If you recently divorced your spouse, the amount of alimony you need to pay may be a serious worry for you.
In the state of Oklahoma, many lifestyle and income factors go into this calculation.
Types
According to FindLaw, there are two kinds of alimony. Rehabilitative alimony, which includes short-term payments, and permanent alimony, which involves regular court-ordered payments from you to your spouse. The recipient may then use this money for housing, food, and other necessities.
While rehabilitative alimony usually lasts a few months in order to help your spouse become financially independent following a divorce, permanent alimony lasts much longer. Spousal support is different than child support, which goes to support any children you both had together.
Reasons
The court typically approves temporary alimony if one spouse stayed home to raise the couple’s children. The court assumes you disrupted your career in order to take care of them, which leads to a gap in employment and a lower earning potential.
A judge takes into account the employment status of both spouses, how long the marriage lasted, your earning capacity and age, and your standard of living. The court also looks at you and your spouse’s current health condition in addition to these factors.
Amount
Judges also examine whether you can support yourself financially and still pay the necessary amount of money each month in order to make sure the amount is fair. Keeping current with alimony may be overwhelming at times, but you may modify your payments in some cases by asking a judge to review your case again.