Anyone want to guesstimate what I may get?

[Sprig1]

We are in the early stages of divorce, just exchanged Form E. Now that I have his financial info I was wondering if anyone would be able to estimate what kind of settlement I may be looking at. Details are as follows:
House with equity of ?195,000
His salary ?50,000
My salary ?30,000
His pension ?90000
My pension ?38000

He is living in a house with a new partner (shared ownership but no equity for him).

We have one child who is 5 who lives with me.

He would like a clean break. I suppose the options are either keep the house, or sell and make sure I end up with enough to buy a suitable replacement (estimated requirement for this is ?250k). My income is from my company but it is recently set up so I am unlikely to be able to get a mortgage on my own for the next 3 years, but I am able to keep paying the current mortgage (and have been for the last 2 years).

Thanks.

[DivorceAlchemist]

Sprig1, hello! It depends on so many factors that it wouldn't be appropriate to start guesstimating what you might achieve. The first thing to be clear on which I think you are thinking about is., what do each of you need? What are the principles by which you wish to divorce? By this I mean is there an agreement in principle that you will continue to be the parent with care. Does your stbxh agree that you need rehousing?

Get clear with him if you can about his thoughts but be sure to get clear on yours.

You can use mediation to support your negotiations but don't negotiate until you have written proof of all financials. Remember if he has a final salary or service pension, they are often undervalued so take care on this.

There are a number of options in relation to the house and pension. Much depends on your age, earning capacity both now and in the medium term. Neither of you have huge pensions from what you say but have you both obtained CETV that are up to date?

I hope this helps

[Sprig1]

Thanks for your input.

We are both late thirties. I am happy with pension values as they are and not likely to seek an actuary report (nor is he). He would like the house to be sold. I don't mind either way, so long as if we are forced to move then I can afford to buy a replacement house. CETVs are both up to date. He will not want to pension share so we will be lookingt offset.

His future salary is very stable and has regular incremental increases. Mine is significantly less stable and limited by childcare constraints (he has our child 1 night a fortnight and we live in a rural area with very limited childcare options, this means it is likely that my income will be limited by working during school hours).

[ThisIsStartingToBoreMe]

If you go on the wikidivorce website they have a tool you can use where you put all your financial details in and it will give you their idea of how the finances would be split

[Cabrinha]

Why doesn't he have his child more often?
Why doesn't he share the load on childcare so you can work and build up your business?
Why don't you live somewhere less rural to increase your business opportunities?

I don't think the practicalities of divorce are just about divvying up assets, but about making decisions for going forward in a practical way.

One might a fortnight really isn't much for a father to spend with a child.

[Sprig1]

He chooses not to spend more time with his child. He works away during the week and he has him Sat AM to Sun PM one week and then Sat AM to Sat PM the following week and it alternates like that.
Moving somewhere less rural would prob make it easier to find pre and post school childcare but my son has just started at an outstanding school with his cohort from nursery school, so there is no desire to move him.

Thanks for the pointer to the Wikidivorce calculator.

[ThisIsStartingToBoreMe]

What was your settlement in the end op? Just out of curiosity

[Quartz2208]

Does he also pay child maintenance? I would say that the main settlement issue is sorting out the house, beyond that he should be paying you child maintenance

[StiffenedPleat]

Ask for 50:50 childcare, 50% share of all assets and a PSO to reflect a 50% share of your pooled pensions. Then move on from there.

[Sprig1]

Thisisstartingtoboreme, sorry I have only just seen this.
We settled out of court just before the final hearing. I have been allocated a fixed amount of £145,000 from the equity of the house and we are both keeping our own pensions. I was firm on wanting a fixed amount of equity from the house sale, rather than a percentage, as I thought the court appointed surveyor valued the house too high. I have been proved right as the asking price on the house has been dropped twice now and still hasn't sold.