Joe Rogan and Bill Maher discuss divorce stories and the dangers of marriage (1/17/20)

That's a fair point.

I have assets due to lucking out with the house. It has appreciated 30+% in the two years since I bought out my child's mother.

I've also had good increases in my salary.

The issue is how my child's mother plays the support game. It's almost four years since the birth of our child, and she's barely making over minimum wage despite having the ability to earn 2-3x that, and has taken a career path where she can play games with her declaration of income. (Independent contractor).

I pretty much will be paying for her to never work full-time, and the majority of child costs.

It would be fine if I were simply paying for all the child costs and she weren't in the picture. True r/singleparents style. But I'm paying for her to not work, and she'll continue that game until she can't play it anymore.

In terms of my child's future, we can look at the position I would have been at in 18+ years to assist him, or the cash value of legal expenditures invested:

$100k invested at 3-8% is 200k+ by the time my child would have been looking for help with university or advanced certifications. E.g. ultrasound or MRI tech earn high-5 figure to low 6-figure in my area; advanced certs in welding and such could get into low to mid 6-figures; advanced specializations in a medical field over 6-8 years could have him as a pediatric orthopedic surgeon; flight school for helicopters with 500 private hours on a 8+ seater could have ended up as a secure and lucrative career pilot.

That's an intergenerational change in income potential due to advanced career.

Not that he would have gone that route necessarily, but now he'll be the "hey, I graduated with 250k in student medical debt, and..." storyline vs "I'm 25, just got a job earning 150k, and have a $75k downpayment, what should I do?"