Financial Planning

Divorce is a major financial milestone in your life. You should plan for this both during and after divorce. This involves knowing what assets and what income are available, knowing how easily you can get at them and knowing their true value.

The Asset and Liability Checklist and Monthly Expense Worksheet help you to understand your financial circumstances. It may or may not surprise you to know that many people are unaware of their own financial worth and filling out a worksheets such as the above, helps people to acquire the facts and have a greater appreciation of their circumstances.

Once this understanding is accomplished, it tends to give people a greater sense of power. Not knowing your financial circumstances can be extraordinarily stressful.

Once you have gone through the Asset and Liability Checklist and have listed the assets and liabilities and monthly expenses, you can then start to appreciate what it is that you will need after the final divorce in order to have a reasonable lifestyle.

Don't forget to consider Spousal Maintenance and Child Support if applicable in consideration of your financial status. Maintenance and child support could be money coming in or going out depending on whether you are the payor or payee. If you are a very financially aware person, you may not need the assistance of a Financial Advisor. However, many people can benefit greatly at this stage with such input. A financial advisor should help you sort out how much money you are going to need and assist you in finding an investment portfolio which would best suit your needs. Perhaps this could involve selling some assets and investing in others. Make sure you are in very close contact with a CPA (Certified Public Accounts). Divorce has many tax aspects. Moving around your assets may often entail the potential for tax liability.

I know it may seem like a maze right now, however, that is why you hire this professional help to assist you with a workable financial arrangement.