Source: Reddit
Best girlfriend I had to date at the time. I was in my late 30s had never been married. Dated about a year.
Got married. Shortly after she asked to have her name on all of my assets (a few rental houses, current house, and some financial instruments, the cars). Not a problem as we were married I thought, but on a Wednesday she insisted it be done by that Friday. I didn’t have time to do that because work and a deadline, I could start it the next week I said.
She pitched a fit and said if I loved her I would do it by Friday. I found this strange and decided not to start it and see what happened. She moved out of our bedroom into a guest room. Got cold around the house, told me she would move back in to our bedroom when I finished getting everything done.
At this point I thought “Bullshit” and told her so. I went to my family lawyer to seek advice. She advised me not to put anything in her name at this point. Gave me the name of a marriage counselor.
She didn’t want to go to counseling, she continued to live in the guest room, I took my lawyer’s advice and did nothing about the assets.
The long and short of it was after 1 year off marriage, when on our anniversary she told me I didn’t have her in my heart, I thought to my self, “this is bullshit.”
About a week after that I told her if this is the way it’s going to be, I’m not going to be married like this. She then told me, “Ok, so what are you going to give me?” Yes… she said that.
I consulted my lawyer on what a judge would come up with regarding community property for the past year. Number came up to 20g I took that number and added about 20 grand and proposed that to her so we can make it easy. I was going to spend more than that in lawyers fees if it got ugly.
It got ugly.
A week later I got served with papers, with all said in the complaint, when added up, she was going after $750k for 1 year of marriage. 1 year of divorce proceedings and 2 years of property settlement proceedings on what should have been a 2-hour problem.
Judgement came, 215 points in the judgement, I owed her what would have been the community property (about 20 grand), but awarded me attorney’s fees. So in net, she owed me about 30 grand and left her to go buy her own car.
Turns out this judge had worked her ass off through school to become a lawyer and the same to become a judge by 40 years old. I was told by another attorney that normally this judge never gives attorney’s fees, but was so pissed off at the gold dig my wife attempted, that she felt it was justified in this case.
Even though I came out OK financially, it was an emotional train wreck to have this happen and go through all that. It’s been 15 years since it happened. I was not date-able for about 2 years, but now very happy with where I am and who I’m with.
