Child custody is one of the most difficult agreements to work on during a divorce. While you do have the option of going through a trial and letting the court decide who is going to play what roles in the child's life, you also have the option of going through mediation to come up with a plan. Mediation enables you and your ex to work with a third-party to try to work out the details of the arrangement so that you can use your intimate knowledge of the situation to make decisions.
Marriage, divorce rates may be stabilizing
People in Texas might be less likely to get divorced than in the past several decades. According to data released by the National Center for Family and Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University, the divorce rate is the lowest it has been in almost 40 years. However, experts caution that this does not necessarily mean that any one marriage is likelier to last, and some say the likelihood of a couple's divorce remains about 50 percent.
How student loans are treated in divorce cases
Texans who divorce will need to divide both their marital assets and their marital debts. Debts that were incurred during the marriage are generally considered to be part of the marital estate and subject to division, regardless of which spouse took out the debt.
Be aware of these things that child support doesn't cover
Texas moms and dads know all too well that the cost of raising a child goes beyond providing just food, clothing, and medical care. The cost of extracurricular activities, private lessons, or even entertainment is something that most parents just cannot get out of. As such, people are often surprised to discover that these things are not always included in a child support order.
Study shows older divorced women more likely to work
People older than 50 in Texas and throughout the country were more likely to get a divorce in 2010 than people of the same age were 20 years earlier. However, research shows that women may be particularly affected by divorce from a financial standpoint. According to a 2012 report by the Social Security Administration, both widowed and never-married women over the age of 80 were less likely to live in poverty than divorced women. The poverty rate for each group respectively was 15 percent, 17 percent and 22 percent.
