Getting Through The Divorce Process
March 2nd, 2010The divorce process may be long and involved, or it can be fairly fast, all depending on whether the [divorce is contested or not|divorce is uncontested or not|], and whether the two parties can agree on a fair settlement of their possessions. There is a great deal to consider, and of course it has to be dealt with during what could be an extremely upsetting and emotional time.
It is not a pleasant thought to realize that their marriage is not forever, but there are more and more marriages get annulled or cancelled on [the various grounds for divorce|various grounds]. In some situations, adultery is cited, for others, the term irreconcilable differences is given, meaning the couple can no longer agree on anything, and the breakdown of their marriage is forever. Depending on your situation, this can be very difficult to accept, and there may be many different emotions to deal with, and coming to the surface unexpectedly.
Obviously, when a divorce involves children, it can become even more challenging to finalize details, and there is always the fear of a custody battle happening. The emotional stakes get even stronger, and it can be a challenge not to get into heated discussions in front of the children.
One of the most important items to take particular care with is the divorce settlement, and not just in terms of who keeps what of the furniture, or the lamps. It is possible to have a long list of items to be divided, along with any savings, or property like a house. Now, it would be fairly easy to just concentrate on a fair division of all the property and goods, but you have to remember to factor in future taxes that will have to be paid on any savings, unless you have set up a post tax account. Then there are annual expenses like property taxes to factor into the decision too, which complicates matter further.
To sum this up, although it is tempting to reach a divorce settlement without any assistance from a lawyer or accountant, it could be a big mistake financially to do this, and you might not even realize you have a concern until a few years down the road, when, for example, you might try to withdraw the funds from your savings account, only to find that the government is going to keep at least 10%, say, to put towards taxes. It can be a frightening realization to discover that you don’t have all the savings available that you thought you did.
To review, what does all this mean? It means that you have to be very cautious with any [divorce settlement plans|settlement plans], and you should run different scenarios of any settlement by a professional who can advise you on whether or not the outcome is good for your situation.
