Texas Divorce Forms: Fill & Download for Free

In Texas, divorce decrees are a lot longer then they were in the 80’s. The TX Legislature has added a lot of sections to the TX Family Code. I divorced in the 80’s with a child - my decree was around 12 pages total. Today that same decree would be easily over 30 pages. The TX Legislature got tired of people litigating and they became a lot more detailed in how people should behave after they end their relationships.

I was an assistant district attorney for a small city in Texas in the 1990’s, and we had several “sovereign citizens”. The previous administration had far too much work with prosecuting a multiple defendant capital murder case and had let the antics of the sovereign citizens go while they worked on that case. When we took over after a bitter election, those cases fell to me to resolve. Like they say, crap flows down hill . . .It all started with a $50 traffic ticket. The main antagonist thereafter was repeatedly arrested for failing to register his automobiles. Each car was cheerfully impounded, but because he didn't believe in the fiat monetary system, he wouldn't pay to get them out. We literally had a small section of the impound yard devoted to his cars. We couldn't sell the cars because he filed multiple lawsuits to recover them, even though he didn't respect the court system orders because the courtroom flag had fringes on it, “which renders it a maritime court” without jurisdiction to render judgment on sovereign citizens. The previous administration had just ignored this clown.I didn't. We pressed forward with litigating each of his lawsuits, gaining judgments in the county's favor in each case. We filed liens on his personal and real properties for the unpaid citations and judgments, and then, we executed on those judgments. He had to be restrained from committing violence against the sheriff at each sale, and in one case ended up jailed for several months for battery on a peace officer. He lost almost all his Texas property in this fashion, which was substantial.He had been litigating with the county for so long in state and federal court that they had declared him a vexatious litigant, so he was unable to use the Court system without permission. This left him without remedy when he had a truly reasonable claim for possible personal injury he sustained at the hands of jailers, but the federal court wouldn't give him leave to file. He lost the potential for compensation there.He moved to New Mexico, where he continued filing lawsuits in New Mexico courts against the Texas county, which gave him a backdoor into federal court due to a diversity of citizenship. After a brief number of suits so filed, he was again declared a New Mexico vexatious litigant, and again had to get permission to file lawsuits of any kind. This led him to being unable to file for divorce, but his wife WAS able to file - in Texas - where she continued to reside, and because she didn't have an address at which she could have him served because, of course, sovereign citizens don't need no stinkin' address, she had to serve him via posting in a newspaper. He never answered the suit for divorce, and as a result, she won by default, and the court awarded her ALL the property, including the New Mexico ranch. He lost everything in the divorce, even after appealing the judgment.He had an airplane. He scrubbed off the federal registration and painted on his own registration for his sovereignty. The FAA caught wind of this - likely through the ex-wife who wanted to collect the airplane which the divorce court awarded her - and they aided her in finding the plane, which was then seized and after some litigation, again given to her. In that process, he again assaulted a peace officer, and he was tazed repeatedly, aggravating a heart condition.All in all, had he simply followed the law and submitted to the law of the land, paid his $50 ticket, and not been a so called “sovereign citizen", he would have avoided the loss of millions of dollars in property and the pain of a bad heart. If he is still alive, his life now sucks.

I originally was planning on retiring when I was 55. Unfortunately, having two children, paying for two weddings, one divorce, and two college educations set me back ten years. Paying the legal costs for my daughter’s divorce was necessary because it involved custody of two of my grandchildren and a house that I owned jointly with my daughter. That divorce actually cost me more than the two weddings combined.At present, I’m 65 and living with my wife in a new 2500 square foot, Italian-villa style house on 1.2 acres in the Texas Hill country in preparation for retirement. My wife is already retired and collecting a California teacher’s pension. I’m still working remotely for Cisco in San Jose, CA; but, I’ve made it clear that my 66th birthday in December of 2019 will be my last day of employment. Actually, I have enough money to retire right now, but Cisco made it worth my while to continue a little longer.So, the answer to your question is Yes it is possible to retire in your 50’s — but only if you don’t have unexpected events that drain your resources. No one can predict those for sure.Follow up edit: Wow! Thanks for all of the great comments and positive feedback! After much thought and consideration, I have decided to move into part-time consulting and full-time retirement on September 1, 2019. However, I will still be programming and possibly teaching at the nearby Texas State University - San Marcos. I’m not giving up. I’m just moving on to a new phase.