Keeping Your Children Happy During A Divorce

When you are getting ready to file for divorce, there are several things that you want to do in order to make sure that everything is going to go well. It doesn't matter if you are having a contentious divorce or a relatively friendly one, there are things that you are going to need to do, one way or the other. 

List Your Assets

One thing that you are going to need to do is to list all of the assets you have in your marriage. That includes things like your house, cars, bank accounts, and everything in between. If you have things like antique furniture or collectors' items, make sure that you list all of those too, as well as their approximate value. Having that list will make it easier for you and your soon-to-be former spouse to divide your assets, either by monetary value or by physical asset. 

List Pre-Marriage Belongings

Another thing that you are going to want to do is make a list of all the things that you brought into the marriage. For example, if you already owned your house before you got married, then you would want to list that. It can help if you can show proof that you owned the item in question prior to the marriage. You can do that by having witness statements or showing bills of sale. In some states, those belongings are exempt from any kind of settlement, so showing that you owned them before the marriage would be helpful. 

Settlement Suggestions

Another thing to think when you are getting ready to file for divorce is what kind of settlement you are looking for. You can start writing down ideas to help you figure out what you want, and then once you are sure you know what you are looking for when it comes to your divorce, you should start to prioritize them. Put the things that are non-negotiable at the very top of the list so that your lawyer can do their very best to get them for you. Then the next priority would be things that you would really like to have, but you could be willing to negotiate for, and finally, you would want the things that would be nice to have, but you could take them or leave them. Having those two lower categories will give you and your lawyer some room to negotiate for the things that you consider necessities. 

If you are getting divorced, you want to make sure that you are as prepared as possible. There are various things you can do to get prepared like listing your assets and finding a divorce lawyer to represent you.