Forty-three out of all first marriages end in either divorce or separation sometime within 15 years of being married. Divorce can often have a devastating emotional impact on the two partners. If children are involved, the emotional affects on them can have long lasting impact. In short, it's usually traumatic for all involved. But, what is often overlooked in divorces is that, unless you're wealthy, the financial affects on all parties involved can be just as life changing as the emotional affects.
In the past half century the amount of debt carried by the average household has increased exponentially. Most married couples today don't have many assets. In fact, it's not at all unusual for a divorced couple to have as much debt as assets. Separating the assets is usually straight forward. But how do you go about separating and disentangling the debts that have accumulated during the course of the marriage?
What are you both responsible for? You are both responsible for any document that you have signed together. Usually, this includes debts such as mortgages, joint credit cards, car loans, and so on. The biggest debts that you are both responsible for are the mortgages and the credit card.
Even before the divorce is filed for, one of the very first things that each partner should do is to get a current copy of his or her credit report. It's important to realize that if your debts are not dissolved before the divorce is finalized, they can severely affect your ability to get credit once the divorce is complete. If you want to be financially free and clear, it can't be emphasized enough how important it is to take care of and resolve all of your debt obligations before the divorce is finalized. There no worse feeling than going to apply for credit to buy a car or house and to find out that your former partner's debts are still listed on your credit report and is preventing you from getting a loan.
The next step, of course, is finding out what what you owe by documenting all of the household debts in one place. If one person is mainly responsible for keeping track of the finances, it's entirely possible that the other person has no idea of the amount of debt that is involved. If you've kept a budget, this will be a lot easier. The easiest way to do this is to enter all of your debt obligations into a simple spreadsheet. This includes ongoing daily/weekly expenses such as food, rent, travel, etc. On a separate sheet list your long term debts - such as mortgages, home equity debts, home repair loans, and so on.
If possible, all debts should be paid before the divorce is final. If this is not possible, a fair solution is for one person to take responsibility for a greater share of the debt in return for receiving a greater share of the assets. Contrary to what most people think, arrangements of this sort can usually be achieved without a great deal of animosity. Start the process of disentangling your joint finances immediately. Cancel all joint credit cards as well as other joint loans as soon as possible.
The important thing is that by the time the divorce takes place each partner has a list of debts for which he or she is solely responsible for and that neither partner is responsible for any of the other partner's debts.
David Hoyer is a freelance writer who writes articles relating to US public debt and other bankruptcy and financial related issues. Visit his site at http://www.bankruptcyfocus.com
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