If you’re a divorced mom, you’re clearly in good and plentiful company. Yet, despite being a huge demographic, there’s not much financial advice readily available in terms of financial planning tips. To make things right, we’ve rounded up some of our top tips for divorced moms trying to plan the brightest financial future for you and your kids.
Always Be Prepared for the Worst
Most financial advice brings up this point, regardless of whether you’re divorced or have a supportive partner and a trust fund, no matter where you’re at in life, an emergency fund is always a good call. As a starting point, set aside a portion of your paycheck and put it in savings—this can be a hundred bucks here, a twenty there, a thousand, whatever you’ve got on hand. Over time, you’ll feel less stressed when there’s something to fall back on that isn’t contingent on receiving alimony or child support payments.
Get Informed
If you relied on your partner to keep track of things like home mortgages, taxes and the like, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do. But even if you were the one who handled a lot of the logistics behind making your home and family life run smoothly, it’s wise to seek out the help of a consultant that can get you up to speed on things like saving for retirement, your kids’ college education and more.
Things like forgetting to change your tax status from married to single may slip your mind when the time comes to file—discuss this with your attorney, as well as an accountant to make sure you’ve got everything filed correctly.
Get a Financial Plan in Order
A financial plan requires you to account for all your assets—income, savings, alimony and child support, as well as your financial responsibilities moving forward. You’ll need to figure out how you manage all these assets, and what your budget will be, as well as savings goals, like college and more.
Deal with Debt
If you’ve racked up debt while you were married, you may be surprised at what you are court ordered to pay off. Work on paying down credit card debt as much as possible, though speak to your attorney regarding the best way to move forward in tackling your financial challenges.
Additionally, considering your debt and credit history is key in ensuring you’ll be able to secure a car loan or rent a new apartment on your own.
Check here for some further information as to how to consolidate debt and move forward in your life.
Don’t Beat Yourself Up
Getting a divorce is hard. You’re dealing with emotional pain and the new challenge of raising your family alone, navigating custody arrangements and more. Give yourself a break. So what if you’ve got less money than you had as a married woman—kids don’t need money to be happy, and in many cases, like in the college application process, your kids may get more benefits from the fact that they were raised by a single mom.
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