What is Just Compensation for a "Life Lost"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People who work long hours with SAHM spouses are insane. They really are.

Do not work long hours (50+) for money unless you truly find the work personally fulfilling. It's NOT worth it and you WILL regret it in the end when your money is taken from you anyway.

You wanna talk about "a life lost"? How about those surgeons who spend the prime of their lives studying, followed by spending their middle age working long stressful hours, not seeing their kids for days at a time, only to get taken to the cleaners by their SAHM who thinks she "sacrificed" her life for him. BS, he is the one who made the sacrifices. But, he is the bad guy, right?

I don't think there is enough value given to the sacrifices of the breadwinners in these situations. They gave up a lot too. I sometimes think the current calculations don't really account for that. I wouldn't say that it's insane to have a SAHP though, just that I think that the discussion of sacrifices tends to be pretty one-sided.

[Anonymous]

I find these scenarios of high earning families amusing, and completely irrelevant to the OP's situation. She is a middle class woman married to a middle class man - perhaps slightly upper middle class. There is not a lot of money to fight about and the differential between her earnings and her her husband's is not that big - 2:3 from what she has written. By the Fairfax County formula, that will not net her much of anything in the way of spousal support.

As to retirement accounts, if the husband has a defined pension benefit that is not subject to 50/50, but only to a percentage of the pension as it would have paid out at the time of separation. So, using the the Federal formula, if the DH gets a monthly pension of $3,000 based on his current "high-three," she will be entitled to a percentage of that pension based on the length of the marriage and the time DH was earning that pension in Federal service DURING the marriage. She will not be entitled to a pension that is higher due to DH's higher earnings later in his career post-divorce. She would, however, be entitled to a 50/50 split of any IRAs, 402(k)s, etc. provided that they were assets accrued during the marriage. Money saved before the date of the marriage and post separation does not count.

Also, I think there is something in Federal law that says if the former spouse remarries before the age of 55, she loses any entitlement she would have otherwise had to a former spouse annuity.