What's a fair settlement?

Hi,
I'm in the early stages of divorce and would like some views on what might be considered a fair settlement in my case.

We have both said that we'd ideally like to agree our own arrangements rather than incur large legal bills...with the wellbeing of the children our top priority.


Some details:
We are both aged 40ish
Married for 10 years, together for 15+
2 children (6 and 8)...both in primary school and we'd like to keep them in the same school

My income after-tax £3,000/month
Wife's Income: £1,500/month (3 days/wk)

Savings: £3k/£1k (me/wife)

Property: 4 bed value £430k, £170k joint mortgage (giving £260k equity)

Pensions: Unknown value right now...so ignoring for now for the sake of simplicity. Mine will be greater than hers as I have had one for 20 years, her for 5 years.

No other debts/cards/loans, etc

Assets: (only house contents and old cars (no car payments)): ~£20k of value.

In terms of child care, I would like to have a 50/50 split of time. I work from home and have flexibility in my hours. I currently do school drop off 3 days a week (when wife is working) and the odd pick up too, plus I take them to their sports classes. My parents help with after-school care a few days a week. I currently see a lot of my kids which I would like to continue...hopefully this 50/50 is possible.

Online mortgage calculators suggest I could get a total mortgage of £260k-£280k and wife could get £100k-£120k (rising to £150-£160k if she worked more days on pro-rata salary increase)
Local house prices are roughly:
3-bed house is about £330-350k...low end and quite small
2 bed flat/house is about £250k-£280k / £280k-£300k

Given my wife's lower salary it feels like a split would be heavily weighted to her (even with equal child residency) but I don't know if it's likely to be, say, 60/40 or 90/10. Any impartial thoughts/advice would be welcome.

Thanks
John

Not an expert by any means but it seemed to me when reading through this that you are mixing spousal support and child support. And it might be easier conceptually if you kept them separate. While you might be able to get a Clean Break in the court for the spousal side I don't see how you will get that for the children's support. However if you can agree something for both aspects with your ex and get that sanctioned by court, well done the pair of you.
Quite happy to be told I am wrong and to shut up!

Still missing some details but the children are still young so unlikely she would be expected to be full time just yet. With 50/50 childcare shed in theory have no maintenance due and her salary probably gets close to precluding any tax credits so she is financially weaker.

With £260k equity but needing £660k of housing between you and only £360k of potential mortgage capacity (selling and buying costs and stamp duty for you both are also going to add more) it’s very tight so things would likely stand in her favour. Are the children same sex so 2 bed properties could be feasible for you both in the short term? Regardless the pensions may well need to come into play and you sacrifice your equity slice to keep your pension as you have greater earning and mortgage power. But with such fine margins and unknowns it could be a tough decision and you need to think how much you are prepared to risks in legal fees etc.

Not quite the same figures but I ended up with something like a 70/30 equity split for a 25/75 pension split but I also pay child maintenance which covers some of the financial disparity in wages for now. If the kids were closer to high school age I imagine they may be expecting her to do more but with a 6 year old I imagine she may be seen as doing enough for now and it’s down to you both to cut the cloth accordingly. If you need the children in the same school do both of you need to be in exactly the same area or can one of you find somewhere cheaper in a slightly further away area?