I’m in the process of getting a divorce, and my wife and I agreed to split the profits from selling the house, in addition to settling a few other debts. It’s seems like a straightforward calculation, but I’m finding the results are different depending on what order I calculate the individual parts. I’m sure I’m missing something simple, but I want to make sure I have it right for obvious reasons.
So, let’s say the profit on the house is 200k. I paid off her car loan a month or so ago because her lease was up and she didn’t have the cash until the house sold. I had also loaned her dad 10k that she didn’t have the money to pay me back. (Numbers are ballpark, not actual. I assume that doesn’t effect the process and simplifies the calculations).
If I subtract the 15k and 10k from 200k, I get 175k. Divided by two the that leaves us 87.5k each. Plus the subtracted 25k, so my share is 112.5k.
If I split the 200k, we get 100k each. Then she gives me the 25k she owes me, so my share is 125k, and hers is 75k.
She calculated it the first way. I assumed the money she owed me wasn’t part of the house proceeds, so we just split it, and then she paid me back. SO I calculated it the second way. We haven’t talked about it yet, but of course we’re both going to prefer the method that nets us more I’m fine with either actually, I’d just like it to be as fair as something can be in a situation like this, and I’d like to understand what the difference between the two methods is.