We have been married coming up on 21 years now. I work and she is SAHM with 4 homeschooled kids and no income. 2 kids are adult age and one is 15 while the youngest is 7. I told her I want a divorce. We do nothing but fight over the stupidest shit you can imagine for the better part of the last 5 years. I have been sleeping on the couch for most of that time off and on. There is no intimacy anymore, she refuses to stop talking so a 'conversation' can happen. She calls me a gaslighter, stonewaller, narcissist POS and switches back and forth between comparing me to an 'incel' and a 'fuckboy'.

All that aside, I don't give a shit anymore.

The attorney I've been speaking to says if I filed today, I do NOT have to leave the family home to find somewhere else to live while continuing to pay the mortgage and all the bills.

I know that running up a credit card to start the divorce while staying in the same house with this woman will not provide me what I ultimately need for my own mental health; which is to see my kids everyday while also not having to listen to her run her mouth from sun-up to sun-down about what a selfish asshole piece of shit I am.

I could just as easily run up the credit card on another place to live, but I don't want her and especially the kids to live in poverty either.

I'm interested in any of your experiences filing the paperwork while staying in the house.