How to Spot Signs of Financial Abuse in Your Marriage and How to Divorce a Narcissist

Laurie Itkin, www.theoptionslady.com, and Laura McGee, www.leavestrong.com discuss: 1) How to spot signs of financial abuse in your marriage and 2) How to divorce a narcissist.

As you might have heard there's been a change in the tax law, making spousal support no longer tax deductible beginning January 1 2009. Why do you care? You care because if you have been thinking about divorce for a while, you know it's inevitable, it's really probably a good idea to get that thing done this year, if there are disparities in income between you and your spouse, that's usually when spousal support comes into play.

You may also care about this, if you've been in a long term marriage, you may also care about this, if you are a stay at home mom, you may also care about this, if you are a very high wage earner and you want that tax deduction, all I'm going to say is that no matter how you slice it, the IRS is going to be taking more money from families, and the pie is just going to be smaller. So whether the payer of spousal support is paying less, and the recipients receiving less whatever, it's just less.

in California, we have a six month waiting period, some states have no waiting periods. Some states have different waiting periods. And so you know, in order to try to get this finalized before December 31, if you're thinking about filing for divorce, you've got to do it very soon. Very soon.

People are still going to get divorced after January 1, of course, but there is just going to be less money to go around, I'm sorry to say. So. It's really important. Even if you decide not to do anything, I want you to be informed with the information you need to make a decision.





key moments
00:00 How to Spot Signs of Financial Abuse in Your Marriage and How to Divorce a Narcissist
01:26 Change in Spousal Support Tax Law
04:31 Examples of Financial Abuse
12:48 It's Financial Therapy
15:01 Mint.com
15:51 Divorcing a Narcissist
20:40 Misconceptions about Mediation
27:13 Using an Attorney