Valencia Divorce & Spousal Support Calculations

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

When you are going through a divorce and you are going the decision of having spousal support as part of your divorce agreement, you might want to find out what the court might order so you have a starting point of what agreements you want to come up with regarding spousal support.

I will tell you this, however. If you guys are in agreement, you don’t have to use the numbers that come out of the spousal support calculation.

In my opinion, and it is just my opinion, I believe the best way to figure out what the spousal support payment amount is, is to look at your finances (both of you) to figure out what the person receiving is going to need in order to make it financially.

As part of our full service divorce solution we do offer a free dissomaster calculation as part of the service we provide.

Now, I know what you may be thinking. The person paying is thinking that they don’t want to support some lavish lifestyle. And trust me you won’t. But here is what you will each think if you don’t do it this way. The person paying is going to feel like they are paying too much and the person receiving is going to feel that they are not receiving enough.

(By the way, we provide a full service divorce solution throughout California. If you are looking to get a divorce and would like assistance, please give us a call for a free phone consultation at 661-281-0266. We have a full service and self-help service.)

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Click here to learn more about our do-it-yourself divorce

The problem is that when you take 1 or 2 household incomes and then instead of having 2 household expenses instead of one, of course the money is not going to go as far. The financial situation after divorce, especially with one household income, is never going to be better than it was during the marriage. This is an unfortunate truth.

While we do offer the preparation of a dissomaster as part of our service ( a dissomaster is the calculator the courts use to calculate spousal support) we did find an online source you can use in the meantime as a guide.

I have written on this issue in the past (here is the link to the Spousal Support Calculation Article I wrote) that has the link to the website you can use for free.

Santa Clarita Divorce | Calculating Child Support With Multiple Children Schedules

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

When you are going through a divorce in California, you are going to have to come up with some child support numbers if you have children.  The basic premise is that you use the court’s dissomaster software ( you won’t have access, but you will as our client) and punch in the income of the parties and the time share percentages.

It looks like this.

Dissomaster Example
Dissomaster Example

Generally it is pretty easy to figure out. You decide who has the kids what percentage of time and punch in the incomes of the parties and the the software spits out a number. The timeshare percentages are also usually pretty easy to figure out. It usually goes something like this;

There are 3 children and they are all with mom 80 percent of the time. Pretty strait forward.

But how about this scenario;

There are 3 kids and 2 of the kids spend 90% of the time with mom and 1 of the kids spends 20% of the time with mom.

So what is the average time share between the 3 kids?

This is the formula we used to make this determination.

3 kids

Mom
2 kids 90% of time = 180%
1 kid 20% = 20%

200% divided by 3 = 66.66 %

33.33 percent assigned to father as average time share percentage

What we did essentially is take the 2 kids with 90% and multiply that by 2 because there are 2 kids. Then the one kid, (1 x 20% = 20%) The total being 200% and then divided by the number of children to come up with the average time share.

I know this is not calculus, but i figured if one of our clients had a question on it then somebody else out there might as well.

California Spousal Support | What You Need To Know About Spousal Support In California

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

California Spousal Support | What You Need To Know About Spousal Support In California

We have many clients that have questions about Spousal Support.  When going through divorce in California, it is important that you understand how Spousal Support works.

Watch this quick video that discusses spousal support.

Do You Have These Questions About Spousal Support?

  • How Does Spousal Support Work?
  • How is Spousal Support Determined?
  • Can I Get Spousal Support
  • Will I Have To Pay Spousal Support
  • How Much Spousal Support Will I Have To Pay?

How Spousal Support Works And Is Determined

Spousal Support is determined by 2 things.

  1. Income of the parties
  2. Length of Marriage
  3. Need for support

Spousal support calculations can be complex, but at the basic level, this is what is boils down to.

Basic Rules of Spousal Support

  • If you make more money than your spouse, you may have to pay Spousal Support
  • If your marriage is longer than 10 years, the court can retain jurisdiction over spousal support for ever
  • In most cases, the parties can agree to waive spousal support

How Is Spousal Support Determined

As mentioned above, spousal support is determined by how long the marriage was, how much each of the parties make and if there is a need for spousal support.

The Court uses a program called a “Dissomaster” which runs a calculation to determine how much spousal support will be.  The resulting dollar amount is called “Guideline spousal support”.  This means it is simply a guideline.  The parties can agree to more or less Spousal Support than the Guideline amount.

We Can Help You Determine Spousal Support

We are a licensed and bonded divorce document preparation firm.  We specialize in helping clients get through divorce without attorneys and offer a flat fee divorce service.

Part of our services is to help you determine how much spousal support will be if you plan on paying or receiving spousal support.  As mentioned above, you can always decide to waive spousal support.

Your decision to waive spousal support is up to the parties.

We Have The Courts Dissomaster Program

One of the hardest things you will find is that there is no way to get your hands on a Dissomaster report without calling a divorce attorney.  We have found that divorce attorneys are charging $250 just to run a simple Dissomaster spousal support calculation.

Well we have the dissomaster program and running spousal support calculations are part of our flat fee service.

When you work with our divorce service to prepare your divorce case, we will include a dissomaster printout (which is required by the way) when you are going through a divorce in California.  This includes even when you are asking the court to waive spousal support.

Call Us Today!

If you are considering a divorce and want to save thousands of dollars by not hiring an attorney, please give us a call.  We have helped 1,000’s of people complete their divorce without the need for attorneys.

You can reach us at 661-281-0266.