So, With No Insurance Available for Divorce, How do You Prepare?
No one should make light of the emotional and financial toll the death of a spouse takes on the person left behind but the financial and emotional impact can be even more devastating in divorce. Compare: In death, your spouse leaves you believing he loved you. In divorce, he leaves you telling you he no longer loves you or loves someone else more. In death, your husband almost always leaves you with all the community assets, use of any money he may have inherited during marriage, and generally, life insurance to cover his loss of salary. In divorce, he fights hard for 50% of the community assets and he keeps all his salary and inheritance. And the final insult, this person is there to be dealt with pretty much for the rest of your life if you have children. In death, he goes away. So what to do – the law won’t let you kill him.
You prepare financially for death by buying insurance but there is no insurance of any nature for divorce – and NO, you cannot be “loving” enough”, cook well enough, be pretty enough, or “lifetime soul mate”. Maybe you could earn enough money but it would have to be quite a lot. A failed marriage isn’t so much about “failing” as it is about changing. You get married and you start changing, as you should since maturing is a continual life process. And as both you change life takes place and sometimes the changes take two married people down different paths.
You prepare for divorce by becoming educated in financial issues as they relate to your marriage. You take turns paying the bills and being responsible for your investments or you do it as a team (which rarely works). Yes, we all have different interests and one of them may not be “investing”. We are not talking about “interest” here – we are talking about being responsible for your own well being. Don’t know where to start getting educated? Call me. I’ve got a great answer! 713.599.1220.
KEEP YOUR EARNING SKILLS UP TO DATE UNTIL YOU ARE INDEPENDENTLY CAPABLE OF RETIRING. And, if you take a sabbatical to be a full time parent, you execute a post nuptial agreement that states how much income you get in divorce if the marriage ends BEFORE you quit your then full time job and I suggest before you actually get pregnant.
So, what do you do to prepare? Get and stay financially educated and NEVER, BUT NEVER, TURN YOUR FINANCIAL FUTURE OVER TO ANYONE ELSE – ESPECIALLY YOUR SPOUSE. You may be more interesting, happier, and healthier. You will definitely be more secure – both financially and in your marriage.
Keep working ,fantastic job!