Chapter 20 - The divorce property settlement
Our divorce had no secret millions.
House:
Value $486,000.
Mortgage:
$272,000.
Approximate equity before costs:
$214,000.
Retirement:
Mine $122,000.
Jason $149,000.
Joint savings after legal expenses:
$31,000.
Vehicles.
No business ownership.
No hidden debt.
Then Margaret’s past gifts.
She had given us:
$15,000 toward house closing costs seven years earlier.
Gift letter existed.
No loan.
No repayment.
Not leverage legally.
Then 529:
Excluded.
Owned by Margaret.
Then temporary support.
Our incomes:
Me $104,000.
Jason $118,000.
No long-term spousal support.
Child support adjusted for schedule under guidelines.
Then house.
Could I refinance and keep?
Yes, barely.
Did I want to?
Emma liked it.
School.
I did.
I refinanced.
Jason received an agreed equity payment:
$93,000 after offsets and costs.
Why not exactly half gross equity?
Closing/refinance assumptions, small premarital contribution tracing, furniture/retirement offsets.
Detailed enough.
Then retirement equalization.
QDRO transfer of roughly $13,500 from Jason’s retirement to me to balance marital portions.
Each kept remaining.
Savings divided.
Attorney fees:
Each own, except Jason paid $5,000 contribution toward evaluator costs because his undisclosed consultation/third-party involvement expanded early proceedings? Could be contested. Better split evaluator 55/45 based incomes, no punitive fee.
No revenge.
Then legal separation became divorce by mutual decision.
Why?
I had watched Jason improve.
I respected him more.
But I no longer wanted marriage.
That confused friends.
They expected:
He changed, so reconcile.
No.
Change can make divorce kinder.
It does not erase the reason trust ended.
Jason accepted.
No appeal.
May you like
No “win her back” campaign.
That was one of his best choices.
