That’s Just Life in This Community Property State

Question: I have gone through a bitter divorce from a man who gambled, stole our community assets through home equity loans and credit lines, and seldom worked (he played a lot of golf at an exclusive country club). We were married 12 1/2 years.

I am 60 years old. I was forced to sell our primary residence, quit my job and move to a more affordable area. We had a rental condo, which he chose to live in following our separation. I was paying all the bills, including the mortgage on our primary residence. He tricked me several times into signing papers regarding the various loans he was taking out. He also had nearly $38,000 in credit card debt and owed his father considerable sums of money.

The judge who was assigned was too busy to hear my case. She awarded me nothing from the country club membership, nor from any of the assets he squandered. When she was advised of the abusive marriage, she said, “Why didn’t you leave him earlier? Where is your proof? Where are the checks he wrote? You are being unreasonable.�

The kicker is that I have to pay him half of my pension from the company I just left, after working as an administrative assistant for nine years. I also have to pay him half of my 401(k) retirement savings plan. He has a little money in an individual retirement account, but it certainly does not balance out. His lawyer and my lawyer couldn’t wait to get this case settled and smiled when he was awarded half of my retirement.

I think the California court system is biased against the older woman. The community property laws are working against us.

--N.P.

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Answer: I’m sure your ex-husband has a long list of faults (although he must have had some virtues if you were wed for more than 12 years), but divorce court is not the place to air them. It’s simply a place to split your marital assets. If there is some reason assets should not be split in half, you need to show proof (such as an inheritance or certain assets you had prior to the marriage).

As for your pension, many a man has complained about the same thing. “Why,� they ask, “must I pay half of my pension to that lazy ex-wife of mine who played tennis all day?� Because California is a community property state. That’s how community property laws work. Get over it and get on with your life.

There Are Safeguards for Online Investing

Q: I am considering investing through an online brokerage, but I am concerned about disclosing sensitive personal information on the Internet. Will it be confidential and safe? Should I be worried about identity theft? Or am I just too chicken here?

--D.L.

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A: It’s wise to be cautious, particularly because well-publicized online break-ins into retail sites may have put customer information at risk. But you shouldn’t be so cautious that you avoid using convenient and cost-effective ways to invest. Most financial services firms that operate on the Web have many layers of security aimed at keeping your account information and your money safe.

So, before you do any business on the Web, check out the company’s security and privacy policies. If you are sending a brokerage firm money, check to make sure it’s a member of the Securities Industry Protection Corp., better known as SIPC, which insures customer accounts of up to $500,000 in cash and stock. Also check out the brokerage firm’s complaint history with the National Assn. of Securities Dealers at (800) 289-9999. Finally, make sure that you regularly monitor your account. That way, in the unlikely event that there’s a break-in, you’ll know if someone has tampered with your account.

Don’t Be in a Rush to Repay Student Loan

Q: I read a column about how much interest you could save by paying a home mortgage off early. Would you give the same advice to someone who has student loan payments? I have approximately $10,000 remaining on my student loans. Payments are to run until 2007, and I pay a total of $225 a month.

Does it make sense to reduce my principal by adding to my monthly payments?

--D.C.

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A: One of the reasons it makes sense to prepay a mortgage is that you build equity in the home. If you need the money that you prepaid later, you can borrow it back. But you can’t do that with a student loan.

Additionally, student loans come at a low rate and are highly flexible. You can, for instance, get payment deferrals if you are out of work or want to go back to school. So, generally, I tell people to pay off every other debt first--and contribute to their 401(k) and/or start an automatic savings plan--before paying off these loans. You can save a bit of interest by prepaying a student loan, but the savings is usually not significant enough to make up for losing all that flexibility.

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Times staff writer Kathy M. Kristof welcomes your comments and suggestions for columns but regrets that she cannot respond individually to letters or phone calls. Write to Personal Finance, Business Section, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012, or e-mail [email protected].