Divorce is an experience that is not easy to go through with. A lot of people just give up when they realize that a divorce is around the corner. To most people, the primary objective is getting the entire ordeal over with as soon as possible.
However, unless you can afford a lawyer who will take care of everything for you, you are going to want to be very careful on how your money is utilized and split during the divorce. There are plenty of divorce attorneys in Scottsdale and other cities who offer these services. If you aren’t careful, the chances are that you are going to be on the losing end of the liquidation of your marriage. Here are 4 tips you can follow in order to ensure that you save as much money as you can in this trying time:
- Avoid going to courts – This is known as a litigated divorce. It is essentially a divorce in which the judge presides over the proceedings, dictating who gets certain assets and ensuring that the process is done “fairly”. The chances are that you are not going to be treated fairly in your litigated divorce, and you are going to be out by about $25,000.
On the other hand, a divorce in which the couple does the entire process on their own can cost as little as $300 for administrative fees. If you absolutely have to get extra help, you can get other divorce options like arbitration.
- Close joint accounts – this is very important. The second that you know you and your spouse are to be divorced, make sure that you close all the joint credit accounts that you opened together during your marriage.
If you don’t do this, you could be made to pay for your ex-spouse’s purchases using these accounts even after the marriage has been dissolved. You also need to make sure that any account passwords you shared with each other are changed, in order to make what is yours, yours once more.
- Don’t rush into a lawyer’s arms – there are a lot of lawyers out there, and the common factor in all of them is that they are pretty pricey. For example, in places like Scottsdale divorce lawyers will charge you around $300 per hour for as long as they are in your service. When you and your spouse decide that you need to get a divorce, your first instinct will be to talk to a lawyer and hire them.
You should not do anything of the sort in your state of mind. Instead, wait until you have calmed down. Then have a good think about what kind of lawyer you need, as well as how messy you think the divorce will be. Make sure that you do as much research as you can, and only get a lawyer into your service when it is absolutely imperative.
- Create a budget – When you split from your spouse, you are going to feel a massive change to your personal finances. After the split, you will lose the extra money that your spouse’s income was bringing to the unit, as well as the extra expenses that you had. You will also have to think about moving house and changing your lifestyle (you have to get back in the game after all). When you are thinking about all this, you need to realize that it is very easy for expenses to build up and even overwhelm you. You could get ensnared in a lot of debt if you aren’t careful.
Instead of letting this happen, create a personal budget to manage your monthly expenses. You can start balancing it out with your own income now, and plan your next moves in life based on the numbers.