The Best Way to Save Money on Your Divorce
I get asked a lot how to save money on divorces. And the reason why is, honestly, divorce can be expensive.
If you have more than a car and $10 in the bank, those online self-help divorce tools are pretty worthless. We have I-can’t-even-count-how-many people come in our office to fix their do-it-yourself divorces. And, when they do, they spend way more money fixing it than they would have spent if they hired an attorney in the first place.
On the other hand, lawyers can be expensive.
So, how do you make sure you and your family are taken care of (by hiring an attorney) and keep costs down? I have many suggestions, but I’ll give my number one here.
#1 Suggestion for Saving Money on Your Divorce
Be nice.
Yep, be nice.
No, honestly, be nice.
If you’re nice to your soon-to-be ex, then things will go so much smoother and cost so much less.
Now, being nice doesn’t mean rolling over and playing dead on issues ranging from child custody to alimony. (You have an attorney to make sure that doesn’t happen.) It does mean, however, that you treat your spouse with respect at all times.
And, yes, I mean at all times. If your spouse is being a jerk, you follow the Lord’s admonition in Isaiah 61:3 to give “beauty for ashes.” In other words, don’t take the bait. Return kindness when confronted with hate.
Yes, I know, you don’t like your spouse anymore. That’s why you’re getting divorced. Because of this, and rightly so, it might be difficult to be nice. But being nice will pay dividends for the rest of time.
Think about the life you want to have with your ex. Do you want it to be contentious and horrible? No, of course not. So, don’t start out by being contentious and horrible. Instead, start out by being nice. Always.
When people are nice, divorce costs decrease. They decrease because there is less fighting, which means attorneys spend fewer hours on a case. And, when people are nice, they negotiate better and work through solutions better. This all means less time in the courtroom, which translates in to less cost.
Be nice. You will never regret it.
