Arguably, one of the scariest parts of going through a divorce is trying to determine whether you will be able to make ends meet throughout the process and after the divorce is finalized.  With so many transitions taking place in a person’s life, it becomes important to form a budget.  But before a party is able to do that, he or she will need to determine what support should be expected.

As such, one of the first questions I hear from my new clients is, “How much child support will I have to pay?”  “How much spousal support will I have to pay?”  Or, “How much child and spousal support will I receive?”  This is determined by numerous family law statutes.

Child Support in California is determined by a guideline formula, and except in unusual cases, is not left to the discretion of the court. This formula is a complicated algorithm, but...