Tag Archive for: Finances

December or January Divorce?

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Can’t stand living with your spouse for another minute?  Don’t want to start another year with him or her?  Geoff Williams, Reuters, writes on NBCNEWS.Com today that it may be to your advantage to wait a few days until January to file for divorce.  He gives these reasons:

1. Year End Bonuses.  In Virginia, the date for determining marital assets is the date of separation.  In Maryland and DC, it is the trial date, but the court can take into consideration assets acquired after separation.  So you may want to time your separation, depending on whether you or your spouse is receiving the year end bonus.

2.  Emotions.  If your spouse remembers that you ruined Christmas, that may make it harder to settle.

3.  Shopping.  Your credit card bill may be higher in January if your spouse decides to get even with you by shopping.

4. Taxes.  If taxes go up in 2013, you may get a bigger deduction for paying alimony or have higher taxes for receiving it.

5. Planning.  Use the year end to start gathering and organizing all the financial information and documents you are going to need for your divorce.

I guess Ashton Kutcher didn’t read the article.  He filed for divorce from Demi Moore on Friday.

/by James J. Gross

Housing Prices Rise in Maryland

Will rising housing prices bring more divorces?  Couples who were arguing over who takes on the house as a liability may now be able to argue over how to split the net sales proceeds if housing prices continue to advance.

Over the past year in Maryland, housing prices in Montgomery County increased more than those of any other county in the Washington, DC, region, according to a story in the Washington Examiner.

Housing prices rose 11.7 percent in May over the same period a year ago, and are up 5.7 percent so far this year, a Metropolitan Regional Information Systems report showed.

/by James J. Gross