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"Is it better to take more of the marital property, such as a house or IRA, instead of spousal support?"

It really depends on your individual circumstances. That will include your age, how close you are to retirement, how many assets you have, whether you have children -- there are a lot of factors that go into evaluating which is best to do.

Many times you'll have an IRA (let's say it's worth $500,000), but after tax, that IRA is worth only $250,000. On the other hand, if you have $250,000 in a home, that may be tax-free. So you have to evaluate those in the big picture in the settlement, making sure that that's going to work for both parties. You have to make sure that both parties have the liquidity and the cash flow still to be able to maintain the assets that they do. For example: if the wife maintains the home, will she have enough cash flow to be able to maintain the mortgage? Because if she keeps the home, she has to refinance it to get the husband's name off the mortgage if she wants a tax deduction and the husband wants to go out and buy property for himself.

Paul J. Toohey is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP^®) and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA^™). He is a member of Collaborative Divorce Solutions, a Collaborative Divorce Group located in Orange County, CA. His financial services can be reached at (714) 998-8200. View his Divorce Magazine profile.