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Question about dividing assets...is this fair??


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My soon-t0-be-ex is a CPA and I do not understand finances all that much. We have agreed to split everything 50/50 but the way in which he has equalized the division of our assets is not making my attorney happy. But I also have a heart and don't want to screw my ex because my atty can be really aggressive and aims high for everything. Here's the issue: My husband is keeping our marital home for now, and I have moved into a townhome. We have $50,000 in equity for the marital home. Rather than giving me 50% of the equity, my ex is keeping 100% equity and making it up by giving me the difference from his retirement. The problem my atty has is that I cannot touch the retirement money without being penalized or waiting 15-20 years for retirement. If my ex sells the home, he gets that cash without any penalty. My atty wants me to have more liquid cash. My ex took out a $40,000 line of credit to pay me $25,000 in cash so that I have some liquid cash...and he gets $15,000 so that he has some liquid cash as well. My ex does have $120,000 stock fund which is non-marital asset (which I cannot touch and I am fine with this). My atty thinks my ex can tap into that to give me more liquid cash so that my ex doesn't get all the equity. I feel bad for making him go into the stock fund...we have 5 kids and I know he will be using that for college and weddings. We are both in our 40s, and I am a teacher. With the alimony and child support (6 years), I will be on my own after that. With the current scenario, I will have $25,000 liquid cash and about $100,000 of my ex's retirement, plus my pension which won't be huge because I just started teaching 5 years ago. Any advice? Thanks.

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If he can't pay you 50% of the equity in money you can use now, he needs to sell or refinance the home so that he can.

 

I am with your attorney - I don't think it is fair to give you money in his retirement account that you can't use.

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He already re-financed a few months ago when I bought my townhome. He just took out a line of credit and is giving me $25,000 of the $40,000. There's no other way for him to get cash. We want him to keep the marital home (at least for a few years) because it works out really well for our kids sake.

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