Of course planning your finances around the potential end of a relationship is uncomfortable to say the least. Who wants to think about that? But we must. stress test for divorce just like we do for other risk scenarios.
Deciding to keep or sell the family home can be emotional and complicated.
Are you familiar with that quintessential Italian-American or Yiddish slang word “agita”? The Oxford dictionary defines agita as “anxiety, stress, aggravation”. Investing is a very personal decision, as you may be the one with “agita”, tossing and turning, keeping your partner up at night, or waking up with a feeling of overwhelm or dread.
Financial abuse can be a subtle manipulative, ‘wooing” process that wears us down slowly so that we start to normalize the behaviors. Or it can be overt, demanding, intimating or a combination of all the above. It begins in the dating phase, and it un-hooks us from our “gut brain” or intuition.
We work hard and sometimes we save. Some folks save well and others do not. Either way, divorce can really impact your taxes, monthly spending plan (cash flow) and the certainty of a secure financial future in retirement.
I meet with clients all the time around retirement planning. Trying to reach as many folks as possible in helping them to understand the power of compounding and the need to forecast the money they will need annually in retirement “after inflation” has been applied.