What’s on your post-divorce bucket list?

Post divorce BucketList.jpg — A bucket list used to be a list of things to do before a major milestone. Made famous by the film, the concept of ticking off all your greatest wishes before you “kick the bucket”. Now, we see them for all sorts of reasons, such as a bucket list for summer, or things to achieve before the age of 50. So how about creating a post-divorce bucket list?

I asked Ceri Griffiths of Willow Brook Lifestyle Financial Planning for her top tips to do just that.

As a financial planner this is one of the areas I really encourage my clients to think about.

When your money has a purpose, you do more with it.

What’s really exciting to see is how this concept can really transform a journey through divorce.

Divorce is known to be one of the most stressful periods of life. Emotionally, legally, and financially there are many decisions to be made and much knowledge to acquire. In fact, the very act of getting divorced can become all consuming.

But divorce is also one of those very rare times when life starts over, and one of the joys of my role is that I get to help women uncover this, helping clients see beyond the divorce to their future life.

One of the steps you are very likely to need to take as part of your divorce is to produce a list of your expenses now, and post-divorce. It’s actually often a really daunting task and can be a reason that you work with a financial planner – to help gain some clarity and support during this process.

If you find a lifestyle financial planner to help you with this, then what they will do could really open your eyes. With carefully guided questions and real clarity on your financial situation, they can help you start to visualise a life beyond divorce. At the core of what we do is the principle that we need to understand where you are now, and where you want to be. So our questioning helps open that door, and really gain clarity on your post-divorce life.

What’s surprising is that for more many it’s not about the 5-star holidays, or designer clothes, but about a pace of life, and a sense of fulfilment.

Your bucket will become your instructions for your new life. It’s a chance to dream, and reset.

So take a moment. Picture your ideal self in 3 years’ time. Think about these 4 areas:

Career
Lifestyle
Family
Home

What do these look like in your ideal future?

What do you want to do more of?

What else do you want to be?

Give yourself the chance to dream, and document it.

This is what we need to capture when working out your post-divorce budget and creating your financial life plan.