Analyze your spending. Some divorcees find themselves financially squeezed in the early years following a divorce because two people living together in the same property can generally do so less expensively than two people living separately. Analyzing your spending needs pre-divorce can help you adjust to a new budget and negotiate a fairer settlement with your spouse.
Review needed changes to your insurance. If you’re covered under your spouse’s employer’s insurance plan, make sure you get this coverage replaced. If you or your children will still be financially dependent on your spouse post-divorce, make sure the divorce agreement mandates life insurance coverage. See Chapter 11 for more about insurance. You should also revise your will.
Revamp your retirement plan. With changes to your income, expenses, assets, liabilities, and future needs, your retirement plan will surely need a post-divorce overhaul.
Coping with the death of a spouse
Of course, everyone ultimately passes away, and we all hope to live a long, healthy life and go peacefully into the night at a ripe old age. But medical problems, accidents, and other largely unpredictable events can cause an untimely death of a spouse or other important loved one.
I’ve worked with numerous people and had other friends who have dealt with this situation, and the challenges are numerous. Here are some things to consider:
Take some mental health time off. With the passing of a spouse, in addition to the loss of companionship, you are thrust into a new role and unchosen lifestyle. Think about all of the things that your partner took responsibility for in your household. Allow some time and space to grieve and to adjust to your new and unplanned role.
Find someone to lean on. It could be a relative, a friend, or both who can help you to cope with your new situation and be a sounding board. Just be sure that the person you’re relying upon is trustworthy and without an agenda. A counselor or psychologist may be useful as well for a period of time. Check them out and interview at least two or three and beware of those who are prone to push continual and costly sessions as far as the eye can see. If religious, some organizations offer very reasonably priced six- to eight-week group sessions for support and guidance. One example is http://mournerspath.com. Check out your faith group for offerings.
Move slowly with important decisions, especially financial ones. You might consider selling your home, moving, making changes to investments, and so on. Any of those could be a reasonable thing to do with proper time, thinking, and research. But give yourself some time to adjust and process all that has happened and changed. You also want to be sure you aren’t being pushed into making a decision by a salesperson or anyone else with a financial conflict of interest or some other agenda.
Know where everything is. In some couples, responsibility is shared for dealing with financial matters whereas with other couples, one person deals with everything. Regardless, each of you needs to know where everything (for example investment accounts, insurance policies, wills and estate documents, car titles, and so on) is located and dealt with.
Dealing with a natural disaster
Tornados, earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes — oh my!
Yes, if you live in the United States, you’re likely at risk for one (or more) of these where you live. And even if you live in an area deemed at low risk for these types of natural disasters, unusual events that rarely happen may be your unfortunate fortune. Consider the good folks living in the normally warm southern states like Texas that got clobbered in early 2021 with harsh winter conditions complete with multiple snowstorms, below freezing temperatures for a full week, power outages, and more.
It had been decades since such extreme winter conditions hit the area and combined with the power outages, led to broken pipes and displaced homeowners and renters. Coming in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, it also hurt some small businesses.
During natural disasters, I’ve seen some people’s lives turned upside down for many months or longer. Without adequate insurance (such as business interruption insurance), the financial consequences can be devastating. Even with insurance, folks can lose big financially, especially if the disaster disrupts or devastates their small business. Supply chain issues or customers unable to buy may bring some small businesses to a halt, and many small-business owners lack contingent business interruption insurance that may cover such problems.
If you’re dealing with the aftermath of a natural disaster, of course, it’s too late then to do anything about the insurance you didn’t have, but there are many things you can do to deal with your situation:
Ensure your personal safety first. Frontline safety responders will tell you that it’s often the case that there are more fatalities in the aftermath of some natural disasters than from the disaster itself. With hurricanes, for example, numerous victims die in the flooding that follows the storm. Long power outages lead to spikes in carbon monoxide deaths as people make mistakes in rigging up generators near their home or in their garage. Downed power lines have led to some folks being electrocuted. So, please be careful in the aftermath of a natural disaster and don’t rush out to do things that can wait or take unnecessary risks like trying to drive through a water-covered roadway.
Think outside the box if your small business is in trouble. To survive and thrive as a small-business owner, you need to be resilient and flexible. Conditions change, and a disruption from a natural disaster can be upsetting. So, get creative about how to find and serve your customers when the landscape changes. Maybe if your customers can’t come to you, you can go to them. Perhaps you can serve them through video calls/conferencing. We’re all creatures of habit, and it can be hard to change the way we are accustomed to and prefer doing things.
Take a hard look at your expenses. If you’re suddenly facing a period of reduced income due to natural disaster, take a fresh look at your spending and cut non-necessities as needed. You can always restart them, and you may well find that some providers will offer you better pricing if you’re set to cancel due to short-term affordability issues. Don’t cut needed catastrophic insurance coverage.Scrutinize your small-business expenses in a similar fashion. Just be careful to not cut expenditures that could cut into sales, compromise the quality of your products or services, or leave you exposed insurance-wise.
If you have insurance claims, be sure to document everything and be ready to negotiate and fight for what you’re due. Some insurance companies do the right thing, but too often, they will view your claim as a business expense and do what they can to minimize your payments.
Success Plans for Personal Crises and Life Changes
I apologize for spending so much time on negative events and crises in this chapter. I hope that your life will have far more positive events and surprises than the negative things discussed here. But I can tell you that good things come out of bad events.
Following I offer some discussion points that pertain to all types of life events — not just the negative ones discussed earlier in this chapter.
Keeping your big picture in mind
First, here are some general tips that apply to all types of life changes:
Stay in financial shape. An athlete
