Postponements and Proposals

My lawyer had an out-of-state family emergency so our court date today has been rescheduled. I will find out when later this week.

This was good though. I think our current settlement proposal is not as good as it could be. At least, its not as good for the sake of the kids.

Right now we are at this:

We split the house -> 60% to me (99000) and 40% to him (66000). This is done to compensate me for lost income due to being a homemaker. We split the three (he has two) 401Ks in half. I get 66,000 transferred to me to make up for the difference in the 401Ks. He puts his 40% of the house into trust for child support. This actually represents 30 months of child support,
BUT
(and its a BIG but!)

I cannot draw from a pile of bricks and mortar to support my kids.

Therefore, the 66000 from the house, because I have to remove support money for them from my 401K until I finish school and get a job (coincidentally I would normally be given 30 months of maintenance to do this) I am actually getting only 49,800 for support. Plus I'm not sure if the kids pay taxes on their share of the house when I sell it and I am paying taxes on child support. In addition, this increases my income, tho its really child support, which makes it tougher to get financial aid for school for me and my oldest.

I want to suggest to her that instead of putting his half of the house into trust for the kids, we put the 66000 he is going to transfer to me into trust for child support. This is, again, 30 mos of child support.

The logic is:

1. I would normally get 30 months to finish school and get a job. While maintenance is not child support, the fact that 30 mos is given makes it reasonable to expect 30 mos of child support from him to start.

2. Neither he nor I can work at a level to support the kids at this point in time, therefore, one or both of us will necessarily be dipping into our 401Ks to do so. Why should it only be me?

3. He acknowledges he must is obligated to pay child support.