What is a reasonable child support amount?

[Martoch]

Ok guys, as most of you know I'm leaving for England in may and I have to unfortunately leave my 6 yr old son behind with his mom. Anyway, long story short, she and I were discussing the amount of child support that I will send while I'm away. She thinks $700 is a reasonable amount! $700??? I was thinking more like $500...heck, I won't even be able to afford to see him often if I'm sending $700 a month her way.

His daycare only costs $240/month, his medicince is $20/month, lunch money is $35/month, life insurance is $20/month...I know that doesn't cover everything. She'll be paying for all of his food, clothing, babysitters, misc. expenses, etc. and the child support is to help offset the cost of her rent, utilities, etc. However, I've never heard of anyone paying $700 for 1 child! Am I being irrational? I want to make sure he's taken care of, but I also want to make sure she's not going to be driving around a new car as soon as I leave. She also said that "most women" would be vindictive and try for more than $700...I just can't comprehend that!

Her reasoning is because I will be getting a higher BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing), which is an additional military pay that is based off of the cost of living for the area you live in. England's cost of living is VERY high, so my BAH will be double there what it is here. BUT, my rent will also be double so I'm certainly not making money.

Please advise...thanks!
Mike

[Bill in SD, CA]

HTH.

Florida CHILD SUPPORT Calculator

Bill

[Martoch]

Thanks, Bill...I've seen that already...only thing I don't know is if the gross income figure includes my BAH. It shouldn't because higher BAH means you're paying more for rent based off of your location, but you never know with Florida. If we use our base pay amounts, they will be the same because we're both the same rank and have the same time in service. That's why I was figuring it would come out to around $500 tops...however, she says she's going to go to the courthouse and I can expect to pay just about $700. *sigh*

[Epidemic]

315 bucks base cost hmm... You neglected to mention food costs, clothes costs and surprise costs.

But the 500 dollars you suggest would appear to cover that as well.

Personally I don't think that your offer is unfair. Other things to consider are the fact that she is partly responsible for this child and should bear some of the costs associated with said child.

Was she paying you child support while you were incurring said costs?

If not why not?

Takes two to tango, I wonder if she is working why she bears no responsibility for care and feeding.

700 would appear to be a bit unfair amount. Now this is all assuming that you are making under 40,000 dollars a year. If you are making a mint probably 700 falls on the short side.

[Knothead]

Man, I'm sorry to hear that...sounds like she figures the "Gravy Train" pulled into town and she wants on board. Sure puts the three of you in a bad position.

When the shoe's on the pther foot, it gets pretty funny...my ex pretty much abandoned me and the kids...she tried a legal stunt later, which failed, but before it did, her attorney discovered that she wasn't paying a dime in support...

So these two geniuses realized that, in order to proceed, she'd have to be putting something on the table every month!

So....$82.50 a month, per child.. I suppose they can raise girls through their teens on that much, on the planet where she comes from...

[Martoch]

Originally posted by Epidemic
315 bucks base cost hmm... You neglected to mention food costs, clothes costs and surprise costs.

Originally posted by Martoch
She'll be paying for all of his food, clothing, babysitters, misc. expenses, etc. and the child support is to help offset the cost of her rent, utilities, etc.

I did?

Originally posted by Epidemic
700 would appear to be a bit unfair amount. Now this is all assuming that you are making under 40,000 dollars a year. If you are making a mint probably 700 falls on the short side.

Under $40K? Oh, no problem...I'm an E-5 in the military.

Right now neither of us pay "child support" to each other...we both have him an equal amount of time, so we split his bills right down the middle.

Knot

[Prison Kids]

I think your first offer was fair, but if there is some discrepency, why not just split the difference and pay her $600.

That should be more than enough.

[Martoch]

Remember PK, I do plan on visiting my boy as often as I can...she doesn't need more than enough. Heck, my sister gets $700/month for 2 kids.

Just in case anyone wants to know, check out this military pay chart. I'm an E-5 with over 8 years in the military.

$2,250.90/month base pay
$621/month BAH
$230/month BAS (food allowance)

[John Prophet]

Be generous if at all possible. I remember my dad skipping out on child support all the time when I was a little kid....now we hardly speak much....kinda tuff when you remember mom having to scrimp and scrape and dad winking at all the girls downtown and being freinds with the cops and judge and flying by scott-free (back then in the 70's they didnt enforce child support at all). (and now he is in bad shape and needs help and its hard to drudge up much sympathy sometimes)

If you just give the EXACT amount that you calculate..its probably not enough...its like when you sit with a calculator and calculate your monthly bills...then u calculate your monthly earnings...then u do a little math and say "well gee, this will be easy to save up cuz I have all this money left over"..but it NEVER works out that way because there are soooooooo many little "hidden costs" that we dont think about.

What if you gave her $500 or $600 or whatever the first month(s) and just nicely asked her to give you an itemized list (lol) of what she had to spend....that would be fair both ways.

WHATEVER you do...dont make it so she has to tell your son that "daddy is a tightwad", lol.

JP

[Bill in SD, CA]

Originally posted by Martoch
Remember PK, I do plan on visiting my boy as often as I can...

Don't know if this is relevant (hope it's not) but I was sued by a customer who was stationed near San Francisco and part of his "claimed" damages was the cost of travelling to and from San Diego for the suit.

While I lost the lawsuit the judge basically said he didn't give a rat's furry rear end where he lived.

That was his problem.

He won $60 in the small claims suit and it cost him $180 for travel.

Bill