The Importance of Establishing a Budget When Your Marriage Ends!

💰 Take Control: Master Post-Divorce Budgeting for a Stress-Free Future

The end of marriage is extremely difficult and for most people it creates anxiety about their financial future. Post-divorce budgeting is essential to ensure stability and reduce stress. It is important to plan for your future and have realistic financial expectations. Creating a budget is one of the most important things to do post-separation. The word budget can be a daunting word but there are so many resources that are available to you.

How to Create Your Post-Divorce Budget

Creating a budget can seem like an impossible task but it can be easier than you think. The best way to start creating your budget is to use this formula:

Monthly Income – Monthly Expenses = Monthly Surplus

Your monthly income includes things like salary, tips, and any other earned income. It also includes alimony and child support, along with any unearned income like interest from dividends and stocks or any other unearned income like social security payments. This should be the easiest thing to place on the budget. You should readily be able to see past paychecks and other payments to enter into the budget.

Your monthly expenses include everything that you spend your income on like housing, transportation, health and medical, children, and personal purchases. It is important, to be honest and realistic with your expenses, it is easy to be idealistic about our spending habits but include all expenses even those guilty pleasure candy bars in the checkout lane. For expenses that are not monthly, the best thing to do is to total them throughout the year and divide them by 12 as it is much more difficult to manage 12 different budgets, and an annual budget may be harder to follow. Collecting your expenses can be difficult and this is where honesty and organization can be huge time savers.

A well-structured post-divorce budget can help you avoid financial pitfalls

Once you have your Monthly Surplus or Deficit calculated then your work really begins. If you have a surplus, it is important to pay down outstanding debts. If you have no outstanding debts CONGRATS, you can work on investing your money to increase your income or add some luxury expenses back into your budget. If you are working with a deficit, you have two options, either increase your income or reduce your expenses. Increasing your income can either be upgrading your job, picking up an extra job, or finding other ways of creating income.

Reducing your expenses can be difficult but the best place to start is to reduce any luxury expenses, this may look like canceling streaming services, reducing the amount you eat out at restaurants, or leaving expensive clubs and gyms. Sometimes it means reducing your expenses to the bare minimum. Once you reduce your expenses and create a surplus then you can start to increase your income with investments and start to add back those luxury items.

Budgeting can be a very difficult process, but it is important because when you plan for your future you save yourself time and anxiety down the road. At a time when things in your life are changing not only drastically but quickly taking the time to create a budget is extremely important. It is not impossible and doesn’t require perfection, but it is a tool that allows you to be comfortable with your new finances. Click here to open an Excel sheet that allows you to plug in your income and expenses. All you need to do is plug in the numbers, and it automatically calculates your budget!

If you’re new to post-divorce budgeting, free online tools can make the process easier

There are so many online materials that are available to you. Some are free and others require payment. The resources can differ greatly, and it is important to find one that you like, so it may be beneficial to shop around a little. This is your chance to take advantage of your new situation and create goals to improve your financial future. Here are some resources we think are helpful:

• Clark.com: This website uses the C.L.A.R.K. system. Calculate your income; List your expenses; Analyze your spending and set goals; Record everything; and Knock out debt and build savings. It provides free templates that you can use as well.
• Thrivent: Thrivent provides you with three free coaching sessions to create your budget and learn more about money. It also has multiple templates for budget worksheets and allows an objective outsider to help you realize where you need to save your money.
• Rocket Money: Rocket money is a great way to get organized and helps show you your monthly expenses and income automatically. It shows your subscriptions even those that you do not even realize you are paying. There is a free and premium option.
• You Need a Budget: This is a service that helps you achieve financial goals and creates budgets automatically after connecting your bank. It helps to show spending and what you need to do to pay off debts and grow your income. This subscription service costs around $9 a month.
• The Budget Mom: The Budget Mom is a YouTube channel that helps you create a budget and gives tips about spending and living. Great for online learners.

I can’t stress enough how important it is to get help creating a post-divorce budget especially if it is not in your wheelhouse! With proper post-divorce budgeting, you can regain control and plan for a secure future. Ask your divorce lawyer, CPA or family member to help you work through this and you will certainly be happy in the long run that you did!

Experienced, Trusted and Professional Dayton Family Law Lawyers

Our experienced Dayton family law lawyers at MUESLAW can assist you with your dissolution or marriage “uncoupling” related issues. To learn more, please go to our website at www.MuesLaw.com or call us at (937) 293-2141. We can schedule an in-person conference or one by phone or Zoom. We look forward to assisting you!

Schedule An Appointment By Email

PUBLISHER’S NOTE:

I want to thank Tucker Smith, a second-year student at the University of Dayton School of Law, for working with me to write this article. He did an AWESOME job creating the Excel spreadsheet to make creating a budget much simpler! Tucker is continuing his clerking with MuesLaw this semester. You will be reading more from him in the weeks to come! Well done, Tucker!

Please consider joining or following us!

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

© 2025, Ohio Family Law Blog. All rights reserved.