I did the lump sum alimony buyout like oldtimer mentions. Since I booted her from the house early on, I kept the house and refinanced it to payoff the division of assets and spousal support buyout.
I could have won in court since OM was supporting her just fine, but there was too much risk and I did not want to be making possibly bigger alimonly payouts monthly. As it stands now, my house payment only went up around $200 a month as opposed to the $1200 montly they were asking for spousal support.
One advantage of monthly alimony is that you can deduct from your taxes. The disadvantage to your XW will be that she has to pay tax on it.
When it comes time to haggle over the financial aspect, I highly recommend that both of you think about a mediator that can also draft up the divorce judgment. The mediator can give a good idea to both of you how it would go down if you got two lawyers involved.
Make sure you get in writting who is responsible financially for the current extracurricular activities the kids are doing now.
Also, if you make considerably more than your STBXW, it would benefit you more to claim the kids as a deduction/tax credit until your STBXW can increase her income.
