Divorce is often messy and painful, with a lot of emotional fallout that needs to be understood and processed before you can do anything else. However, just because you’re dealing with a lot of emotional issues doesn’t mean that you just give up on the rest of it. Indeed, you will still need to make sure that you’re thinking about your tax situation if you’re planning on a divorce.

Filing for divorce can change your tax situation big time. If you’re thinking about filing jointly on your taxes “one more time” in order to get a lower tax payment, you might want to rethink this.

There is a case that’s making the headlines lately where a couple actually had a massive tax payment due and the woman signed their joint tax return. She didn’t realize that he didn’t have the money to pay capital gains tax on the sale of a gas station, and she ended up being on the hook for the tax payment as well.

Once you file as a married couple together, the IRS will hold you liable for any and all taxes due. So you have to start making sure that you are looking carefully at your tax situation.

It also needs to be said that if you really don’t know what you are to do with your taxes, you really need to let someone handle your taxes. It’s very tempting to just throw caution to the wind, and do it yourself. However, you’re inviting a lot of liability into it.

In the case that’s on file right now, it had a happy ending — the woman took her spouse to court and it was ruled that she didn’t have to pay all of that tax, and she was an innocent spouse. However, if she hadn’t won the case she would have had to pay a great deal of tax as well as penalties for not having the tax paid on time.

So if you’re facing divorce, you really might want to start thinking about whether or not you really want to file that joint tax return. Yes, you might miss out on some lower taxes, but you can also dodge the tax mistakes that your ex-spouse in the making could produce as well.

Keep in mind that divorce agreements are not binding on the IRS — so even if you work out terms that are pleasing to both of you, the IRS can still collect from both parties without caring about your agreement in place.

Sobering? It should be. Plan accordingly and look at all areas of your taxes for best results — good luck!

Identity theft strikes when we least expect it, and it’s downright scary. On one level, you know that some of the most treasured information that we all hold dear has been violated, and this means that you will need to make sure that you are truly doing everything in your power to get it taken care of again. It can be hard to take these steps but it’s really for the best. If you just stick your head in the sand and pretend it’s going to go away, you won’t have much ground to stand on if you have to fight fraud charges with the bank or the credit card company.

So when you known that you’ve been a victim of identity theft, you want to contact your local police authority right away. Giving them as much detail as you can is the best way to get your incident report filled out. You have to just make sure that you take care of the problem as quickly as possible. Once you have the police report, you can actually go to your bank and let them know about the unauthorized charges or the potential for unauthorized charges.

However, you don’t just want to let them know by phone or even in person. You want to start documenting everything. Every time you walk into the bank to discuss this issue, you should follow it up with a letter talking about specific dates and times and what was discussed. Everything should be a follow up of the topic at hand. Don’t let any bank tell you that you are responsible for the fraud charges. You aren’t — they have to take the loss and they know it. But again, the less you know, the more they profit.

So you have to make sure that you’re aware of everything else going on when it comes to your finances — including the things that are going on in the background.

That’s why we recommend getting a credit monitoring service. By the time that the service goes through, you will be able to see all of your credit reports. What’s nice about the monitoring service is that if any information has changed, you’re going to be able to get first access to it. You can indeed dispute addresses if you know that you’ve never lived there or even received mail there.

Putting fraud alerts on all of your bank cards and credit cards is also the best way to move forward. The last thing that you want to do is try to let this go unnoticed. The faster you report the incident, the faster the bank will respond. If you let it go on too long, the bank will try to tell you that you are responsible for the charges.

As you might imagine, you’re going to have to write a lot of letters. You’re going to have to make a lot of phone calls. You’re going to need to know your rights — including the right to go to the regulatory agencies if the banks aren’t going to treat you fairly at all. Good luck out there!

If there’s one part of life that we all look to, it’s definitely going to be retirement. It is a time in our lives that we have been promised — as the legend goes — where we won’t have to work. We’ll be able to do all of the things that we’ve put off for the longest, like travel around the world and even get to spoil the grandkids a little bit. These are the things in life that matter, but we’re taught to put them off to the last minute, after all of the work is done.

Yet now we’re getting new news out that says that Social Security — one of the top sources of income that today’s senior citizens look to might be running out. It’s estimated that in 2036, Social Security’s Trust Fund is anticipated to run out of money. This means that SS benefits will need to be cut by 25%. That’s a lot of money when you look at the average payout of SS in the first place.

However, you might be thinking to yourself that you really don’t have to worry too terribly much about retirement just yet. And that’s a mistake that many people actually make. They think that just because retirement isn’t really on their doorstep yet that they can just go back to worrying about the day to day expenses of life. However, this is actually where a lot of people end up making mistakes that could cost them the golden retirement that they’ve always wanted.

Now that you know ahead of time that there’s a chance the Trust Fund will run out, you can make better financial decisions now. That means that if you have a debt problem, you really need to get it in line. The more debt that you have, the harder it’s going to be to actually take care of your savings plans. That’s because high interest debts need to be taken care of problem almost everything else.

And then when you add in the natural costs of housing and food you have probably more than enough on your plate.

We’re not trying to discourage you or make you feel like you should just drop everything and panic. We’re just trying to let you understand that if you were hoping and praying that Social Security would come through for you in your retirement years, you might need to look at other sources of money.

Now, we know what you’re thinking — with so much uncertainty in the investment marketers, is it really worth your time to think about investing?

It absolutely is. Think about it – it’s always better to take action rather than just sitting back on the sidelines and hoping for something to get better. You are always a lot better off taking care of long term goals than simply hoping and praying for things to get better. That’s the line drawn between producers and victims. You cannot be a victim to an uncertain economy. Sometimes you will just have to push forward and work on your retirement plan anyway.

Ready for more? Read on — we have plenty to talk about here!

One of the most interesting questions in the world of personal finance is what it really means to live well. What it really means to know that all things in your life are exactly the way it should be. And if you’re dealing with trying to get out of debt, this is a question that you’re actually going to have to answer for yourself. You see, everyone’s financial blueprint is different. This means that you really can’t just take someone else’s answer of what it means to live well and make it your own. You will not be as happy as you think if you do it this way.

Instead, you’re going to have to really think about what the question means to you. For us, we believe that living well means having the bills paid and having a little bit extra in the bank to keep you afloat for the times that get rough. If you really look at a lot of real life stories of personal finance horror stories online, you’ll find that they have a common theme. That theme is going to be having too many bills and not enough savings. Yes, we know that it’s an oversimplification, but the truth is that the more you have in savings, the easier you will be able to deal with emergencies and other problems that come up.

For example, if you know that you want to have children in the future, it’s always a good idea to save money. No, we can’t always predict when children will arrive but we have to make sure that we really do as much as possible to make sure that everything is taken care of the way it needs to be taken care of.

Living well also means reaching the milestones on your financial blueprint. If you want a house, then you need to adjust your blueprint so that you can get that house. If you want a promotion at work, you’re going to probably have to increase your skills and value to the company in order to get promoted.

It’s just a matter of making sure that you continue to focus on your goals as they relate to what you feel constitutes a great life. The more work you put into your blueprint, the more that you’re actually going to get out of it. Good luck out there!

If you’ve found the love of your life, you might be head over heels, over the moon, and absolutely unable to think about anything except how much you actually love and cherish your partner. These are all happy feelings, and we are definitely not trying to take away your feelings at all. We’re just trying to tell you that if you’re really serious about having a good life with your partner, you really do need to talk about your financial blueprint.

It’s not really a romantic topic, but it’s an important topic. If you are going to have children, then this is even more of an important topic than if you aren’t planning on bringing children into things. When you have another human being dependent on you to take care of them, things really do change. You have to give up a lot of the things that you knew in order to take care of them. That’s something that shouldn’t be ignored at all. You just need to make sure that you really keep your options open and really ensure that everything is being taken care of as much as possible.

Are you thinking about getting married? You might fear that your spouse to be is going to be a little taken aback if you just start thinking only about financial things. However, this is the highest gift that you can possibly give to your spouse to be. If you want to make sure that you have a good life, then talking about your finances just makes sense.

This is not a time to hide the numbers. If you’re in debt, then your spouse is going to find out anyway. So there’s really no reason to hide it from them at all. You just need to make sure that you really have the strength to push forward and let the other person know where you stand. If they’re really so turned off because you talked about a stable financial future, then they’re probably not going to be the type of person that you want to marry in the first place.

You need to design how your finances are going to look after you get married. Setting up accounts together as a couple is going to be important, but it’s also going to be important to really stop and hear what the other person has to say. You might think that you already have a good idea of what they think about things, but you could be totally surprised at what they really have in mind for you.

So you have to absolutely make sure that you’re thinking about the bigger picture at all times. How much do you both want to spend on the wedding? What is your budget for that? In addition, you will need to start thinking about the expenses that will come as a result of living together. You both might want to live in a better area, and you can pool your income together in order to make that happen. It’s just a matter of thinking about all of these things before you tie the knot.

Of course, you also need to think about end of life issues, which is a subject that no one really wants to talk about. However, it’s necessary. Putting together a will and thoughts about what you want done at the time of your death is also important. You just have to figure out what you want and then go for it — why not start today? You’ll be glad that you did!

What’s your time worth? Now, we’re not just talking about how much you get paid to do the skill of your choice. You want to actually start thinking about the type of activities that you’re going to be involved in to get your finances to a higher level. This might mean that you’re thinking about taking on another job, or it might just mean that you’re trying to negotiate your finances.

There is an opportunity cost that is often measured in time. A lot of people find themselves doing tasks that really don’t get them to anywhere else that they would like to be. It just ends up taking a lot of time out of the things that they really want to do — and that’s a real shame.

You’re going to feel a little overwhelmed when it comes time to really deal with your finances. It’s better to make sure that you really start focusing on the bigger picture rather than always worrying about doing everything yourself.

For example, it might be in your best interest to get a credit negotiator on your side. These are people that are going to charge a fee in order to work with the creditors you have to deal with. They might also work with collection agencies in order to help you settle your debts. However, is it really worth it to you? Well, that depends on how knowledgeable you are on the subject to begin with. You just need to figure out how you actually want to get things done — there’s no reason to push forward on your own when you know that it would take forever to learn how to negotiate with the creditors yourself. On the other hand, if you’re a fast learner then this is something that you might feel comfortable with. It’s completely up to you of course.

Figuring out what’s worth your time and what isn’t worth your time will help you make better purchases a swell. Increasing the amount of time each week that you have available to work is going to earn you more money in the long run. That’s money that can be pushed towards paying on your debts faster. So as you can see, time management definitely makes a difference. In fact it’s one of the strongest skills that we can cultivate if you really want to make sure that you have plenty of time to move your financial agenda forward!