Hold Off On These Major Purchases Until Your Divorce Is Finalized
Posted on: 9 July 2018
When you and your spouse are going through a divorce, it may feel as though your entire life is under a microscope. Unless the proceedings are overly amicable, you'll often find that your spouse and his or her attorneys are questioning and contesting a lot of the decisions that you make.
Understandably, a lot of the contention around a divorce concerns money. Both parties want to make out well financially, while perhaps not seeing their spouse get any more money than is necessary. It can be a mistake to flaunt your money in the form of major purchases until your divorce is finalized. Here are some big purchases that you should avoid.
A House
It often makes sense to buy a house as soon as you can after a divorce, but you shouldn't move forward in this manner until your divorce has been finalized. Buying a house is problematic for a couple of reasons. For starters, your spouse's attorneys may suggest that you've been withholding financial assets, which you quickly used to buy the house, and this can prompt a closer investigation of your financial picture — something that will only delay the divorce. Additionally, you want to know exactly what you're left with after the divorce, and getting a mortgage before you have this information isn't necessarily responsible.
A Car
In some scenarios, you may need to buy a car when you're going through a divorce. However, you should try to avoid doing so unless you absolutely need to. This is another scenario in which your spouse and his or her attorneys could contest the decision, perhaps implying that some of the money that you used to buy the vehicle should rightfully belong to your spouse. The last thing that you want is to have to pay your spouse a certain amount of money after you've already incurred the expense of a vehicle.
A Trip
Going on a trip to enjoy some "me time" after a divorce is something that many people do, although you definitely need to wait until everything is complete. As in the above examples, your spouse's attorneys could take issue with you spending money on a trip and argue that some of that money should go to your spouse.
There's also the issue of who you're going with. If you're going with a certain friend, your spouse may suspect that infidelities were occurring during your marriage, and this can further make the divorce proceedings difficult. It's a good idea to consult your own divorce attorney before you make any major purchase.
For more information, contact a law office like Gomez May LLP.
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