When the young partners to an Arizona couple begin their lives in marriage, they may face the challenges that many young people do: expensive housing options, jobs that do not seem to pay enough and exorbitant costs associated with utilities, food and entertainment. Getting by can be challenging when a person is early in their career, but as time goes on many individuals enjoy promotions and the pay increases that come with them to boost the standard at which they live.
Over the course of a marriage, a couple may go from just getting by to saving for retirement, living comfortably and easily supporting themselves and their kids. Their standard of living may be secure, but should the partners to that couple choose to divorce, the economic stability of the partners may come into question. This can be especially true for a partner who elects to support their family at home in lieu of holding down a wage-earning career.
Without an income a person may feel as though divorce will be a financial cataclysm. They may struggle to envision a way to support themselves or to find a job with so many years out of the workforce. In order to help a person continue to live at their marital standard of living and to ensure that they financially have what they need, a person may be awarded alimony by their divorce court.
Prior posts on this blog have discussed what alimony is and how it may be paid from ex-spouse to ex-spouse. For many, alimony is a necessary component of financial independence when marriages end and financially dependent spouses are suddenly on their own.