Divorce Support Forums: stimulus payment..should my wife have gotten it

That one is a question. You've already filed. If the stimulus was earned pre-filing (which I think it was, it was based upon the tax return status from 2007), then it's equally split. (or "equitably" split in "equitable" states... which is often equal).

Now we go back to a lecture I gave you like the first or second time I saw your posts... that it doesn't matter that she contributed nearly nothing to the marriage in the last X # of years. It doesn't matter if she did all the spending and you did all the earning. It doesn't matter if you allowed her to sit around and do nothing all day but watch TV while you worked, did all the chores, did all the earning. She gets half of everythign accumulated during that time. Half the debt, half the assets. You do a balance sheet & if it's negative as a net balance then you and she each get enough stuff that you each end up with half the debt... if it's positive then you each get enough stuff that in the end you each end up with half the net assets. That's just the way it goes.

Now, in your case, you're getting hte house becasue she can't afford it... so you'll get more of the debt to offset it... and to some extent part of the house was already yours maybe (though if I recall, you'd mortgaged it since the marriage so there was not a lot of equity in it as your separate, pre-marital equity).

The idea is that if you allowed this unequal balance of power to exist within your own marriage, if you chose to be with and stay with someone who did not contribute financially, that's YOUR problem and your CHOICE and the government or courts are not going to go back and make corrections for YOUR bad decision, YOUR bad investment.

So on this situation... you gave her half... you probably owed her half. You did not give her a "gift" of somethign she was not already entitled to.

Now since the separation and filing for divorce, you've been CONTINUING to allow her to live with you rent free while she spends her own disability check on cigarettes & treats for herself. THAT is a mistake. THAT is your gift to her. But you can't give her free rent and then expect her to pay you rent from the stimulus check... so you OWED her the half of that...

If I were you, wanting to make things equitable, I'd start expecting a full contribution from her to the household expenses for as long as she stays & stop making this gift on an ongoing basis.

But then, we've had that talk before... ad nauseam!