Coping financially after a break up |Debt1 | The debt management company

How Divorce Can Lead to Debt

Coping financially after a break up

The emotional stress of going through a divorce can really take its toll on many aspects of your day to day life. Everything from lack of sleep to your mental health can be affected, but for many people divorce is often just the start of their problems as they struggle to manage their money and keep debt at bay.

Money worries and divorce commonly go hand in hand and debt problems are often the catalyst for the breakdown of a relationship. A survey on behalf of Seddons Solicitors found that 29% of people were willing to stay in a doomed marriage just to avoid the financial upheaval that would be caused by divorce and over 50% stated they would miss the financial security of being in a relationship if they were to get divorced. These figures show that there is a lot more at stake when a relationship starts to go wrong than just the emotional side of things. The prospect of having to cope on one salary is one that clearly fills a lot of people with dread with many accepting an unhappy marriage in order to avoid getting into debt or having to radically alter their lifestyle.

Finding a new home can be difficult to accept after a divorce but if you only have one income to rely on instead of two then your expectations need to be realistic when you’re looking for a roof over your head. For example it can be very stressful to move from a three bedroom house to a one bedroom flat but the key to successfully rebuilding your life lies in choosing somewhere you can afford. Many people can’t face this prospect and opt for somewhere that is beyond their means financially which ultimately only results in more misery and rising debts.

Lifestyle changes are an inevitable consequence of divorce. Finding yourself with less disposable income every month can be a very hard adjustment to make and it’s common for people to carry on with their lives as before but using credit to fund it rather than cash. This can often be the start of the slippery slope into debt and serious financial problems as the repayments and interest start to mount up. Living on your own after a divorce also means that you don’t have the security of a second income if you lose your job or are too ill to work for any length of time so putting money aside becomes even more important.

In any divorce there is usually some form of financial adjustment to be made by one or both parties. How the financial implications are handled both in the terms of the divorce itself and afterwards is vital in order to avoid more emotional stress which comes as part and parcel of living with debt.

If you’ve recently divorced and are worried about your level of debt then call us now on 0800 043 4747 to discuss your situation in confidence with a friendly and professional debt advisor.