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FINDINGS OF FACT
The parties have stipulated some facts, which we incorporate
herein by this reference. When they petitioned the Court,
petitioners resided in Homewood, Illinois.
Background
Petitioner husband (hereinafter, Richard) is the primary
wage earner for petitioners’ family of four. Petitioner wife
(hereinafter, Catherine) has had very limited work experience.
At the time of trial, petitioners’ children were 15 and 18 years
old.
Until 1997, Richard worked as a municipal bonds salesman at
various investment banking firms in Chicago, Illinois. According
to his testimony, he was a “very, very good salesman” and in the
early 1990s made “tremendous amounts of money”. At some point,
due to changes in the financial services industry, his income
began to fall. In 1997, at age 53, Richard went into business
with a friend providing management, consulting, and training
services. Before making this job change, he had been earning
about $120,000 a year. By 1998, his earnings had dropped to
$54,173.
In January 1999, Richard had quintuple bypass surgery. He
was unable to return to work until July 1999; he worked only
about 10 weeks that year, earning $49,067. He did not return to
work full time until May 2001, when he took a job with a trust
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