Q My husband and I got married when I was still in school four years ago. He works in IT and supported us, although I paid for school with loans. I graduated last May, passed my boards and am now earning $250,000 which is significantly higher than the $75,000 he earns which we lived on during our marriage.

Once I got my job, I started contributing equally to his contribution into our joint account and using the rest to aggressively pay my loans. His mother is sick and he wants to take a year off to go care for her in Arizona. His sister lives very close to his mom but he insists he has to take this on. He also insists because he supported me while I was in school I have an obligation to support him while he quits his job to care for his mother.

We are at an impasse and I threatened divorce. But he told me it wouldn’t matter because the court will order me to pay him 1/3 of my salary as alimony especially if he can’t work because his mom is sick. Is he right?

A Alimony can be awarded when one party has a need, and the other party has the ability to pay. The court looks at a number of things in determining need including the standard of living during the marriage, historical earnings, and earning capacity. Voluntarily quitting his job to care for his mother is a choice he is free to make but the court can attribute $75,000 per year of income to him on account of his making this choice.

Four years is a short-term marriage and there are a few types of alimony. Rehabilitative alimony is meant for someone who has been out of the workforce for a period of time and needs time to get a job to become self-supporting. General term alimony is formulaic, and he could qualify for alimony for 60% of the number of the months of the marriage, and the amount is often a percentage of the difference in your respective incomes, taking into account need. He might qualify for reimbursement alimony for three years because he supported you while you were in school but still it is based on his need.

Recreate your annual household budget over the last four years in as much detail as possible so you can prove he does not have a need for alimony and can be self-supporting on his own salary. Then be prepared to offer him a slightly higher division of assets in exchange for a surviving alimony waiver.

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