Central Ohio Family Legal Blog

Deciding to get divorced in Ohio can understandably be emotionally challenging. Still, the process can also be financially life-altering, particularly when minor children are at the center of the divorce. Here are a few important things to consider to protect one's financial best interests before going through divorce.

Before filing for divorce, individuals would be wise to look at their incomes versus their spouses' incomes, their current expenses and their future expenses. Incomes include not only wages but also financial bonuses received from employers. Money from trusts funds, or family money, also counts as income.

Your retirement plan is simple: You're lucky enough to have a pension plan, and it's going to pay you enough money to live comfortably. As such, rather than saving for retirement, you have put your earnings into things like paying off the house, paying down your debt and buying the assets you need. Your goal is to have everything in order so that your budget works when you retire and your income changes.

One unexpected issue that you now face, though, is that your spouse asked for a divorce. They want to end the marriage before you even retire. You're close to retirement age -- it's a gray divorce, as the popular term puts it -- so you want to make sure the divorce does not derail your plans.

The process of getting divorced can no doubt be overwhelming. On top of balancing the emotions that come with divorce and dissolution, people must navigate the financial aspect of this complex process. However, a few tips may help to make the divorce process easier for individuals to navigate in Ohio.

First, it is critical for spouses to know where they are financially prior to breaking up. This involves poring over tax returns as well as insurance policy documents and retirement policies. It also involves creating a detailed list of debts and assets that both parties have so that they can determine how best to split them.

Ending a marriage is never an easy process in Ohio. The good news, though, is that when divorce and dissolution are inevitable, individuals who will be going through the process can take steps to prepare themselves mentally and emotionally for it. Let's take a glimpse at a couple of these steps.

For starters, once people view divorce and dissolution as the most ideal choice for their situations, it is paramount that they commit themselves completely to it. They can do this by temporarily suppressing the emotions they are feeling and thinking more clearly and calmly about their situations. The most important question for them to ask themselves is what outcome they want from the divorce process.