pay their expenses and is choosing to be unemployed or under employed to support an alimony claim. Conversely the paying spouse may be intentionally under employed or unemployed in order to try and avoid paying alimony. Many times in order to prove an alimony claim there is an expert called in such as a forensic accountant  or CPA to testify as to actual needs and ability to pay, and the other party then calls their own expert to counter. Parties tend to exaggerate their financial statements to show income less than actual and expenses greater than actual.  Further there can be vocational experts called to testify as to one or the other spouses ability to earn based on their education and experience and the job market. A CPA will charge about $5000 to complete an evaluation and testify in court. A vocation expert about $7500 to do an evaluation and testify in court.  As you can see alimony can be very  complex. If your spouse is throwing "alimony" out there it is most likely an idle threat. Actually proving a alimony in court is a difficult and costly task.