Austin divorce attorney Holly Davis offers these tips to husbands who are dealing with the prospect of divorce.
- If It Walks Like a Duck and Talks Like a Duck…
- If you’re not hiding anything, don’t hide it from your wife in your divorce. Financial transparency (with the help of your our attorney) can be a helpful thing to keep costs down. It will also help instill trust in the negotiation process. Remember: this isn’t about score keeping. While your wife may have never been interested in the family’s finances in the past, and while you might have given her every opportunity to be involved, divorce changes everything. While she might not have wanted it before, she is going to need it now. Your community estate will pay the price of hiding information, and that estate is something you want to keep as intact as possible throughout the divorce process.
- Have a Retirement Plan Backup
- You may have worked 20 years saving for the family. Divorce has changed things and the money you were setting aside for college or retirement is now going towards the divorce settlement. Before you tailspin on this concept, consider tax affecting your settlement with the help of your attorney and CPA so that you can claw some of those dollars back into your pocket. Can you pay some of your settlement out over time? What you do with your money today can earn you even more money tomorrow, which can keep money in your pocket while giving you more time to pay off the settlement.
- Know Thyself and Know Thy Spouse
- Your divorce is a business transaction: you are dividing up the community estate between two people who are vying for pieces of one pie. But just because it’s a business transaction doesn’t mean that there isn’t a little bit of psychology behind it all. Take the emotions out of it for a minute and pretend you’re talking about other people: Does she think he’s a control freak? Does he think she’s financially irresponsible? Know these answers and tailor your settlement offers to avoid coming across as a control freak. The faster she accepts your offer, the sooner the divorce is over, and the sooner you go back to saving money for yourself instead of paying the attorneys.
- Prioritize Your Goals
- You want a lot of things: your pension, your boat, that wedding ring back, and the stock. Prioritize your top three goals and leave the rest on your wish list. Your money goes much farther if you prioritize what you and your attorney talk about, and what you focus on for the settlement. If you can get the wedding ring back (or its financial equivalent) then it’s icing on the cake.
If you are considering divorcing your wife, you will need an experienced team to help you through the process. Get in touch with [firm-name] at [phone-number] to speak with an Austin divorce attorney.
