Maybe you’re thinking about asking your spouse for a divorce. Or maybe you’ve already had this conversation and it’s time to turn your attention to the process itself.
Either way, it’s a must that you protect your finances to the best of your ability. Neglecting to do so will add stress to an already difficult time in your life.
There are a variety of ways to protect your finances as you prepare for divorce, including but not limited to the following:
- Create a property and debt division checklist: This is a list of all the assets and liabilities that will come into play during your divorce. For example, common assets include the family home, bank accounts, retirement accounts and motor vehicles. Liabilities are things such as credit cards, personal loans and home equity lines of credit. When creating this checklist, make a separate list for any assets and debts that are individual, as opposed to marital.
- Create a budget: Your post-divorce budget is critical to maintaining financial stability. When you create a budget early on, you have a better idea of what to expect after your divorce is finalized. Keep in mind that your budget in the future won’t be anything like your budget from the past.
- Review your prenuptial or post-nuptial agreement: If you created either one of these, review it to better understand how it will impact your divorce and financial future.
- Consider the impact of alimony and child support: Sometimes one or both of these come into play. Other times you don’t have to worry about either. If you think that alimony and/or child support will affect you in the future, either by receiving or making payments, begin to prepare for it now.
When you take these steps, you’ll feel better about your ability to protect your finances as you prepare for divorce.
While there’s no way to know what will happen during and after your divorce, proper preparation will give you peace of mind.
Once you have a plan in place, you can turn your attention to other aspects of the divorce process and how to best protect your legal rights.
