Before a divorce can be finalized, there are minimum decisions to be made in several areas.
Determine child custody arrangement and visitation rights:
Who has physical custody of the children (sole physical custody or joint physical custody)? This defines who the children live with. Emotionally and financially, this is an important aspect to be decided. The [...]
Most people understand the importance of good credit in starting a new, independent life after a divorce. Unfortunately, many people find that their credit is damaged due to circumstances that occurred during the marriage. In addition to repairing damaged credit and building good credit (topics for future articles), cleaning up your accounts is a [...]
Another common mistake – and one of the most difficult to avoid – that derails the divorce process and adds cost is the urge to use the divorce process to make the spouse miserable.
Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on what side you are on!), the divorce process is not setup to assign blame [...]
One mistake many divorcing people make is to give the ex-spouse more than their share of the assets in an effort to make the divorce go smoother, more amiably, quicker, or all of the above. This is something that can cause you great regret later. It may seem like anything would be better [...]
Just like a new couple should not expect to change each other, you should not attribute new behaviors to your ex-spouse.
If she didn’t actively parent in the past, she probably won’t start now. If he refused to let your son have friends over in the past, he could continue that behavior.
When it comes to children’s placement, the schedule is so crucial to their future well-being. This is especially true with young children. It should not be purely about equality and fairness to the ex-spouse. The children are not a commodity to be split like your financial assets.
Consider that a “fair,” equal [...]
The second trap that many people fall into is rushing the divorce process. It’s common to wish to move through the divorce as quickly as possible. Unfortunately this can lead people to rationalize making decisions that aren’t optimal or giving in to the wishes of the spouse. It’s good to compromise, but there’s [...]
In the next few posts we will address some common emotional issues that get in the way of acting rationally during a divorce.
One misconception people going through a divorce often have is that the terms of the divorce can be changed later if things don’t work out for the best. This is [...]