Envision a scenario involving a trip to the grocery store without a shopping list. You have five things you need when you go in. But as you walk around the store you are reminded of other things that you need or you have a few impulse buys. You were anticipating only spending $35 on a few things, but you walk out having spent $160 because you bought all kinds of things that you didn’t anticipate from the start. If you had been more organized and gone in with your list you likely would have saved more money. Believe it or not, this can be a lot like the costs of a divorce. If you don’t have a list of your goals for the divorce and collaborate with your soon-to-be-ex, you can walk away having spent more money than you should have.
You Control Divorce Costs More Than Your Attorney
Collaborative Divorce is all about working together for both parties to achieve their post-divorce goals instead of fighting with each other resulting in calamity and sometimes financial ruin. The Collaborative Divorce process enables you and your spouse to communicate through the help of your attorneys, a communications coach and a financial professional. With their help the two of you can take charge of the important decisions and save yourselves a lot of money in the process. A couple using the Collaborative Divorce process can decide:
- Child Custody
- What the family assets are (i.e. home, retirement accounts etc.)
- How those assets should be divided
- Your Post-Divorce Budget
Leave Some Room for the Unexpected
Back to the grocery store analogy, you wouldn’t walk into a grocery store with only precisely enough to pay for five things you wanted to buy. There can be unexpected things that come up, and the same is true of a divorce. Yes, you should always work together on your budget and assets, but you should also enter the process knowing there can be some variables involved. Working with the Collaborative Divorce team can help both sides to resolve that variable in the most efficient way possible. The cost-effectiveness of working together is always a win-win.
