There are so many ways you will need to prepare for your impending divorce. Preparing for it emotionally is never easy. Preparing for it financially is incredibly important and can be challenging. If you are the financially dependent spouse, you might not have access to the assets or bank accounts. If you are the primary bread-winner and the spouse who does the bills, you see the impossibility of creating two separate financial households when you are barely able to pay all the bills of one household.
What do you do? Where do you turn? Who can help?
It all starts with your initial consultation with your divorce attorney. That, by itself, should be complimentary, because divorce attorneys are providing a service-your education. If your divorce attorney charges for an initial consultation, you better make sure you have very clear conversations about fees moving forward. It means you are going to be billed for absolutely each and every step of your case.
Affording your divorce is challenging, right? That could a monumental understatement. You have to figure this out, because not being able to financially afford your divorce will produce a far worse outcome!
Potential sources of money to fund your divorce include the following:
Your wages
Your saving accounts
Loans you can take from a retirement account
Withdrawals from a retirement account
Withdrawal from a mortgage home equity line of credit
Asking your spouse for money
Asking the Court for money
Asking family or friends for money
Cash advance on credit cards or lines of credit
So, that is a partial answer to the “where do I get it from question. The next question is how do I talk with my attorney about how much I can afford to spend on my divorce? This has to be an honest blunt conversation. Listen, there are likely all sorts of conversations you never envisioned yourself being part of, but now, you have to change, where necessary, to take and keep control of your financial life. No attorney or any other professional should ever give you a hard time about your asking tough financial questions. If they give you a hard time, fire them!!
There is never a substitution for meeting with a highly experienced divorce attorney, so that you can ask the right questions and get the right answers!