[quote]

The danger of this is in acting like your own pension fund for her, so if your pension goes bankrupt or something, you might still end up owing her... on the up side, if your pension and retirement benefits skyrocketed and you got bonuses & stuff, your alimony amount would ALSO be fixed and you'd bekeeping the whole thing rathr than having given up half. [/quote]

im quoting this separately because i'm lost. First off we have the biggest state pension fund in the country and it will never not be here so i'm confident of that :)

but my main question is about your math. i never get bonuses etc and so my pension amount really pretty much is 'fixed' now. Also , assuming i word my contract right, i thought alimony was fixed also. Anywho, the question is: what is the point of calculating a pension value today if that isnt what is going to take place in the future? Why not wait until i retire to do the math if it matters so much?

Just assume the math says she should get 500 a month because that's the increase from date of marriage to date of D. Why would that amount EVER change? After D she isnt entitled to any increases i thought? Or are you saying my pension is based on me working the full 35 years?

also even if i do quit this job 'today', id still get whatever pension i'm due and wouldnt i owe her what is in our decree? I'm totally lost how anything beyond 'today' affects my alimony or pension but esp. my pension.