Hi, I'm new here. I have 3 children 4, 6 and 9. My ex left 3 months ago, for the third time, which will be the final time, as I will not be taking him back again. For most of our 10 year marriage, I stayed home with the kids, while he worked. Initially, I was told that I should get Spousal support for a minimum of 5 years up to 10 years and that amount combined with my child support should equal at least half of our combined income. How true is this? We have negotiated and come up with 1 1/2 years at half our combined income and then a smaller amount for an additional year. I am working now, but not making great money and it is highly unlikely that I will come close to his income any time soon. He has the kids every other weekend, and then for a couple of hours 2 evenings a week. Thoughts?

To be honest I haven't heard anything like the 'half of combined income' before but a lot of separation agreements come down to what is negotiated between the two parties. If you can get your ex to agree to that, the more power to you! The way it was figured out for us was to add up what my expected expenses would be to live a similar lifestyle that the children were accustomed to, subtract what I would be earning and getting in c/s, the difference would be made up in spousal.

I also believe that you should be looking more at the 5 year mark for spousal support after only 10 years of marriage. After 9 years being married, being a SAHM (working only 6 hours/week for sanity's sake) I only got spousal for 3 years. We have a similar weekend visitation as you but with the type of job that my ex has he cannot take them throughout the week.

Good luck to you!