Divorce means saying farewell to so many things in your life. You might have to depart from your marital home. Your kids’ parents won’t be together anymore. Couples you were close to may feel strange hobnobbing with you now that you are single. The expectation that the person you wed would always be by your side has been dashed as well.
Negatives like those can be balanced by some pluses that come with getting unhitched from your spouse. Some of them are money-related. It’s smart to find out about them as soon as you can.
Your post-divorce money situation
Think about these potential advantages:
- If you are a custodial parent with college-bound kids, they may get a greater amount of financial assistance than if you and your ex were still married. A document called the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) requests financial details from the parent with custody, not from you and your ex.
- You have the freedom to create new goals. You can allocate money to uses you may have been putting off due to spousal objections. Seeing the world, taking a bunch of college classes or just saving some extra funds in case of an emergency can be done now without interference.
- There’s no more arguing with your ex about household finances, what you owe and future planning. Those painful, never-ending skirmishes are behind you. That is a big relief to many divorced individuals.
Divorce doesn’t have to mean the end of the world for you
As wrenching as it is to start over alone, there can be some reasons, financial and otherwise, to be optimistic. One of them is finding out that your financial outlook might not be as bleak as you feared after your divorce. Knowing you don’t always have to remain stuck in a bad marriage entirely because of money concerns is the first step toward a new beginning for you.
