With harder economic times over the past few years, there's been a change for some divorcing couples which involves, dividing debt rather than the traditional division of property and assets.
Instead of working out who gets the car, the house, the new big screen TV, many couples who don't have much left and are skating on thin ice financially, are now arguing over who should pay which bill. Rather than the divorce being about who get's the marital assets, there's been a shift over to more divorcing couples who are looking at what is the best way to distribute their marital debt. When couples are 'upside down' on their home value, often there's more debts to distribute, rather than assets.
This is an important area to address as financial pressures are one of the most common factors that that divorcing couples attribute as being a major player in all the areas of life and relationships that can lead to a divorce. Many experts also agree with this assessment; for the most part, when couples are doing better financially they tend to be under less pressure to divorce. Or more commonly, financial difficulties tend to be the straw that breaks the camel's back in an already rocky relationship. Often financial troubles will lead into some of the other major break-up factors in a divorce, like drug and alcohol abuse and even infidelity.
When times are tough, leaving a marriage may be considered an easy way out of financial burdens. Unfortunately this can mean that the person who is left behind gets stuck with handling all the debt. So it's important that you know how to protect yourself against this type of thing happening.
Even after a divorce or separation, the recent recession has seen an increase in the numbers of people, who are trying to get their child support payments reduced or even suspended because of financial difficulties.
In these troubled economic times, it's important that you have someone that you can work with, who you can trust and rely on to understand your concerns and help you to navigate a safe passage through any gloomy financial waters.