Financial concerns after a divorce

One of the biggest impacts of a divorce is what it does to a person’s finances. In all situations, a couple splits assets and takes what used to be their collective wealth and cuts it in half. Neither one will walk away better than they were during the marriage because of this.

Each person must figure out how to financially survive after the divorce. The Gazette explains a good way for a person to ensure that he or she has financial stability after a divorce is to focus on the financial division during the divorce.

Asset split

When the court divides marital assets, it does not do so equally. The focus is on being fair. For many couples, the biggest issue is the family home. Whichever spouse keeps it likely will have to give up many other assets to make the division fair. However, this may leave that spouse without much more than a roof over his or her head. Homeownership also comes with tax consequences that may further deplete already scarce resources. Before agreeing to any settlement offer, each spouse should think carefully about how it will affect financial health.

Support basics

Many people assume that alimony, which Colorado refers to as maintenance, can help with financial survival after a divorce. Unfortunately, they may overestimate the process of acquiring such support. A judge does not grant it so that one spouse can live off the other, and it will not make their income equal. The payments are only a means by which to ensure that each spouse is able to maintain the standard of living from the marriage. Colorado has a maintenance calculator that spouses can use to discover whether a judge may order payments, and how large these may be.

The courts expect spouses to do what it takes to become self-supporting. Consequently, the duration of support is usually only as long as it takes for the lesser earning spouse to secure adequate employment.