Divorce Lawyers Tell Couples Beware Of January
Couples beware!
Divorce lawyers say beware of January! Not because of your hard to stick to New Year’s resolutions. No this is something that married people have to worry about if your relationship is shaky.
Time to worry?
Don’t freak out, but January is sometimes called “Divorce Month,” because it’s when divorce lawyers see a big uptick in clients. There’s about a 25% spike in the number of people looking for divorce advice this month . . . possibly because they were waiting to get through the holidays.
Is it because couples are coming down from the holidays? After the highs of gift giving and receiving? Perhaps the holidays were a big let down and for some it was the last straw.
Putting out “feelers”
That doesn’t mean they necessarily file for divorce now, though. A lot of people just put feelers out, and wait until the spring to file. With that in mind, here are three red flags you might want to be aware of . . .
Spending habits
1. Their spending habits change. Lawyers do something called a “spousal support analysis” to figure out alimony. Especially if one person brings in most of the money. If honey buns is doing the math to figure out what they can expect financially from you, that’s a bad sign.
If their client NEEDS support, they might tell them to go out and shop more, so it’ll look like that’s the lifestyle they’ve become accustomed to. Or if their client wants to AVOID paying alimony, they might tell them to stop spending so much.
Hitting the gym a bit more?
2. Makeovers, or suddenly hitting the gym a lot more. It can be a sign of infidelity, or getting ready to jump back into the dating pool.
But be careful with that one, because it might just be a New Year’s resolution thing. Only be suspicious if there are other red flags, like lying or a lot of late nights at work.
No more nagging spouse
3. They’ve stopped nagging you. If they used to do it a lot but stopped, it might be a sign they’ve started to give up on the relationship.