“I thought my husband knew more about finance than me”
So often I talk to women going through divorce who haven’t dealt with finance during the marriage and instead have left managing finances to their partner.
It’s quite common, at least with my clients. The wife looks after the house, children etc and the partner looks after the money.
But then if they end up going through divorce – she’s in the awful position as she knows very little about the finances and has total fear about it.
She may worry that her partner has not fully disclosed everything, but of course she has no way of knowing if this is true or not. And she may get an unpleasant shock when she does look at the finances.
This happened to my client, the one who made the opening comment. She found out the mortgage repayment was Interest only, and she hadn’t known. She thought the mortgage was being paid down. Since they had sufficient income to repay the mortgage each month, she had no idea what the money was spent on instead.
There’s nothing wrong with your partner dealing with joint finances. In fact, it’s quite sensible that one person does it, provided you don’t then get rid of all responsibility for it.
Do ensure you have a regular meeting between you to discuss your joint situation. It’s up to you to accept joint responsibility and ask the relevant questions. Don’t assume your partner knows enough.
Get in touch if you’re unsure about your financial situation and would like some help. Just email me at mary@wealthforwomen.biz and we can arrange a time to speak.
Read More
If you enjoyed this post, we recommend the following as additional reading.
Improving your state pension entitlement
Prior to 6th April 2016 if a couple were going through divorce, or dissolution of a civil partnership it was possible to substitute the National Insurance (NI) record from a former spouse/civil partner if they had a better NI record. Therefore, potentially a non-earning spouse could still receive a full state pension if their…
Aphrodite Angels
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of beauty, love, and sexuality. Some may remember this from their schooldays. But here’s a little teaser for you: do you know who Aphrodite Angels are? Don’t worry if you don’t recall hearing about the Angels from school. This is infact a service set up by Sarah Wadham to help…
Helping children feel nurtured, supported and heard through divorce, separation and break up.
Divorce is stressful for parents and children alike and although reactions will depend on a child’s age, temperament, and the circumstances surrounding the split, many children feel sad, frustrated, angry, and anxious — and it’s not uncommon for them to become naughty at home or at school because of those feelings. Fortunately, you can help…