Financial Decisions associated with Family Law Matters

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Houston Divorce Attorney: Are you considering re-marrying after a recent divorce? Or perhaps you are a single person who just found out that you are pregnant or your partner/significant other is pregnant? These are not only life-defining moments for you but can be moments and events that define your financial life as well. As such, you should not enter into them lightly or without regard for the implications of the decisions you make- both in the immediate sense and on into the future.

The attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan would like to single out a handful of these life events and discuss with you the impact each can have on your financial future.

Beyond the simple sound bites like “Having a kid is expensive!” or “Marriage is grand, but divorce is fifty grand!” we would like to share with you our perspective on them so that you can be a well educated and informed person in these regards.

GETTING MARRIED AND STARTING A FAMILY

Houston Family Lawyer: You may be surprised to click on our blog today only to find that the family law attorneys are going to discuss marriage and not divorce. Making the decision with your partner to get married, or to live together as a couple and then to have children requires that you be well informed of the issues that are associated with each of those decisions. The majority of people don’t have a lot of wiggle room in their budget to make bad decisions in relation to these subjects.

There are ways to escape bad decisions, but those decisions have consequences. Often times those consequences have a dollar sign at the beginning and a few zeroes at the end, unfortunately.

Especially if you have been divorced before, getting married again means that it is absolutely necessary that you be involved in the decision making with your spouse to be in regard to financial decisions. If you did not learn this from your divorce, the decisions that your spouse makes in regard to finances affects you in a very real sense.

Remember that when you get married, most of the property and income that you and your spouse acquire during your marriage will be considered community property. The property that you came out of your first marriage with, or that you owned before you were ever married is your separate property. The same can be said of the property owned by your spouse to be.

If you came out of your first marriage with debts that you did not specifically take out it may be a good idea to speak to your spouse to be regarding your family’s ideas and thoughts on debt. What debts need to be paid off?

Would you all be utilizing debt in the future? The toughest part of paying debt continually is that you are not able to utilize that money to build wealth for the future. Being bitten by the debt bug may be enough to swear you off the subject altogether. Communicate this to your fiancé and see where the discussion takes you.

DECISION MAKING IN REGARD TO PROPERTY

Divorce Lawyer Houston: Once you get married again, the ownership associated with yours and your spouse’s property changes. If you are interested in keeping as your separate property an item that would otherwise be considered to be community property, your best bet is to draft a premarital agreement with your spouse prior to getting married. This is a legally binding document that designates that certain property as either community or separate.

For instance, if there is a debt that you incurred in your first marriage that you and your fiancé agree should be yours separate and not subject to division in your divorce then you can isolate that debt as your separate property in the premarital agreement.

It may not be romantic and m, in fact, it may be extremely difficult to discuss, but you may want to ask your fiancé to pull their credit report and you can do the same. Take a look to verify all your accounts are correct and to verify any balances with creditors. Now is a better time to find this information out than after you each have said, “I do”. Plan ahead instead of trying to go back in time to erase a prior mistake.

Finally, learn from your fiancé whether or not he has any child support payments that are outstanding or any responsibility to pay child support at all. You would be surprised to learn that some people find out that their spouse has a child from a prior relationship only after they have married one another. This is a financial commitment can stretch years into the future depending upon the age of your fiancé’s child.

FINANCIAL ISSUES RELATED TO CHILDREN

Houston Divorce: If you don’t have children currently but are considering starting a family, you should be aware that time and money before the rarest but also the most important of commodities once you bring a little life into this world. It will seem like you can never have enough of either.

My advice in this section is intended as legal advice, but more so things to think about in order to possibly avoid making mistakes that may cause you to find yourself needing to hire a family law attorney down the road.

It is important to keep in mind that when you decide to have a child that either you or your spouse may need to cut back your hours worked or even change jobs entirely. Again, ensure that you and your spouse talk about these issues in advance of having a child so that there are no problems once your little one is born. Arguments and conflict in an already high-stress environment can lead to a breakdown of your marriage.

Above all else, you should be focusing your attention on your child, not on ancillary issues that could have been resolved well in advance of your child being born.

FINANCIAL ISSUES RELATED TO DIVORCE

It is not uncommon for a family that is stable from a financial perspective to find itself doing a complete 180-degree turn if either you or your spouse files for divorce. Aside from the emotions associated with divorce … Continue Reading