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"I think we all know that divorce leaves you hurting in the wallet. And of course, the more acrimonious your divorce is, the more you&amp;#039;re going to pay to see it done. I have a an old friend who had a cheating ex-husband who left her and moved right in with his &amp;quot;other woman&amp;quot; while their son was still a toddler. She was so angry, so bitter, so torn up, that she ended up going after him with everything she had and a lot of what she didn&amp;#039;t have. She was the primary breadwinner in the household, so it was honestly like getting blood from a stone. She wanted to stay in the familial home, which happened to be her ex&amp;#039;s childhood home, so of course, he fought her on that. Then she tried for full custody, which was fought as well.  When all was said and done, she ended up getting the house but having to buy him out of it, sharing 50/50 joint custody of their child, and having to pay out over $30k in lawyer fees. She also lost a good portion of her life to stress and time spent with lawyers and in court. Their divorce was so contentious, the judge ordered parental evaluations, as well as therapy for both of them and for their kid, too.  All that emotional drama aside, my mind still boggles that she spent $30,000 getting divorced. And that&amp;#039;s just her half! If they both could have saved the bitterness and anger and split up in a more civil fashion, that money could have started an awesome college savings account for their kid. It&amp;#039;s just amazing how much all this legal stuff can add up to. Peter and I are using a mediator, and we&amp;#039;re already over $5,000 in fees. We saved some money by agreeing to let each other keep our pension accounts untouched (we each had a small pension from a former employer), but if we&amp;#039;d tried to divide them, we would have had to pay for an outside valuation to the tune of more than a thousand dollars each. We also have to pay to have our QDRO drawn up, court fees, and who knows what else. And we&amp;#039;re getting off cheap! I knew this would take money, but I never realized just how much. Was it surprising to you how much a divorce can cost? [Follow Ellie on Twitter and Facebook] "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/relationships/dating-marriage/a48029/divorce-is-expensive/?src=rss>