How Do I Prepare For a Divorce?

The divorce process can be a long, costly and very emotional process. The first thing your probably wondering is how much is this going to cost and how long is it going to take. Unfortunately there is no straight answer to either one. Some divorces take weeks others take years. If you have children you might be in and out of court until the youngest child turns 18. Divorce can also be cheap or costly, running as little as $2,000 and for a battle over property and child custody you can expect to spend closer to $10,000 to $50,000.

I Am A Victim Of A Long And Costly Battle

Unfortunately its true and if I could have I would have given up the house, the cars, the alimony and child support just to get my ex-husband off my back, but he was a controlling narcissist and couldn't deal with the fact that we were in a failing marriage. This does not have to be you. You can learn from my win and loses to ensure your divorce goes as smooth as possible and hopefully in your favor.

Prepare For The Worst, Plan For The Best

Its an old saying but it holds so much truth. Your divorce might go smooth at first, you agree on custody and who gets what, but then the lawyers come into play and it all goes out the window. This doesn't always happen, but it happened to me. How Do I Prepare For A Divorce you ask, plan for the best but be sure your ready for the worst and done be caught by surprise.

Financial Planning

Divorce cost money whether your divorce goes smooth or its an all out battle. All out battles are more costly of course, but you need to prepare financially either way. If you are a house mom like I was, you may need to start putting money aside to hire a lawyer to represent you. How Do I Prepare For A Divorce financially? Start cutting expenses so you can save more and maybe even work extra hours to make some extra cash. Do not be afraid to as friends, family and your parents for a little financial help. If you are in an emotionally or physically abusive relationship, your better of owing money for a few years than to ensure the abuse of your marriage.

Protecting Yourself

Protect yourself and ensure your name is on anything you want your fair share of. That includes the house, the cars, insurance, timeshares, and anything else that holds value. Even if your name is not on them, make sure you have records of these items, including when they were purchased, how much they are worth and how much you owe.

Get The Best Lawyer You Can Afford

The fate of your life, your property and your children are ultimately at the mercy of how good your lawyer is. How Do I Prepare For A Divorce legally? Make sure you get the best lawyer that you can afford. Interview many of them and make sure they understand you, your case, your situation and most of make sure they will fight for you. Most lawyers will only represent you, but to get them to put up a fight is another story. Lawyers are trained to settle and if you do not want to settle, you have be sure you hired an aggressive lawyer.

Get Educated, Get Help, Get Advice

Just because you have a lawyer does not mean you should stop reading and learning. Remember most lawyers just want to represent you and settle your divorce and child custody. Putting up a fight for your children and your property is another story, especially if they know you are on limited funds. How Do I Prepare For A Divorce mentally? There are some great reference guides out there on divorce strategies and how to win child custody that every person in a divorce should read up on to ensure your best fighting chance.

First thing first is to get a free consultation with an attorney familiar with divorce and child custody in your court district.

Visit My Divorce Help

Get a free no cost obligation of your legal rights to divorce and custody. The free consultation will let you know yours and his legal rights to divorce and child custody. They will also let you know how to protect yourself and how much its going to cost. Just remember the first one to act will get the upper hand. Do not wait for him to get a lawyer first.

Secondly I highly recommend an online reference guide called Divorce Strategies and Tactics For Women. Its only $27 and its going to answer a lot of questions that you have about divorce.

Last but absolutely not least, if you have a child and you think there is even a slight chance of a custody battle get this guide on How to Win Child Custody. Child custody is a completely separate issue and battle from divorce and usually 90% of the expenses and heart ache. Use these strategies to get the upper hand from day one. I will tell you from experience, women do not always get primary custody, because the courts these days want the parents to have equal parenting. Do not wait until things start to go wrong to get this information that you should be doing even before you start the divorce process.

You can get both of these by visiting My Divorce Guides

I wish you all the best of luck

~ Janice Rubin