Career and Pursuits

What impact has the current economic climate had on your decision to divorce?

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:42:58 -0400

* I have to put off my divorce until I can make it on my own * We’re still divorcing, but with increasing trepidation * Times are so tough that I'm having regrets about divorcing * No regrets, but I may need to renegotiate my settlement * None… Liberation is priceless!

What's the biggest challenge you have faced in your post-divorce job search?

Marshall — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:14:08 -0400

* There's a large time gap on my resume * I have no idea what I WANT to do or CAN do * I don't have the skills/education for the job I want/need * I can't afford childcare while I'm at work * I can't seem to fit my post-kid body into a cute pant suit

6 Tips for Weathering the Current Economic Climate

Jill Brooke — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:42:34 -0500

There's no sugarcoating that these economic times are tough and are creating the need to be resourceful with the money we have. That’s why we want to be your source for reSOURCEful spending.

Our FWW financial experts know how to stretch a dollar like salt water taffy and how to devise money-saving tips that won't leave a saccharine aftertaste in your wallet. The sweet life can still exist, as long as you’re smart and nimble with insurance, stocks, cars, your work, your home and your life.

Below we have gathered the best "nougats" from our experts. They provide nudges, hints, and suggestions for actions you can take to put the power back into your hands — where it belongs. And it's written in ways that anyone can understand. While it’s not a cure-all, it may be the needed spoonful of sugar in the castor oil of recession.

1. Save Money Wisely. Yes, we know it’s easier said than done. But with a little creativity, you can trim your budget with a scalpel, not a hatchet. First, try out 10 Painless Financial Slimmers to cut out your financial fat with very little pain and lots of gain. Next, spend a weekend Winterizing Your Home — we promise it works, whether you’re in Walla Walla or Williamsburg. Last but not least, Turn Off Your Financial Leaks — you know, the little things like ATM fees, insurance deductibles, and hidden airline costs. If you know the right tips, you can make like Moses and stop the flow before your pocketbook is drained.

Is My Husband Working Against Me Instead of With Me?

Megan Thomas — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:00:05 -0400

My husband is juggling graduate school and work right now, so he's a pretty busy guy. Luckily he's taking the classes online, so while I write at night he does his school work.

Why is he taking graduate classes? There are two reasons, I think. The first is because I want to start my graduate classes, but I don't want us both in school at the same time because I think the kids would get short-changed if both Mommy and Daddy were scrambling to get their homework done.

I told my husband that he needed to decide what he wanted to do because if he didn't enroll in classes soon then I would start up my graduate degree. After all, I'm really itching to get back to school and I do truly love being a student, so if he wasn't interested than I certainly was.

Lo and behold, he enrolled in classes.

The second reason why he is in graduate school didn't come out until just recently. He was complaining about how busy he is, and how hard he works, and how difficult it is to juggle everything (which I certainly don't dispute...he's working very hard right now).

Then it comes out during a discussion that the only reason he's enrolled in classes is because he thought it was what I wanted. He says he wasn't even sure he wanted a graduate degree, but I pushed him into it.

"Won't a graduate degree help you in your career?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I guess," he responded with a shrug.

I told him that he should make his own decisions, that he shouldn't do something major like enrolling in school if it's not something he wanted to do. He threw his arms up in the air and exclaimed, "I'm just trying to make you happy!"

Tips to Restarting Your Career After a Divorce

Debbie Nigro — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:04:58 -0400

Re-entering the workforce after a prolonged absence can be very difficult, especially if your confidence has been sacked by a divorce. Workplace Attorney Robin Bond returns to Debbie’s show to provide helpful advice on how to get your foot back in the door and then seal the deal for a prosperous career.

Wife Files for Divorce After Elected Official Caught Cheating

Linda Lee — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:02:04 -0400

Guys, won’t you learn from experience? Tim Mahoney won his US Congressional seat after Mark Foley, the previous representative from the district in Florida, resigned. Why? The bachelor Foley had sent sexually explicit emails to congressional pages, teenage boys. Sex scandal!

Now Mahoney, 52, who came to office two years ago with the campaign slogan “Restoring America’s values begins at home,” has admitted to sexual affairs (plural), and a payoff to a former mistress.

Mahoney, who lives in Palm Beach Gardens, is, unlike Foley, married. And, although his wife, Terry, stood by him a week ago as he admitted that he had created “pain” in his marriage, she now, no surprise, wants a divorce.

Mahoney admitted paying a campaign worker and former mistress, Patricia Allen, and her lawyer $121,903 to prevent a lawsuit over sexual harassment. A second relationship was also charged: Mahoney had an affair with a Florida woman who came to Washington to get FEMA aid for a 2004 hurricane. She got a $3.4 million federal grant.

Since Tim and Terry Mahoney have been married for 22 years, and he was a wealthy venture capitalist and computer marketer before he was a Congressman, and they have a daughter, Bailey, in college, and he has already admitted to adultery, and she campaigned hard for him when he sought election, Terry would presumably get a generous settlement.

For one thing, her court papers say, obviously referring to the $121,903 payoff, Tim Mahoney “recently sold jointly owned real property,” put the proceeds into his own account, and “dissipated funds from said account.”

Those were marital assets. Her divorce petition says that she is “in need of temporary, lump sum, rehabilitative and permanent periodic alimony, which the husband is well able to provide for.”

Rep. Mahoney lists his net worth as between $3 million and $12.7 million.

Sarah Palin and the He-Dude

Jill Brooke — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:32:32 -0400

With the confidence of a captain of the girls' basketball team, Sarah Palin swished her way into the office of Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, took a jump shot at being Governor of Alaska, and then slam dunked the nomination for the Republican vice presidency.

Along the way, she’s accomplished a feat that often sidelines powerful women. Throughout her impressive career, she has never made her husband look diminished.

How she has dribbled her way around this challenging issue is a subject truly worthy of debate. After all, studies in Social Forces and The Journal of Marriage and Family say that women who are more successful than their husbands have higher divorce rates.

Many powerful women have come forward to admit that their careers have sent their relationships to the bench, including Pink and Reese Witherspoon. Amy Adams in this month’s Vanity Fair says she’s looking for a guy who won’t look at her success as his failure.

Sarah Palin, however, seems blissfully unvexed. Using her arsenal of charm like a lethal weapon, she is showing America that you can be powerful and sexy at the same time. And you can keep your studmuffin by your side, looking happy.

Hillary Clinton, Golda Meir, Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel — none of these women’s relationships with their husbands conveyed much marital heat in public. The husbands were more likely to get their wives into hot water, or have been so lukewarm, no one paid any attention to them.

Now we have Todd Palin, the hot political hubby.

At campaign stops, Todd Palin looks macho while doing nothing more than standing there holding their baby.

Divorce Fallout Shadows Palin’s Campaign

Jill Brooke — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:50:24 -0400

Gov. Sarah Palin may be not be getting a wink of sleep now that an Alaska state judge allowed a probe to go forward into whether she abused her power. The Republican vice presidential nominee is under fire for pressuring Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to fire her ex brother-in-law, a state trooper.

The charges are that pressure to fire the trooper came from the Governor herself, her husband, Todd, and her staff. After Monegan did not agree, she fired him, citing disagreement over budget cuts.

And to her, that's a heck of a good reason and why should it be questioned otherwise?

On Thursday Judge Peter Michalski threw out the lawsuit filed by five Republican state legislators who claimed that Palin was the victim of an unfair partisan probe. The Republicans appear to be worried that a damaging report may surface before Election Day and affect voters. Or at least the kind of voters who vote based on performance.

The attorney for the five state legislators, Kevin Clarkson, claimed that the body that ordered the investigation had exceeded its authority.

But Michalski agreed with defense attorney Peter Maassen, who argued that the Legislature has broad authority to investigate the governor. The mere appearance of impropriety does not mean any individual's right to fairness was violated, Michalski wrote in his decision.

“It is legitimately within the scope of the legislature's investigatory power to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the termination (of) a public officer the legislature had previously confirmed,” the judge wrote.

Is College the Only Answer for your Child?

Linda Lee — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:02:12 -0400

As of 2002, only seven states had extended child support to age 21 or beyond. In most others, court-ordered support ends when a child is 18 or finishes high school. Not surprisingly, analysis at Cornell University of a study of 27,000 high school students in the 80s and 90s showed that children of divorce were 40 percent less likely to apply to a selective college, and half as likely to attend.

It’s not just the lack of financial support, it is also the physical and emotional disruption that stalls some kids in their academic careers. Some see their grades fall, and never get back on the academic track. Others drift away from school, sports, and authority figures.

So, especially if you are a single mom, in this season when prep classes begins for SAT and ACT tests, when you are planning to haul your high school junior around the country to visit four-year colleges, when the college applications are filing your child’s inbox, and application fees are waiting to be paid, stop.

Although most parents would have a hard time admitting it – I did – not every child belongs in college. And a lot of kids should not go to college straight out of high school.

Putting yourself in the poor house trying to earn or borrow enough to send him or her to college is not a sound investment in your own future.

The average cost of a four-year college education at a public university or college right now is $75,000, including tuition, books, fees, room and board, and travel to school, but not including spring break, the new laptop, and a cute winter jacket. At a private institution, it’s $152,000.

Think you have a few years ahead of you to save that up? If your child starts college in the fall of 2016, the average cost of a public college four-year education will be $116,000, and a private college education, $237,000.

That’s a whole lot of spaghetti dinners for the next eight years. And no nights out.

Career to Blame for Pink's Divorce

Jill Brooke — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:32:24 -0400

Pop sensation Pink isn’t blue that she’s through with her ex-husband, the motocross biker Carey Hart. But she does blame her career. She’s not alone in feeling work drove her marriage straight into the dirt.

In an interview, Pink says, “It ‘s such a cliché when you talk about a Hollywood divorce, but the scheduling did get very hard. And it seemed that I was always the one left in charge of it. I got tired of being the Schedule Woman.”

Indeed, it can be exhausting having to juggle so much. Which is why one West Virginia University study shows that working women have a higher divorce rate and cites as a major irritant the disparity between the housework they do, and the housework their mate does.

Maybe it’s also because guys seem to have the lazy gene but when you are capably steering a demanding career, it’s not easy to come home and cater to a husband who collapses into a chair and expects burgers and beer, even if he has had a hard day being a Moto X daredevil.

She married Hart in 2006 in a celebrity-packed wedding in Costa Rica. He, now 32, was a star of “The Surreal Life” reality show and is famous for his tattoo parlors, Hart & Huntington, in Las Vegas, Cabo, and Hawaii.

When you have a career, and like Pink, you are young, successful and fun, you don’t need to put up with a guy who isn’t doing even 65 percent of his part. Financial independence does give you the ability to say, or sing, “See ya.”

In fact, that is what the 28-year-old Pink did. In a new song, she belts out the following lyrics, which could be interpreted as a slap in you-know-who’s face.

“And I don’t need you/ And guess what?/ I’m having fun.”