You and your spouse may have combined your finances after you got married and shared accounts for many years. And depending on your situation, you may have left your job or reduced your hours at work to manage your household and take care of young children.
If your spouse is the primary income earner, you may worry about how you will maintain your lifestyle now that you have decided to get a divorce. Spousal maintenance can provide you with financial support after your marriage ends.
Determining factors
The court will consider several different factors when determining how much spousal maintenance to award, according to the Texas Family Code. Some of these factors include each spouse’s financial resources, the employment skills and education of both spouses and how long the marriage lasted. The court will also look at the physical and emotional condition of each spouse, the effect making spousal maintenance payments would have on child support payments and the contribution of each spouse to the training and education of the other.
When spousal maintenance ends
The court will award spousal maintenance for a set period of time. If your former spouse dies, you will no longer receive spousal maintenance. And if you are the recipient of spousal maintenance and you remarry, your maintenance payments will end.
Spousal maintenance can provide financial relief if you have concerns about maintaining your lifestyle on a single income following your divorce. Keep in mind that for the court to award spousal maintenance, you must also demonstrate that you have searched for educational, training and employment opportunities diligently.
