You may be overspending. The courts take about 20% of your pay for child support. This is for one child and support goes to whoever has primary placement for roughly 5 days per week. My husband has to pay child support and when it was raised, for good reasons... it takes a lot to raise a child, we simply had to cut back... examples our 401 K we were maxing out. We cut that back to say 10% his pay. We were filing on our income taxes married at a higher single rate to get more back in the spring. We adjusted that so that there is more money weekly. There are ways to boost your income. Check with your business office at your employment. They may be able to give you some ways to boost your income. 80% of your income to live on should be enough, if not you are living beyond your means. 20% should always be a safety net. I know,easier said then done, but start planning now. Hard times may be right around the corner at any given time.

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Originally Posted by GV70

In more than 40 states there is a LEGAL TERM "Physical custody." For example-Pa
§ 5302. Definitions.
The following words and phrases when used in this subchapter shall have the meanings given to them in this section unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

"Child."
Any unemancipated person under 18 years of age.
"Legal custody."
The legal right to make major decisions affecting the best interest of a minor child, including, but not limited to, medical, religious and educational decisions.
"Partial custody."
The right to take possession of a child away from the custodial parent for a certain period of time.
"Physical custody."
The actual physical possession and control of a child.
"Shared custody."
An order awarding shared legal or shared physical custody, or both, of a child in such a way as to assure the child of frequent and continuing contact with and physical access to both parents.
"Visitation."
The right to visit a child. The term does not include the right to remove a child from the custodial parent's control
Wisconsin Statutes-Chapter 822
822.02(3)
(3) "Child custody determination" means a judgment, decree, or other order of a court providing for legal custody, physical custody, or visitation with respect to a child.


Pay attention before you start posting on LEGAL BOARDS!!!!!
YOU HAVE TO LEARN AND USE THE LEGAL TERMS IN CORRECT WAY!

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Originally Posted by GV70

What a "great" legal knowledge!

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So more 40 states have a legal term of "physical custody"; Wisconsin is not one of them apparently. Like JH said, those other states are "not the whole world." You've done nothing but reiterate the point that I have already made. Some states call it physical custody, some states call it placement; it doesn't make me wrong for using the term from my state. So you can type in CAPS lock and use red lettering all you want but all you're doing is beating a dead horse.

In GV's defence I think those were quotes taken from Wisconsin law showing that they use the terms legal custody and physical custody. Not that I don't believe that some lawyers/judge use "placement" for divorce papers but the way I read his post is that Wisconsin law does have both types of custody. I could be wrong though.

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Originally Posted by stinawords

In GV's defence I think those were quotes taken from Wisconsin law showing that they use the terms legal custody and physical custody. Not that I don't believe that some lawyers/judge use "placement" for divorce papers but the way I read his post is that Wisconsin law does have both types of custody. I could be wrong though.

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Of course! You are not wrong.

Wisconsin Statutes
822.02(3)
(3) "Child custody determination" means a judgment, decree, or other order of a court providing for legal custody, physical custody, or visitation with respect to a child.

822.02(14)
(14) "Physical custody" means the physical care and supervision of a child and, unless the context otherwise requires, includes physical placement.

822.02(14c)
(14c) "Physical placement" has the meaning given in s. 767.001 (5).
767.001(5)
(5) "Physical placement" means the condition under which a party has the right to have a child physically placed with that party and has the right and responsibility to make, during that placement, routine daily decisions regarding the child's care, consistent with major decisions made by a person having legal custody.

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Originally Posted by this8384

Custody has nothing to do with the amount of support that you pay; custody is your right to make decisions for the child until they reach the legal age. Support is calculated by your amount of income and the approximate cost of raising the child(ren).

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I will stop to answer you because I do not like to beat dead horses without legal knowledge.

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Originally Posted by this8384

I get what you're saying; I think the problem here is a whole "You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to" thing. My husband's divorce papers clearly spell out either "custody" or "placement"; they don't refer to "physical custody" anywhere in the agreement. So if I say "custody" I mean parental rights, not visitation. This is what led to the whole "custody doesn't affect your payment amount" statement that I made earlier.

Obviously, if Parent A has the kids every single weekend, their payments will be less because their out-of-pocket expense will be more. The less time Parent B has the children, the less they will need financially to support the children because Parent A will be feeding them, housing them, etc.

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In NYS at least there is no reduction based on how many days one parent has the child; the parent with primary custody gets the child support with modifications for long holidays such as summer vacation - I believe the rule of thumb is more than 1 month. The Court doesn't want to sit down once a month and figure out how many days I had the children and how many days you have the children.

Obviously Wisconsin is different.

The OP is in Alabama so all of this - both your posting and mine - is moot.

No.. if The State Of Alabama Is Taking The Child Support.. they Take A Percentage Of Your Income And They Don't Care If You Can Afford It Or Not..
If You Have It Just In The Divorce Papers And Not Going Through The State Then You Can Talk To Your Or (a) Lawyer And Go Back To Court To Get It Lowered Maybe. Good Luck.. Oh and it doesn't matter whether it's physical, joint, sole etc custody.. if you are the one who has to pay the support they will take it out of your pay check like clock work...

First to the OP: You never answered Chucks very pertinent question. Where were you during the divorce proceedings? Where was your attorney? Didn't you submit income and expense information? All this will determine whether you can appeal the award.

Aside to this8384: This is a legal board. We have to be careful here that the advice we give is sound legal advice. One can't give general advice based on their own experiences in a single instance. In my experience the terms legal and physical custody are used generally in Family Courts. A specific judge or court may use a different term to delineate between legal and physical custody. But going by that one instance could mislead a poster (as happened here). So you really need to be more careful.

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Originally Posted by this8384

So more 40 states have a legal term of "physical custody"; Wisconsin is not one of them apparently. Like JH said, those other states are "not the whole world." You've done nothing but reiterate the point that I have already made. Some states call it physical custody, some states call it placement; it doesn't make me wrong for using the term from my state. So you can type in CAPS lock and use red lettering all you want but all you're doing is beating a dead horse.

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When i saw this question it said nothing about it being a legal board... if this should only be answered by legal experts... then why can anyone answer it...

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Originally Posted by marcie mendalsk

WHEN I SAW THIS QUESTION IT SAID NOTHING ABOUT IT BEING A LEGAL BOARD...IF THIS SHOULD ONLY BE ANSWERED BY LEGAL EXPERTS ...THEN WHY CAN ANYONE ANSWER IT...

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This forum is titled Family LAW. No one is saying that only legal experts can answer, only that the answers need to be legally accurate. If someone wants to add their own personal experience, they can, but they need to identify it as such so the asker realizes that it may not apply to their situation.

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Originally Posted by ScottGem

Aside to this8384: This is a legal board. We have to be careful here that the advice we give is sound legal advice. One can't give general advice based on their own experiences in a single instance. In my experience the terms legal and physical custody are used generally in Family Courts. A specific judge or court may use a different term to delineate between legal and physical custody. But going by that one instance could mislead a poster (as happened here). So you really need to be more careful.

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I apologize for any confusion or misleading in my references to "custody" and/or "placement." I would like to point out though that I wasn't speaking from just a single instance. My parents got divorced when I was still a minor; their paperwork also referred to "placement" rather than "physical custody." I have a close friend who got divorced approximately 7 years ago and her paperwork states the same. So as I stated earlier, these are the terms that are used in my state. I agree with you, it can be misleading which is why I am apologizing; I should have explained myself better when initially referring to "custody" because we could have saved some people(myself included) a lot of arguing and a lot of red boxes.

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Originally Posted by marcie mendalsk

WHEN I SAW THIS QUESTION IT SAID NOTHING ABOUT IT BEING A LEGAL BOARD...IF THIS SHOULD ONLY BE ANSWERED BY LEGAL EXPERTS ...THEN WHY CAN ANYONE ANSWER IT...

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You are on a board marked law - family law in a thread marked child support.

Please don't shout - type in caps - or argue with people who know their stuff.