“Is it illegal,” Jason asked his lawyer, nervously, “for me to hide my own income from my wife?”

“It is not a crime to spend your own money,” the lawyer said, and I am told he said it with a visible distaste.

“But in a custody and child support hearing, a man who concealed his real income from his family, specifically in order to keep his household contribution low, looks utterly fraudulent to a family court judge.

And the judge will not set your support obligation based on the forty thousand you told your wife.

He’ll set it based on the sixty-five you actually earn.

Your lie didn’t lower your payments, Mr.