Talking About Family Attorney Services

Financial Mistakes To Avoid So Your Divorce Settlement Makes Sense

4 September 2019

Norman Kelly

Going through a divorce is a huge life change, but not only will you be losing a spouse, but you will also see a drastic change in your financial situation most of the time. If you are not careful during the divorce filing process, you can make some big financial mistakes that make your divorce settlement less than logical. Here are a few mistakes to avoid. 

Underestimating or overestimating your personal budget during filing for divorce. 

Many people fill out their paperwork so quickly just to get things done and over with when filing for a divorce that they don't really bother to get all that technical about their assumed budget as a single person. These figures of how much money you make and what your personal bills will be can be a huge deciding factor in the divorce case when it comes to things like spousal support and who gets what property. Therefore, it is incredibly important that you don't just estimate what you think your income or expenses will be; do the actual legwork to figure out the numbers so they properly reflect your financial situation. 

Disregarding the fact that you will have taxes to pay on major monetary assets. 

Your spouse has an attractive stock portfolio worth a lot of money and you feel that half of that is rightfully yours, so you manage to convince the judge to award it to you. Don't forget that monetary assets will come along with taxes due at the end of the year when you file taxes on your own. The inheritance of half of that attractive stock portfolio may not seem quite worth it then. 

Using emotions to decide who gets what and why. 

You may be attached to the marital home, shared vehicle, or something else, but it is really best if you can leave emotions out of it when you are dividing marital property. Of course, you will be partial to certain tangible pieces of property, but looking at things from an emotional standpoint can get you into trouble when the divorce is final. For instance, you may love the house because it has so many memories along with it, but if there is no way you can afford to keep it once the divorce is final because your solo income is not enough, you really don't need to be fighting for this piece of property during divorce proceedings. 

For more information, contact companies like the Budget Divorce Center. 

Share

Search