I’m talking like one person brought in all the money for a decade, then a divorce happens. Some of it makes sense - a house with mortgage, one spouse buys the other out of the house. Which is great, but if one spouse doesn’t have the income to take a loan out to buy the other, does that mean that the spouse who does have the income has the choice to buy out or sell?
Similarly, things like 401ks and pensions I imagine you can’t just take out half the cash in them and give that to their spouse. Or does that have to be a loan for the amounts in those plans?
Is it debt all the way down for both?
I might be wrong but I’m pretty sure retirement accounts are still split (if no agreement can be reached). Half, or whatever amount is decided, gets rolled into an IRA in the other spouse’s name.
This is true. Spouse can get half of any money added to a retirement/savings account. For PA at least, don’t know if other states are different.