Stories like these hit consumers hard during times of extreme belt-tightening. Jon Reddin is retiring from his position as a district attorney for Milwaukee County after 35 years on the job. And he'll be taking more than a million dollars of taxpayer money with him.

Reddin gets a lump sum payout of $976,499 immediately upon retiring. In addition to that, he'll be getting monthly pension checks of $6,070, or $72,840 a year. Not a bad payday, if you can get it.

What's behind this massive windfall for Reddin? It stems from the locally recognized "pension scandal" that occurred in 2000 and 2001. Milwaukee County lawmakers approved a benefit package for county employees that included these lavish pension benefits. When taxpayers found out the real cost of these benefits, all hell broke loose. But it was too late. The benefits had been approved and the lawyers said it couldn't be undone.

So during a time when families, businesses, and governments are struggling to make ends meet, retirees are walking away with huge sums of money that seem like a slap in the face to the rest of us. I realize that Reddin didn't ask for this benefit, and he's simply collecting what shady lawmakers assigned to him. It doesn't decrease the sting of the reality of a million dollar retirement benefit courtesy of taxpayers, however.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

With money being listed as one of the top three reasons that couples fight, it's no doubt that it is a tricky and touchy subject to deal with. The issues can be even harder to deal with if the situation incorporates complex legal rules. In order to better prepare yourself for the obstacles in or after your marriage related to money take Money magazine's "Your marital money rights" quiz.

Check out some of the questions below.

1. Can I cut my spouse out of my will?
2. Can my divorced spouse get my social security?
3. Can men get alimony? - Check out more on Manimony at WalletPop!
4. Will my husband's pension provide for me too?
5. My spouse has large credit card debt in her name. Am I responsible for it?
6. I found my spouse's secret savings account! Do I get half?

You'll have to head over to Money magazine to find out the answers to these questions, a few of which may surprise you. Even if a particular question doesn't fit your current place in life, the knowledge is worth having, if only to remind you to look further into a situation when it happens to you or a friend.

Do you have any marriage and money questions? Leave them in the comments and we'll try to get an answer for you.