After separation, one of the most practical questions is often: Can I qualify for a mortgage on my income alone? For some people, the answer determines whether they can keep the family home. For others, it determines what they can afford to buy next. Separation can change both sides of a mortgage application at once. Household income may drop from two incomes to one. Support payments may become a continuing financial obligation. An existing joint mortgage may still appear as

When children spend substantial time in both parents' homes, child support is calculated differently than it is in a more traditional parenting arrangement. The number most parents hear about is 40%. Under Ontario's Child Support Guidelines, shared parenting applies for child-support purposes where each parent exercises at least 40% of the parenting time with the child over the course of a year. The Federal Child Support Guidelines use the same threshold. But reaching 40% doe

The monthly child-support table amount is not always the entire child-support obligation. Some costs relating to a child can be added on top of the basic table amount. These are commonly called section 7 expenses, after section 7 of the Child Support Guidelines. But not every expense for a child qualifies. The first question is whether the expense falls within one of the categories recognized by the Guidelines. The second is whether it is necessary in relation to the child's

If you are separating with children, child support is usually one of the first financial issues that needs to be understood. Ontario's child-support framework is designed to make the calculation more consistent than many other areas of family law. But that does not mean every case is solved by typing one income into an online calculator. For many families, the starting point is a table amount based on income and the number of children. The calculation can become more complica