How Women Can Cope with the Financial Implications of Divorce | Divorce

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The victimised partner may experience feelings of guilt, anger, betrayal, depression and insecurity. Many people are, as a result, forced to seek professional help to purge these negative emotions out of their system. Women, being the weaker gender, are especially vulnerable to the after-effects of divorce.

One of the big problems women face after divorce is lack of financial resources. Many of them choose to leave their careers at marriage and become full-time home-makers. All this time, their peers are getting ahead in their jobs. When, after some years of rearing children, divorce occurs, such women are left in dire financial straits. The husband has been earning all along as the main bread-winner of family. Therefore, there is no harm to his earning potential after divorce.

Men can handle the situation very well, but it is the women who suffer the most financially, especially if the responsibility of bringing up children falls on them after divorce. Many women slip below the poverty line after their marital breakup. It is true that there is an equal division of property during the time of divorce and often the judges lean in favour of wives. However, the money won’t go far if the family was not well-to-do to begin with and there was little to divide and share.

The following steps will help divorced women better cope with their financial woes.

Make a List of all Your Income and Expenses

After divorce, the best way to come to grips with your financial situation is to know exactly where you stand in terms of your income and expenses. Make a catalogue of all your expenses in detail, such as kitchen expenses, school fee of the kids, house rent, utility bills (gas, water, and electricity), fuel, car maintenance, shopping for clothes and so on. Once you have made this list, the next step is to prioritise the expenses. Shuffle the items in the list in the decreasing order of importance. Then you should start analysing it bottom up to see how many expenses you can easily do without. This will go a long way in eliminating needless spending.

The same way, you should carefully make a list of all your income from every source and then weigh it against the essential expenses. If the latter are much more than your earning, then you have to find a way to earn more money, by taking up another job or doing some extra work in your current job.

Cut Down on Expenses

There are many simple but smart things you can do to cut down on your living expenses. You should review each and every expenditure of yours and think: “How can this be eliminated or the bill drastically lowered?” Go for the minimum-expense plans for things such as mobile phones and Internet. Get rid of the cable TV. Stop eating out at restaurants. Instead, enjoy healthy and wholesome home-cooked food. Instead of driving to office every day, try to join a car pool or use public transportation such as bus or metro. If you are living on rented accommodation, try to move to a smaller house.

Rethink your shopping trips. Do you really need that extra shirt or necklace? The answer is, of course, a clear no. Shopping is more a matter of habit. Some people take it as a relaxing activity. As a rule, you should drastically cut down on shopping and only buy things that you need, not which would just be nice to have.

Keep a Strict Check on Credit

When faced with a financial crunch after divorce, it is easy to start splurging on your credit card. The monthly repayments sound ridiculously easy, and soon you find yourself in a full-fledged debt trap. It is very difficult to get out of it, especially if you are earning barely enough to meet your expenses. Therefore, keep the credit cards at home. They offer very expensive credit with a high rate of interest. Instead, in an emergency, you should loan some money from your friends and relatives.

If you were not working before your divorce and do not have the kind of qualifications that can land you a good job, there is no need to lose heart. You can do many things to earn money, such as writing online for web publications, opening a crèche or a pet house, making and selling hand-crafted items, become a telecaller, and so on.

Divorce for women is quite a painful experience because of its tremendous financial implications. However, with a little smartness and planning, they can easily manage to weather this lean patch in their lives.

About the Author

James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. For more information on getting a Divorce see http://www.quickie-divorce.com

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