Don't lose out in divorce!

Did spending two weeks cooped up, snowed-in and turkey-bound put a strain on your relationship? 

Was it the iron he gave you for Christmas, or his failure to mention that his mother was staying for ten days, that finally had you slapping the words ‘quick divorce’ into google?

Hold on a minute. Remember that a marital break up isn’t just for Christmas, it’s for life. So don't make decisions that might cost you later on. The common view is that men get fleeced by women in divorce settlements. The reality is quite the reverse.

A study by the Institute for Social and Economic Research found that divorce often rescues men from poverty while plunging women into it. The incomes of ex-husbands rose by 25% immediately after a split. Yet women saw a sharp fall in their finances, which rarely regained pre-divorce levels.

Sadly, 27% of women ended up living in poverty as a result – three times the rate of men – and only 31% received maintenance payments from ex-husbands for their children.

Now help is at hand in the form of the Moneymadeclear divorce and separation

website. 

This site brings together loads of useful financial information, plus impartial help with financial issues, including:

• thinking about divorce or separation

• the steps involved

• if you have children

• living arrangements

• splitting what you have – using an interactive online calculator; and

• managing your money.

With the moneymadeclear interactive online calculator you can draw up a budget to help you:

·      work out what you have and what you owe (it suggests a number of actions you can take)

·      look at how you can split what you have (it explores different scenarios and helps you prepare for discussions with your partner, solicitor or mediator)

This is the first calculator of its kind. And it's been created with help from experts in this field, including Relate, Resolution, National Family Mediation, Families Need Fathers and the Family and Parenting Institute.

So much better to hit him with some plans, straight facts and plain talking than with the iron.