Founder
A divorce is not only emotional, it’s complicated. You are trying to change your life to one that is lived as a single person, determine your new financial situation, help your children adjust and maybe even looking for a new place to live.
With all that you have going on, it can be easy to make mistakes or overlook some important things. Here are some of the most common mistakes to avoid during your divorce
1. Forgetting Debt
It’s not unusual for one person in a marriage to handle the bills. If you weren’t this person, you may not know exactly what is being paid outside of the more obvious mortgage and car payments. Pull your credit report to avoid missing the bills that need to be taken care of.
2. Your Personal Mail
How many times have you and your spouse opened each other’s mail? Now that you are going through a divorce, you may not want your soon-to-be ex seeing everything that is coming your way. As soon as you begin divorce proceedings, get a P.O. box and have your mail redirected.
3. Passwords
Once your divorce gets underway, spend an hour or two changing all of your passwords, especially to social media and email accounts. In fact, you may just want to get yourself a new email account. If you and your spouse have a joint online account, create your own and secure it with a password that your spouse can’t easily guess.
4. Changing Beneficiaries
This may not be able to be done until after you are divorced due to legal matters but, as soon as you can, change beneficiaries on life insurance policies and retirement accounts. If you remain the sole owner of the policy or account and there is no judgment saying your ex has to remain as a beneficiary, change them appropriately.
5. Secure Your Items
You don’t want those irreplaceable items from your grandmother to disappear in the midst of your divorce. Before your spouse moves out, make sure that you gather all of those items that you wouldn’t be able to bear if you lost and put them in a box. Store the box with a trusted friend or relative. It’s not to say that your spouse is going to get vindictive, but you never know.
No one wants to think that their divorce is going to be anything but smooth, but you can’t predict what is going to happen. One thing is for sure…you are going to get overwhelmed at some point and you could make the same mistakes that others have made. Use the information above to avoid some of the most common ones.
If you need assistance with a divorce in Orlando, reach out to our team. We are here to help you in any way we can. Call our office today to schedule your case evaluation and let us begin working with you to ensure your divorce is a fair one.
