Divorce is more than just an emotional process. It’s also a financial transaction. This means that you need to be careful with how you negotiate or litigate your marriage dissolution to ensure that you obtain the best possible outcome, setting yourself on a strong financial foundation upon which to build your future. You’ll have to address a lot of assets and debts, each of which may require a different approach.
This is especially true as it pertains to the family home. Oftentimes, divorcing individuals have an emotional attachment to the home, and they fight tooth-and-nail to keep it. However, depending on the circumstances, this may not be the best option. This is because the costs of maintaining the home can be burdensome, especially when you’re going from two incomes to one. Neglecting to take on this forward-looking approach can result in you being overwhelmed by the expenses.
Instead of taking on the family house, then, you may want to consider these options:
- Consider offering your soon-to-be ex-spouse the opportunity to buyout your half of the residence. This can leave you with the cash you need to downsize and start your new life.
- Sell the home and split the assets with your ex-spouse. This is probably the best outcome if neither you nor your spouse want to keep the house, which is sometimes a very real outcome given the emotions attached to the residence.
- Continue to own the home with your ex-spouse. This can be a challenging option for some people, and for obvious reasons. Yet, it might be an ideal situation for some families that want to provide a child with the stability of a single home. In this situation, the parents can split the costs of the home and even rotate living in the home with the child. Of course, this option will likely require you to obtain a second residence of some sort.
The property division process of divorce can be stressful given the stakes at hand. But you don’t have to navigate the process on your own. Instead, with the help of a legal advocate if you so choose to seek it out, you can devise a divorce strategy that seeks to put you on a path to financial stability as you start the next chapter of your life.