Is Divorce Your New Year’s Resolution?
As a new year begins, many people struggling with a failing or troubled marriage have started considering divorce.
The New Year signifies a fresh start and a time to make positive changes in your life.
Unfortunately, a fresh start may mean closing a chapter in your life that is causing you pain and interfering with your overall happiness. If you think divorce will be one of the first ways you change your life in 2024, here’s a closer look at what steps you should take before starting the divorce process in Fort Worth, Texas.
Common Reasons Behind a News Year’s Divorce
There are many reasons why divorce in the New Year is appealing and quite common. First, the New Year promises a clean slate to be molded into the year you desire to have.
A new year is all about planning for happiness, health, and new goals for yourself and your life. That may mean that it has finally come time to accept that your marriage is not working and that the effort you and your partner have put in to make it work simply will not yield any positive results in the future.
Also, it is very common for couples to wait until the New Year to file for divorce due to the holidays. The holidays are a time for families to gather together, celebrate traditions, and soak in the joy of the holiday season.
While divorce will have an impact on a family regardless of the time of the year, many people wait until after the holidays to either salvage the marriage or give the family one last ounce of completion.
Steps to Take for Divorce in the New Year
Even under the best circumstances, divorces are naturally never an easy process. They are rife with raw emotions, stress, and the realization that a major chapter of your life is coming to a close. You can take several positive steps to put yourself and your family in the best position possible.
Take Inventory of Your Assets
The first and most important step is to take inventory of assets you have as well as what you owe to prepare for the property division process.
Your “property” includes things like real estate, vehicles, goods/furniture, retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and so forth.
Your divorce lawyer can assist with the process of determining what joint marital assets are and what is separate.
Make a Budget
This critical step should be your first piece of homework. A divorce means that your monthly budget will likely go from two incomes to one.
Get ahead of the ball by creating a monthly budget with essentials and reasonable expenses. This includes housing, utilities, transportation, food, healthcare, insurance, and education, and other expenditures like entertainment. You should also consider how spousal and/or child support will factor in.
Your divorce lawyer can help you get a bird’s eye view of your financial standing on those important areas of your divorce outcome.
Protect Yourself
Even if the divorce is amicable, it is important to protect yourself. Creating your own accounts, changing all passwords, and securing electronic devices is an important step.
Consider creating a new email address for sensitive conversations and documents and getting your phone plan so your spouse doesn’t have access to your call and text data.
Prepare Your Family
Preparing your family is essential during this stressful and often turbulent period and can be incredibly beneficial for all parties. Children will benefit from a joint conversation planned to show they have two loving parents who prioritize them.
This also means talking to your extended family through a thoughtful conversation, encouraging them not to be tempted to add fuel to the fire.
Experienced Divorce Lawyer
While you may wait to begin the official legal divorce proceedings until the new year becomes official, much planning and groundwork must be covered before filing.
Seeking an experienced divorce lawyer will put you in a much better position when you are ready to move forward legally.
Our team of compassionate and experienced attorneys is the reason why we are consistently honored as the top Fort Worth divorce lawyer. Remember, our mission is to provide you with the best legal counsel to provide you with expert legal counsel to help remove some of the stress during this difficult time.
Trust us to help you overcome common divorce hurdles, advance in negotiations, and build a case that puts you in the best position possible once you’ve finalized your divorce.
Start New Year with Nilsson Legal Group
If you are going forward with a divorce in the New Year, having a seasoned Fort Worth divorce lawyer on your side can help you achieve your desired goals and move on with the next chapter of your life. At Nilsson Legal Group, we are 100% focused on family law and have the experience to put you in the best legal situation during a divorce in the New Year.
Contact us today to schedule your free consultation.