Budgets, Alimony and Divorce Mediation

Here in New Jersey, there are guidelines for calculating child support but no formula for spousal support / alimony so when trying to come up with spousal support / alimony numbers, what do you do? We go to the budgets. As you can imagine, having a conversation around spousal support / alimony is emotional and can derail quickly if we’re not careful to have a fact-based discussion and the best way this NJ divorce mediator knows how is to prepare a budget. This way with real numbers and actual expenses in front of us, we can have a productive conversation based on needs rather than wants. Sure it may seem at times like an academic Lose Weight Exercise but by taking a bit of time up front to prepare, we can avoid a long drawn-out battle over spousal support / alimony down the road, saving you time and money in the long run.