Divorce is a very gruesome process, which leaves you emotionally and mentally shattered. It can take a good amount of time to organize everything, but in these times of distress, what could be more painful is not giving thoughts about how you’re going to manage your finances now.
Since you’re on your own henceforth, plans for almost everything have to be charted again, wherein finances should be the very 1st thing on your list. You don’t have anyone to depend on now for your financial needs during the end of the month and neither you have anyone to make those cumbersome financial decisions for you. So, there arises a very urgent need to re-organize and think of everything in a singularity sense (for your own).
Following are some of the ways to handle finance post-divorce.
Essentials
Couple talking to a lawyer
If you’re the person who relied, more than required, on your spouse to handle the bills and financial decisions, a divorce can probably be the worst thing for you in the world. On top of coming to terms with making the sensitive financial decisions yourself, you also have to now manage on decreased income.
Hence, initially you need to focus on only your absolutely essential needs. As time passes, things will start falling in line themselves, but initially they won’t. And until and unless you don’t feel the importance of it, these decisions going wrong would probably mean another nail in your coffin.
The Need Of The Hour – A New Budget
If you’ve done this at the time you got married (no, we’re not trying to bring back the memories), you know how cumbersome of a process planning a new budget is, and at the same time how important as well. It’s that time where you’ll have to figure out your income and review your expenses, again.
To do this, accumulate your loan details, credit card bills, tax records, utility bills, investment papers, policies, and whatever you feel can make an impact on your financial decision. Review these as a whole so that you’re in a better position to decide on how much and what is necessary and what part of these can be foregone.
Lifestyle
Shopping spree with friends
This one thing is probably going to affect your newly shaped financial picture, the most. The regular family vacations you used to take, the lavish joints you used to hangout in, the usual shopping sprees you so loved going on or the unnecessary things you used to bring home, just to make some funny memories with your partner – all of these have to be dropped now.
Previously, you had someone to take care of things even if they went haywire, but that is not the case anymore. An extra thing that you might plan on doing or undertaking now needs to be carefully thought upon. Even your usual outside fun adventures could be no longer pursued, for some time at least.
These are some of the most common steps that you should start practicing from Day 1, if you’ve been just out of your marriage. It’s important and you’ll feel fortunate for taking the time out to ponder about your financials initially only.