The Cost of Divorce
‘Love is a beautiful thing created by God…’ The joy and excitement that always come with it are overly felt during honeymoon when couples have exchanged their vows before the priest or lawyer and the faithful congregation. But what if love sneaks into the dark, and the once called ‘perfect match’ splits?
One cost that is mostly overlooked by couples when situations reach this point is the cost of wedding. They put not into consideration the financial consequences likely to befall them once this decision is made. Nevertheless, it is pointless staying with someone just to save you money and expenses. But once you understand the amount of money you may need to fork out once you break up, you will need to at least have yourself and pocket book prepared. Below are some of the costs you’ll probably need to match up once you split.
The legal fees
It’s the biggest cost that surprises most couples because, since it’s upon the lawyers to determine their rates, they can charge hundreds of dollars hourly just to listen to your situations. To avoid such cases which could leave you with bigger debt settlement schemes to cover, it’s wise you consult prior to visiting their offices by asking relevant questions like how much it may cost you for their time per session. Furthermore, the cost of divorce isn’t actually constant. It varies depending on how amicable the split is. Averagely, it stands at $1,043 for an amicable split, and can drop to as low as $801, a 2011 survey of 179 lawyers by CanadianLawyerMag.com reveals. The survey goes on to point out that fees charged by a lawyer can go up to as high as $33,881, for a contested case while, the average cost for divorce is $9,989 per
case.
The food bills
If the 2015 data from Statistics Canada are anything to go by, averagely, a family of four spends $8,649 yearly. Splitting does not guarantee a slash in the roles hence a reduction in expenses. In-fact, it is important to note that cooking for oneself is far more expensive since you will be without that extra hand to share expenses with in terms of buying food in bulk and/or cooking in batches.
Housing costs
Splitting up especially when you have kids will definitely raise your housing costs by up to as much as two times.
Entertainment costs
Studies show that single people spend quite a disproportionate sum of cash on dinner, refreshments etc. as compared to the married couples. When still fresh in your single life, you’re more likely to rush back to the dating scenes or worse off find yourself having lonely Fridays. This may leave you spending lots of cash on entertainment to fill up the void left by your ex and kids. Finally, despite all these challenges there are still numerous life hack skills, newly divorced couples can adopt to save money. E.g. minimizing transportation, entertainment and living in the suburbs.