One of the biggest mistakes high-income parents make when they get divorced is assuming that the normal child support guidelines will apply to them.
They often don't.
Parents may be posting too many pictures of their children online
Most parents love taking photos of their children -- and they naturally want to share them! However, the days when you had to corner willing friends and drag out a photo album to show off the kids are long gone. These days, many parents end up using social media to chronicle their children's lives.
In fact, the average child these days has been shown in 1,300 videos or photos on social media by the time they reach 13 years of age. Children who establish their own social media accounts are apt to have an even higher number. Kids between 11 and 16 years of age post about 26 times a day -- and often they include photos.
Pets gain new rights in California divorce cases
Do you consider your dog to be a member of the family?If so, you definitely aren't alone. Now, thanks to like-minded members of the California legislature, dogs, cats and other family pets will be treated much the same as children when it comes to deciding who gets custody during a divorce.
Prior to the change in the law, judges were generally required to treat pets like nothing more than one more piece of property that had to be divided, making the family dog akin to a couch or a lamp. That sometimes made the family pet an item that one spouse could hold over the other's head as a bargaining chip.
Thinking about divorce? Take these financial steps right away
If you're contemplating a divorce -- or suspect that your spouse may be contemplating one -- it's time to take the steps necessary to protect your financial future.
1. Find a safe space to store financial documents
'Toxic stress' is a serious risk for children
How many adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, has your child experienced? If you're in a troubled marriage or going through a contentious divorce, it may be enough to actually make your child sick.
Experts are trying hard to educate the public about the way that physical illness and stress connect. While a certain amount of stress is normal -- or even healthy -- so-called "toxic stress" has a decidedly unhealthy effect on human beings. Children may be particularly vulnerable because of their youth, lack of control over most situations and still-developing bodies.
What type of alimony could you receive in California?
Commonly, spouses have different income levels. Your spouse may have made more money than you, though you did generate your own income, or you may not have been employed because of staying home to raise the children. During your marriage, the disparities in income may not have seemed like much of an issue, but now that you are getting divorced, you may worry about your future finances.
Fortunately, you may have the opportunity to obtain spousal support, or alimony, as part of your divorce settlement. The terms of the agreement can differ from case to case, and the amount of support you obtain and the duration of the support will depend on a number of factors.
Where you work could affect the longevity of your marriage
If you work with a lot of different people, especially those of the opposite gender, does your spouse have a right to be worried?
Maybe. According to a recently published study that looked at the interactions between opposite-sex co-workers, the greater your access to potential romantic partners, the greater the risk that your marriage will end in divorce.
Student loans are causing matrimonial delays
Once upon a time, people worried about trying to get a little money put aside before they walked down the aisle.
Now, they just want to get out of debt. It seems that student loans are making a lot of young people hesitate to marry. Whether it's their own student loan debt or a prospective spouse's loans that are the issue -- or both -- the staggering amount of debt that former students are carrying is causing cohabitation numbers to rise and marriage rates to fall throughout the nation.
Millennial generation causing national divorce rates to decline
The millennial generation does things differently than their elders -- including the way that they tend to approach their romantic relationships.
Older generations tended to marry young. As a result, they faced stressful challenges related to things like newly-established careers and the financial struggles of youth. Many couples also found themselves facing divorce when they grew apart as they aged, rather than growing together. Marrying young meant that, in many cases, their identities weren't even fully formed by the time they walked down the aisle together.
Don't let your teen manipulate you after a divorce
Teenagers are smart -- and some of them will take advantage of their parents' divorce in order to get their way.
Sometimes, the manipulation works simply because the parents feel guilty about upsetting their teens' lives with the divorce, but most of the time parents simply don't realize that a teen is actively manipulating them.
