[souprock]

I suspect that a lot of the financially awful decisions come from relationship troubles.

If you think your spouse will waste the money, you might try to spend it first. Of course, that is probably waste in your spouse's eyes, so your spouse is incentivized to spend the money first. That justifies your suspicion that the money would be wasted by your spouse if you didn't spend it first.

Especially after divorce, people can get into a bidding war for being the favorite parent. Christmas has just had a huge impact, but it goes on year round.

Somebody who is hopelessly behind on child support might not see any point in having assets that are easy to seize.