Can I pay my school loan?

[Vega]

I have a 2300 dollar school loan. I just had my divorce paperwork filed with the clerk today. I have about 2000 in my checking account. If I pay my school loan with that money will I owe her half since it was a debt aquired prior to me filing?

[beenthere]

I wouldn't divest myself of all my cash right now.

Secondly, your cash is probably a marital asset which means you only "own" 50% of it. Most of the time, school loans usually belong to the one who took it out.

Based upon that, if you used the marital finds to pay off your loan, you could end up having to come up with half of the money you used to pay off your loan.

[defaultuser]

I'd pay the loan. It is most likely non marital, and using marital funds to pay it benefits you.

It will be up to her to try and get it straight. Better to have her try and get the money back than to give it away.

[Vega]

That's the one reason I haven' paid it. I am afraid i'll need it. But then again If im gonig to have to turn around and give it to her it may not benefit me anyways. If I pay the loan... at least that will be a done deal. Even thought the school loan was my debt.. isn't all debt marital debt? This is a tough one. I am leaning toward just paying it to get rid of it. At least that way I can go back to school. I only have 10 classes before I get my degree so I would hate to have to wait 2 yrs untill I pay it off to finish. :/

[anonymous guest]

Unless you have a stash of cash somewhere else for your war chest (to pay your lawyer) I'd keep it.

[Vega]

Unless you have a stash of cash somewhere else for your war chest (to pay your lawyer) I'd keep it.

So if I keep it and give it to the lawyer for payment.. at what point do I have to come up with her half? Is that something that gets decided in the end?

[anonymous guest]

You will probably have to tally it all up and divide it at the end. if you have no cash, then you will probably have to give up an asset, or part of an asset ($2300 worth).

[anonymous guest]

Oops responded to wrong thread! Sorry!

[defaultuser]

I think this whole discussion is silly. Its a mere 2k. Not going to make or break the guy, or even be something the judge will spend a lot of time on.

Either pay it or don't. If you pay, do it now, so 2 years down the road when your final hearing is up, this will be water under the bridge.

If you would have paid it a year ago, it would have been a non-marital debt paid with marital money, but wouldn't be able to be brought up in the divorce...