Divorce is rarely easy, especially when the couple who is splitting carry significant assets between them. Unfortunately, a divorce that is handled poorly can turn the end of a marriage into personal nuclear fallout, leaving one or both parties rebuilding from the ground up. If you are currently divorcing, or considering a divorce, there are steps you can take to ensure that you will emerge on the other side without ending up homeless or bankrupt. Without taking precautions, it’s anyone’s guess how badly it might go.
No matter what your situation, whether you are ending a brief marriage with few assets to be divided, or dissolving a relationship of many years with significant assets and debts, one thing you can do to keep yourself safe is to get excellent legal counsel. An experienced attorney can help educate you about the full scope of what you stand to gain or lose through various actions you might take or compromises you might seek to make.
Even if your split is not an amicable one, it is important not to create an unnecessarily combative situation. The goal here is to get you legally divorced and to move on healthily to a new life and a new season. This means resisting the urge to turn a divorce negotiation into the venue for settling personal hurts. It will be tempting to use a negotiation to make another person pay very real resources for his or her personal shortcomings, but this is a double-edged sword that may bleed you dry just as it does them.
It is always good to educate yourself before any negotiation, but education from a disreputable source is not going to get you closer to a helpful resolution — you may be basing a strategy on bad information, and that could cost you dearly. The wise path is to be prudent in your financial choices, plan for a future with compromises, and focus on finishing your marriage with as much dignity as possible. An experienced attorney can help you navigate the finer points, and ensure that you are on a realistic path to a better future.
Source: uffington Post, “4 Things You Must Do to Protect Yourself From Going Bankrupt in a Divorce,” Cheryl and Joe Dillon, accessed Dec. 14, 2016
