Don’t spend excessively when facing divorce

 Posted on January 27, 2021 in Divorce

Your spouse has always been very controlling with money, and they never let you spend it on the things you wanted. That’s not the entire reason for the divorce, but it’s something you’ve always resented.

No that you’re getting a divorce, you feel like you’re free of that control. You decide to go out and make some big purchases. You just want to have fun and enjoy life, and now you can. Are there any potential issues here?

Dissipation of assets

You want to be very careful with spending during divorce proceedings. Excessive spending can be seen as dissipation of assets. That’s a trick often used by those who want to keep marital assets from their spouse.

Sometimes this is just done out of spite. Both people are really losing assets, but the spouse who is unhappy doesn’t care. They just do it to get even.

Sometimes, though, that person can benefit. Buying physical assets doesn’t help, as those can be sold or divided, but not everything can retain its value. For instance, say you and your spouse have $100,000 to divide. If it was split in half, you’d both get $50,000. Before dividing it, though, you go on a vacation alone (or with someone else) and spend $10,000. There’s no way to get that back. You split the remaining $90,000 for $45,000 each, but your spouse still feels like you spent $5,000 of their money.

If you’re involved in a complex divorce case where assets have to be divided and a lot is on the line, it can help to work with an experienced law firm.