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Britt Erica Tunick is an award winning financial journalist who has spent the past 17 years writing about virtually every aspect of finance. She has mastered the art of boiling down complicated financial topics for readers to understand. |
If divorce is in your future, there are some things to keep in mind when it comes to your finances before splitting up. A Few Things to Consider on the Financial Front Before Getting Divorced By Britt Erica Tunick Like it or not, nearly 50% of marriages in the U.S. end in divorce. If divorce is in your future, there are some things to keep in mind when it comes to your finances before splitting up. Regardless of your financial situation, divorce can be expensive from the cost of lawyers, to the fact that you and your spouse will now need to deal with double the costs for everything from housing, to insurance policies and even utility bills. If children are involved that means child support as well. Knowing exactly where you stand financially and what your long-term needs will be can make splitting up the finances a much easier task. To do that, gather historical information on your finances, both individually and as a couple, for a minimum of five years, as this will be necessary when dividing up assets. Putting together an all-inclusive financial plan means having information on everything from mortgage payments and monthly expenses, to retirement savings and investments. Before heading to court the best thing you can do to make things easier, and to keep down the amount of money you’ll wind up paying attorneys, is to determine what kind of lifestyle you will be able to sustain on your own. Determining such things in advance is important as they can be a major factor in deciding whether or not one of you should hold on to the home you shared as a married couple, or whether selling it and downsizing is a more realistic approach. Being as honest as possible about financial records is also important, as lawyers have the ability to make sure that everything you and your spouse disclose is accurate and that you are not leaving out certain holdings in hopes of a settlement more favorable to yourself. |
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