Divorce is never easy. Even the most amicable of no-fault divorces can have some difficulties. If you’re lucky, those difficulties are minor, like a dispute over who walks away with Aunt Martha’s silver salad tongs, or whether or not you should return the heirloom wedding ring, passed down for generations.
If you’re not lucky, you could experience some serious financial fallout.
Marriage and Money
It’s no secret that money problems can put a major strain on a relationship. In a CDC study of marriage and divorce rates in the United States, roughly 3.6 percent of marriages end in divorce. Of those who divorced, roughly 22 percent reported financial issues as the reason for the split. Additionally, married couples who have frequent financial disagreements are 30-percent more likely to divorce than their peers.
If your marriage dissolved due to financial difficulties, such as excess debt, those difficulties don’t disappear with the divorce decree. In fact, if many of those debts were incurred during the marriage, your situation could become more difficult than if you had stayed married. This is because, even if that second mortgage was your spouse’s idea, if you both signed the documents then you are both responsible for paying it back. If one of you files bankruptcy or, worst case scenario, dies, then the creditors will come after you to collect.
Unfortunately, even if your marriage was debt-free, you may still run into financial difficulties just by divorcing.
Divorce and Money
Even if with a mutual, no-fault divorce, it’s possible to overlook things like bill payments when you are in awash in the divorce paperwork. Additionally, you might have disputes over who is responsible for paying certain accounts, or who is capable if both parties are having financial difficulties.
If you are in the midst of an acrimonious split, then you have a whole other set of issues to worry about. Even if the marriage was financially sound, if one partner was the sole wage earner, or one partner earned much less, those iniquities could cause serious financial problems.
For example, if the spouse who earned more always paid the joint credit card bills and added to savings, he could stop paying thinking the card will be cancelled and that he’s cutting off her access to the funds. If the spouse who earned less always paid, the spouse who earned more could max out the cards, thinking he’s leaving her responsible for paying off the balance.
In reality, such tactics could cause serious financial damage to the both of you.
Protecting Yourself
You may not be able to do much about joint debts, or joint accounts, created during your marriage. After all, you probably made those financial plans and promises thinking you were going to be together forever.
Regardless of your financial situation, if you have joint accounts, or issues with how to handle bill payments, a credit repair company can help you deal with them. Not only can one of these companies help you determine how to manage your accounts, and reach an agreement on who has access and who is responsible for payment, they can also help you work with your creditors if you are already behind.
