Avoid Common Pitfalls After Your Divorce

Getting through your divorce takes patience and time. Once it’s official, you hope to start a new life and move forward in a positive direction. To do so, there are several common mistakes you should avoid so that your new life can offer you as many opportunities and experiences as possible.

• Money issues.  A divorce is a significant financial event and it takes quite a while for all the pieces to fall into place. Not only will you likely be paying legal and court fees as you adjust to your new life, but you may also be facing a new set of household bills if you have moved. Learning how to budget for your new expenses takes time. If you are paying or receiving child or spousal support payments, this will be an important change to your income and it will take time to adjust to your new budget. Try to avoid big expenses in the months after divorce until you have a good handle on what your budget really looks like.
• Lost friends. People sometimes joke about losing friends in a divorce, but it’s true that some friendships don’t survive a divorce, particularly when you did things together as couples. You will make a lot of adjustments to your life after divorce and some of those changes may affect friendships, but don’t be so fast to cut people out of your life. Instead, take some time to see how the friendships weather the divorce and the new life you create after it. You may be surprised to find that more friends stick with you than you expected.
• Dating. Don’t feel pressured to jump into the dating scene immediately after your divorce. Your single or divorced friends may encourage you to get your feet wet as soon as the ink is dry on your divorce papers. While meeting new people and devoting energy to your social life is a positive step, you have to discover what kind of relationships you are comfortable seeking out and not what your friends want you to do.

For help with your divorce and post-divorce modifications, call the attorneys at the Sampair Group. We serve Phoenix, Mesa, and Glendale, Arizona.