I’m not a lawyer or a Judge and I don’t/can’t give legal advice.   I’m not an accountant  so I don’t/can’t give anybody any financial advice either.  All I can do is tell you about this website/blog, The DeadBeat  SpreadSheet.     I know a little about spreadsheets.

I recognized right from the first days of creating this thing that I would run into people who were kind of on the edge of anger, sanity, hopelessness, despair, and in some cases, starvation, addiction, eviction, tragic illness, and just plain old exhaustion.  I know because I’ve been there.  I’m DeadBeat1.

People assume that this web-blog is a place where angry Ex-wives can start the process of conveying to their Ex-husbands, a more detailed understanding about their financial responsibility to pay court ordered child support or alimony payments.   That assumption would be accurate.   But a calculator is, by nature, a double edged sword.  I mean by that, financial information, derived from a toy like this, can cut both ways.   Almost all disputes contain built-in bias. Calculators can only be as accurate as the information loaded into them.  One Ex might forget something that the other Ex remembers with crystalline clarity, and even be able to produce a canceled check to back up the memory.

Imagine, it is very likely, certainly possible, that both Ex’s could be using this calculator at the exact same time, and because of their different memories and understanding of their payments or their receivables, come up with differing amount totals which could even add further dispute in a more formal arena sometime in the future.  It could happen that way.

I can picture all this.  If you are using this calculator with a sense of anticipation that you might be sharing this information with a second or third party some time in the future, you need to be able to picture all this yourself.  People tend to get together in front of Judges and opposing attorneys, as only a last resort, or as the formal last step of an agreement.   Both sides usually bring with them their own set of informational work products and research. The DeadBeat Spreadsheet may be part of those packages, illuminated from both sides of the table, or at least it might be an initial step toward the end process to where a couple of minds ultimately meet and agree.

This blog entry is to the people who find themselves where they have just gained knowledge about this thing called The DeadBeat Spreadsheet, but who haven’t yet figured out that the thing can be used by everybody, including them.  I have attempted to design the thing, figuring that if you were old enough to get married and divorced too, you might have enough sense to use this calculator.  Oh well, perhaps a bridge too far.

Let me know.

DeadBeat1