Jeb, the venerable divorce lawyer, sat in his office, trying to straighten his bow tie, when the phone rang.

The man on the other end, whose name was Greg, said he was going through a separation.  After some preliminaries, Greg said.  ”We’ve only been married for 13 months and she wants half of everything!”

“She’s not entitled to half of everything,” Jeb assured him.  “The court will only distribute marital property, and that means property acquired during the marriage.”

“So, if I made $150,000 during the marriage and she made $30,000, the court will distribute $180,000 between us?”

“Not exactly,” Jeb replied, “the court only distributes what is there on the day of trial.  So if you made $180,000 and spent $120,000, you saved $60,000 which the court will distribute as marital property.”

(To be continued)