If you are struggling financially after a divorce, you're not alone. Going from one combined household to two separate ones is expensive regardless of your income or divorce settlement. With a little focus, though, you should be back on track in no time.
Consider the following steps to recover your financial situation more quickly.
The most important thing that you can do is to prioritize improving your financial situation. Sure, you may recognize that your finances are not what they once were, but if you don't take the steps to change your situation, you'll find yourself in the same spot months or even years from now.
Decide to start immediately. You'll thank yourself later.
Once you've made improving your financial situation a priority, it's important to know where to start. Take the time to write down all of your accounts including bank accounts, retirement accounts, loans, etc. Document each balance, the most recent return, and/or the interest rate involved.
For savings and investment accounts, include how much you are contributing to those accounts each month. If you have debt, make sure to include whether the interest rate is fixed or variable along with the minimum payment you are responsible for.
Once you've evaluated your starting point, you'll be able to see areas that need improvement. If the issues aren't clear, start by asking yourself the following questions:
Everyone's financial situation is different so your areas to focus on will be unique to you. If you need help identifying and/or prioritizing where to focus, contact me.
Once you've decided where to focus it's time to begin setting specific, measurable and time-bound goals for yourself. For example, a goal might be to increase your emergency savings account by $10,000 over the next 12 months. It might be tempting to skip this step, but without a goal, there can be no plan, and without a plan, failure is inevitable.
Use the goal you've set to create your plan. If your goal is to save $10,000 over 12 months, then you'll likely need to put away roughly $840 each month. How will you do that?
Put the plan in place ahead of time so that there's no guesswork as to how you will meet your goal.
People who regularly meet their goals are most likely to have accountability partners. Find someone you trust that you can share the details of your plan with. Make sure it's someone who will ask you the hard questions and keep you motivated to press forward with your goal, even when it doesn't feel like fun anymore.
If you don't have someone in your life who can serve as your accountability partner, contact me. I will guide you to quickly improve your financial situation in just 8 weeks.
THRIVE is an 8-week group coaching program designed to support women who had a recent financial setback (such as a separation or divorce). The program provides guidance and group support as well as the following:
THRIVE is designed for women who want to increase their money confidence and de-stress their finances. If that's you, we'd love to have you join us. Participation in the program is extremely limited so that we can provide you with a high level of support. Visit THRIVE for more information.
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