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Control Your Finances
Whether you are just considering divorce,
or you are involved in one, money is a main
concern. If you have just enough money
to pay bills for one household when you
are married, how is that income going to
support two households when you get
divorced?
A plan of action needs to be taken. The
sooner you take action the better off you
will be. You need to assess your finances
very carefully. A budget must be put into
place. Take account of your assets (the
items you own that have a dollar value)
such as a house, car, jewelry, art, silver,
401K, RRSP etc. Take account of your
liabilities, ( the amount of money you owe)
such as, mortgage, car loan, credit card
debt, bank loan, overdraft etc. If you have
a lot of debt you must reduce this amount
as quickly as possible in order to have an
easier life after divorce.
Your spouse is responsible for half the
debt and that will be taken into consideration
during equalization, however your spouse
also gets half the marital assets. Equalization
works like this; each spouse states what he/
she owns and owes, the amount is then totaled.
The spouse with the larger amount owes the
other spouse half of the difference. This
difference is usually paid out in spousal
support either in equal payments or in a lump
sum.
When you set up another household, it's
very easy to accumulate more debt. Try not
to. Everyone knows the faster you can
get rid of the debt the better off you will be.
It's easier said than done, but it can be done!
Make a list of all your household bills such
as mortgage payments/rent, utilities, taxes
etc. It's hard to cut back on these things
unless you move to a less expensive home,
which is well worth considering as a last
resource. List all the rest of your bills
and see where you can cut back. Anything
that is not necessary is a luxury and can
therefore be cut back. Find your highest
interest credit card and pay that off first.
Make minimum payments on the rest, but
this one, you should double payments
if possible, but at the very least add as much
to the minimum as possible. When this card
is paid off, take the amount you were paying
for that card and apply it to the minimum
payment of your next highest interest card,
and so on until all your debt is gone.
If you are in a great amount of debt, another
consideration would be to consolidate all
your bills into one. You could apply for a
consolidation loan from the bank. Or if you
own a house you could refinance your
mortgage to pay off the bills. If you do
this make sure you get a good interest
rate and throw away your credit cards.
The idea is to get out of debt, if you keep
using the cards you will just keep yourself
in debt.
Your divorce will be a little easier if you
have control over your finances.
Liz Wertman
"Divorce Strategy for Men and Women"
will take the confusion out of a confusing
situation.
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