I've been the sole earner for basically the entirety of our 5 year marriage. I've always made good money, but she decided that she wanted to be a stay at home mom with her son (my stepson). I know, I've ignored all the red flags in the book and now I'm being punished for it. Lesson learned.

She asked for a divorce in December, and basically has been doing nothing since then. The little that we do talk is about an amicable dissolution, but it seems like she's just dragging her feet along. Spends her day smoking weed and cigarettes, watching netflix, and doesn't actually home school her son (maybe a couple hours a day if that). I'm honestly relieved and happy that I will no longer be supporting this lifestyle and this toxic person that I provide for. She's in for a rude awakening.

We are currently putting everything we can on 0% 12 month credit cards to build up cash. I have $16k worth of student loans, where hers are completely paid off after defaulting on them. Part of me wants to use the cash in my account to pay off as much as the student loans that I can. Why should I suffer because she doesn't want this life anymore? The main thing I'm concerned about it both lawyering up and then I'll likely have to pay for everything. The dissolution route will be much cheaper, but that is ultimately if we're able to agree with everything. We also have a house that I would like to sell, but she keeps telling me that she wants to keep the house (yeah right). I put 50k into the house over the 5 years we lived there and I want to get a payout since it's gone up in value.

What would you do in my scenario?