Recently, I was asked to be an expert on a podcast with IRC Wealth discussing divorce and how to manage the financial impacts that it may have on children. With divorce, decisions made regarding the children are often some of the most difficult. Will we split custody? Where will the children primarily live? Will the children still attend the same school?
What can often be overlooked, is how the financial decisions that you are making throughout the divorce, might impact your children just as much as the other decisions you make regarding their health and well-being.
In the podcast, I discussed a few tips to help ensure that the financial impacts of divorce will have the least impact on your children. Below, I’ve discussed the first two tips.
- A well thought out financial agreement benefits everyone in the family. The transition out of marriage can be much healthier for everyone, including your children if you have a detailed well thought out financial agreement. This might include decisions for your children as big as who will pay for college, and as small as, who will pay for their sports equipment. Some of these decisions may seem minuscule at the moment but will be extremely helpful in the long run. It will make it easier to make sure your kids are not a part of financial decisions and discussions in the future.
- Recognizing the difference between financial decisions and emotional decisions that relate to finance. For example, sometimes it helps to have a duplicate of your child’s everyday things at both mom and dad’s house. Initially, this may seem like a financial decision. However, it may be comforting to your son to know that he has a baseball glove at both mom and dad’s house and that he doesn’t have to think about bringing one back and forth. This might add on extra cost at the beginning of baseball season but it will help your son to move forward into his new reality if he is not constantly reminded of his previous reality.
Be sure to check out part two of this blog series to read over the final tips discussed in the podcast.
Written By: Amanda Dempsey, LAMFT
