Divorce changes everything—including your finances. Many people underestimate the true cost of living solo until it’s too late. Your financial affidavit isn’t just paperwork—it’s your financial lifeline.
Don’t let hidden expenses catch you off guard. Family law attorney Tyler Coe has more here:
#DivorceFinances #KnowYourWorth #FinancialPlanning
When you work through the divorce process, decisions come at you from every direction. You must address countless issues regarding children, parenting time, custody, selling or keeping real property, dividing investments, and more. What most folks don't think about—until it's too late—is their wallet's new reality.
The financial affidavit: your financial lifeline
Iowa law generally requires each divorce party to file an affidavit of financial status. This document contains the lifeblood of your future. You must provide your income, your spouse's income, assets, debts, accounts, loans, and expenses. What's key here to ensuring you can afford to live post-divorce is the monthly expenses section.
The true cost of living solo
Monthly expenses are generally those costs we incur every month. Think mortgage, food, gasoline, vehicle payments, credit cards, laundry, cleaning, childcare, insurance premiums, charitable giving, gifts, home maintenance, and much more. This is where folks most often underestimate the cost of living independently.
Do your financial homework
When you draft your affidavit of financial status, go through your bank statements, credit card statements, and other ledgers to see what you buy and how much it costs you. Maybe that oil change only happens once a few times a year, but treating it as a monthly expense (divided out among each month) provides you with a better understanding of your future financial reality.
The forgotten expenses that add up
When clients and I work together on their affidavits of financial status, I often ask about many items they might have forgotten. Clothes, toiletries, medicine, subscriptions, and more frequently get left off. These forgotten amounts could add up to thousands per year.
Why this matters for your future
Why does all this matter? Once you're divorced, you must have an income, spousal support, and/or child support sufficient to make it through life comfortably. Be sure you find an attorney well-versed in lifestyle expenses so you know exactly what your wallet's new reality will be.
