Just a rant here. I absolutely never understood why family courts use gross income over net income.

If this goes to trial, my ex could potentially be award $1900 in spousal support and $700 in child support. Although my gross looks very attractive, the reality is far worse. My take home as filing single, reduces my take home from $3400 to $2800 biweekly. That’s with no overtime of course. The average two bedroom apartment is $2500 in my area. In a bad part of town maybe $2000. My mortgage was $2200 and had a nice house, but the economy is shit for housing. I live in a high cost of living area. I get destroyed in federal and state taxes, social security and health insurance, among other deductions including my pension. She makes 1/3 of my income, yet she will be living like a queen. I literally won’t be able to afford to live and take care of my kid the times I have her. I’m obviously fighting for 50/50. Her and opposing counsel are using my demanding job against me. My supervisors have even made a reasonable accommodation the best they could. I realistically think I’ll be getting 40% of custody time. I’m on a 5 year contract at work, so if I quit I owe my employer hundreds of thousands.

On a positive note, we are so far avoiding court. Maybe with court my outcome could be better, but a trial is expensive and I gamble with worst case scenario. I’m just at my wits end. On almost a year of back and forth with attorneys negotiating. Right when it gets close to settlement my ex finds something else to rage about.

Sorry, just in my pissed off feels. The system sucks.