Arizona Husband and Wife have three Daughters.

Husband and Wife divorce.

Husband is ordered to pay child support for Daughters.

But Husband quickly joins the ranks of “deadbeat dads”.

Husband’s past due child support grows to $27,0000.

With interest, past due child support skyrockets to over $93,000.

Thirty years go by.

Daughters are grown.

Wife is unemployed … for over a year.

The state child support agency locates Husband … and a substantial bank account in his name. It has roughly two hundred thousand dollars in it.

The child support agency attaches Husband’s bank account and recovers the past due child support, all $93,000 and change.

Wife, having long since given up on ever collecting the child support Husband owes her, gets a huge surpriser when the child support agency turns the money over to her.

Read more in this [Phoenix] KPHO 5 TV news article: Struggling Mom Gets $93K In Back Child Support.

California Mother and Father have three year old Son together.

During Father’s visitation and timesharing, Father allegedly abducts Son, from California to Arizona.

For the second time this year.

An arrest warrant is issued for Father.

Son is found, unhurt, with both of his parents.

Mother’s role in the incident is unclear.

Son is taken into child protective custody.

The timesharing during which Father allegedly makes off with Son is a visitation supervised by Child Protective Services.

Read more in this [Palm Springs, CA] Desert Magazine article: Abducted 3-year-old from Moreno Valley found unharmed in Arizona.

Colorado Husband and Wife are in the process of divorcing.

Husband is required to pay Wife alimony or spousal support of $2,500 per month.

Wife disappears while walking her dog a couple of months ago.

Police suspect foul play in Wife’s disappearance, but don’t appear to have any solid leads.

Authorities have impounded Husband’s girlfriend’s automobile though.

Husband apparently seeks to modify temporary spousal support.

A Colorado family court judge, however, orders Husband to continue to pay the previously ordered alimony.

Read more in this [Denver] ABC 7 News article: Missing Woman’s Husband Must Keep Paying Alimony.

Husband is in jail for contempt of a family court order.

Seventy-two year old Wife allegedly transfers approximately $12,000 from one of Husband’s individual bank accounts to a joint account using online banking.

Wife contends that she is entitled to the $12,000, because Husband owes her alimony and other monies.

But Wife has no legal right to access Husband’s individual account. Just the power, by virtue of knowing Husband’s social security number.

Wife is charged with embezzling the money from Husband.

Wife enters a guilty plea on the charge.

Husband is Wife’s tenth husband.

Wife was previously convicted of bigamy for marrying Husband while she was still married to another man.

The Virginia criminal court orders Wife to make restitution to the bank.

Wife is currently serving a sentence of five years’ incarceration, with four years suspended, on her bigamy conviction.

Wife is awaiting sentencing on the embezzlement charge.

Read more in this [Newport News, VA] Daily Press article: Bigamist guilty in theft from husband.

Retirement savings accumulated by either spouse during a marriage are marital property and subject to property division in a divorce. That’s the law in Florida.

But an astonishing number of spouses either don’t know this or choose to disregard it.

For a dependent spouse, nothing beats accumulating retirement savings in their own name.

But is that possible for a stay at home homemaker or parent who doesn’t have paid employment? Maybe.

Normally, a person has to have earned income in order to sock money into a retirement account. But there are some exceptions:

1. If the dependent spouse’s spouse has earned income, the dependent spouse can put money into their own retirement savings based on their spouse’s income. But keep in mind that the dependent spouse’s deposits reduce what the other spouse may put into their own retirement account.

2. If the dependent spouse receives alimony or spousal support, that support is considered income for purposes of determining whether and how much the dependent spouse may put into savings for their retirement.

Read more in this Forbes piece: 4 Ways to Make IRA Contributions – Without A Job!.

The number of international child abductions by parents increases every year.

So much so that the Office of Children’s Issues in the US State Department is one of the most rapidly expanding units in the State Department.

The Office is the so-called central authority under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

Some American parents vented to Congress on Missing Children’s Day.

And one, whom it took five years to get his son back from Brazil, even long after the boy’s abducting mother died, lobbied for legislation enabling imposition of sanctions against countries that don’t comply with the Hague Convention.

There are currently no mechanisms for enforcing compliance with the Hague Convention – or punishing noncompliance.

The proposed legislation authorizes eighteen different sanctions for violation of the Hague Convention.

Read more in

• this AFP news article: International child abductions up sharply: US official

• this My Central New Jersey article: Dad promotes anti-abduction bill

• this Focus Information News Agency article: US ‘left-behind parents’ seek help to get kids back and

• this Hill article: Rep. Smith takes on child abduction

Parent is behind on paying court-ordered child support.

What to do?

In some places, a good solution may be putting a “boot” on their cars’ tires.

In Michigan, the boots have spikes, which flatten the tires.

Read more in this [Lansing, MI] WLNS 6 TV news article: Parents Not Paying Child Support Will Get The Boot.

Divorce is about moving from here to there, emotionally. But it also represents a move from here to there, financially.

Many divorcing spouses focus on their emotional destination, to the exclusion of all else. They would benefit from putting some thought into their financial destination and situation as well.

For that purpose, it may be useful to:

1. create a realistic post-separation budget … before you agree to any settlement

2. open individual credit cards in just your name and close any joint credit card accounts

3. run your credit report with all the major credit reporting agencies … for the best chance of avoiding later surprises

4. don’t let your emotions alone rule big decisions such as whether to stay in the marital home … these should be at least partly financial decisions

5. be reasonable – don’t get caught up in waging expensive legal battles over (relative) trinkets

Read more in this Yahoo Shine article from Quizzle: Getting a Divorce? 5 Ways to Ensure It’s Not a Financial Disaster.

Texas Husband and Wife have two Sons, ages five and eight.

Wife and one Son are members of the Cherokee Indian Nation.

Husband and Wife allegedly chain their five year old Son to his crib-bed overnight, every night.

Husband and Wife are arrested for false imprisonment, child endangerment, child neglect, malicious punishment.

Sons are placed in foster care.

Sons are reportedly frightened of Husband and Wife.

The child welfare agency asks the Texas family court to terminate Husband’s and Wife’s parental rights to Sons.

The court awards Husband and Wife no visitation or timesharing with Sons.

Husband and Wife then request visitation with their younger Son.

A guardian ad litem for Sons recommends against visitation with Husband and Wife’s older Son based on the Son’s expressed preferences, and recommends only therapeutically supervised timesharing with younger Son.

Sons’ maternal grandmother is willing to have Sons placed with her if Husband and Wife’s parental rights are terminated.

Read more in this Austin Daily Herald article: Visitation denied for parents who chained son and this Austin Daily Herald article: Child-chaining parents plead guilty.

Indian Mother and Father of Hindu faith have Child together.

Mother dies.

Father takes up with another Woman, and converts to Islam.

Mother’s brother, Uncle, files for guardianship of Child based on Father’s abandonment of Hinduism and Uncle’s fear that Child will be kidnapped.

An Indian statute provides that no Hindu may continue as natural guardian (parent) of a child if that Hindu renounces Hinduism.

India’s highest appellate court is expected to interpret this statute and rule on it soon.

On a temporary basis, the Indian court has entered an order

1. restraining Father from transferring certain specified assets jointly owned by Mother and Father due to Child’s rights of inheritance and

2. awarding temporary custody of Child to … Uncle.

Read more in this Hindustan Times article: HC to decide if renouncing Hinduism means losing child’s custody.