Amid everything you are trying to accomplish during your divorce, it is important to remain mindful of your health. It is not uncommon for people to suffer from chronic pain or sickness following a divorce. They are under a tremendous amount of stress, which is harmful to themselves and can lead to unhealthy habits. This can cause:

• Bouts of anxiety and depression
• Cardiovascular disease
• Drastic changes in your weight
• Substance abuse

Everyone reacts to divorce differently, including the way it affects their health. However, anyone can help themselves during their divorce with these wellness tips:

1. Make an Effort to Stay Active: Physical wellness and mental wellness have proven to be connected to each other. Physical activity can relieve stress and give you something positive to focus on. Many people choose a fitness routine for their physical activity, but even spending time on a hobby can be a welcome break from the thoughts that have caused you stress.
2. Maintain Healthy Eating and Sleeping Habits: Being busy with your divorce can throw off your normal eating and sleeping routine, which in turn can make you feel sluggish. Your body still needs you to stay on a regular meal schedule and to get an adequate amount of sleep each night. By being fueled and rested, you will have energy at the time of day when you need to be productive.
3. Find Ways to Ease Workload: A person going through a divorce may feel overwhelmed by everything they believe they must get done. However, there may be ways you can take the pressure off of yourself. This often means asking others for help with your responsibilities at work and/or home. You may be surprised by how willing friends and family members are to help you through this stressful period in your life.
4. Do Not Hesitate to See a Doctor: There are some health problems that are beyond your ability to handle on your own. Seeing a doctor about your health should always be an option. A doctor can best diagnose your problem and may have remedies that you have not thought of or cannot get on your own.

Contact a St. Charles, Illinois, Divorce Attorney

Sometimes, what you need most during a divorce is to talk to someone who understands what you are going through and can give helpful advice. A divorce coach is that person for many divorcees. At Goostree Law Group, our divorce coach is available to work with clients on the personal side of divorce. To schedule a free consultation with a Kane County divorce lawyer, call 630-584-4800.

What happens to spousal maintenance after you retire? If you are the person paying maintenance, it would be wrong for you to assume that your maintenance payments will end when you retire. You can terminate maintenance payments only when:

• You reach the agreed termination date
• A significant decrease in your income or increase in the recipient’s income makes it appropriate to end payments
• The recipient remarries
• The recipient fails to make an effort to become self-supporting

Retirement may give you grounds to decrease your maintenance payments, but terminating payments is unlikely. There are several factors that determine whether and how much you can modify spousal maintenance when you retire.

How Long Is the Spousal Maintenance Supposed to Last?

The duration of your spousal maintenance payments can be a set number of years or indefinite, pending future review or requests for modification. Two circumstances are needed for a court to grant indefinite maintenance:

Illinois does not have an automatic presumption of paternity when a child is born out of wedlock. Normally, the husband of the mother is presumed to be the father unless it is proven than someone else is the father. An unmarried father can still claim his legal parental status by signing a Voluntary Acknowledgement of Paternity form after the child’s birth. When there is a disagreement about who the father is, the mother or potential father may need to go to court to prove paternity. A paternity test is usually the definitive way to determine whether a child is related to the father. Why is it important to identify the father of a child? There are good reasons for each party involved.

The Father

A father may want to be part of his child’s life, even if he is not in a relationship with the mother. The best way he can ensure that it will happen is by establishing paternity. As the legal father to the child, he would have a right to parenting time, as long as the child would not be in danger with him. The father could also claim responsibility for the child on a full-time basis if the mother dies, is deemed unfit, or wants to give the child up for adoption.

The Mother

It is difficult for a single mother to support a child, and she may want the biological father to take responsibility for their child. Establishing paternity would make the father responsible for paying child support to cover child-related expenses. The mother may also want access to the father’s family medical history, which the child’s pediatrician could reference to determine whether the child may be at risk for certain medical conditions.

Stay-at-home parents make personal sacrifices in order to focus on raising their children and allowing their spouse to fully pursue their career. The parent at home may have paused or given up their career, as well as their financial independence. If you are a stay-at-home parent who is unhappy in your marriage, you may have several questions about how you could afford to divorce and how it would affect you. Being a stay-at-home parent presents some obstacles during divorce, but they are all manageable if you work with an experienced divorce attorney.

Paying for Divorce

Your first question might be “How can I afford a divorce attorney when I do not have my own income?” It is important that you have an attorney who is independent of your spouse. Some stay-at-home parents have their own savings that they can draw upon. If you do not have enough money, you can petition the court to order your spouse to help pay your attorney fees. You would need to prove that you are at a financial disadvantage and that your spouse can afford your attorney fees.

Childcare

You may also be concerned about whether working on your divorce will interfere with taking care of your children. You will need someone else to be with your children when you meet with your attorney, negotiate your divorce agreement with your spouse, and attend a court hearing. Before you pay for a childcare service, ask family and friends whether they can help you by watching your children while you are unavailable.

It is vital to conduct an accurate valuation of your business during your divorce. The value that you and your spouse agree on will determine how much it will cost you in other marital assets to have sole possession of your business following a divorce. If you overvalue your business, you may give up too many assets to keep your business intact. While undervaluing your business could be advantageous, you risk the divorce court rejecting your agreement if it objects to your valuation methods. There are several ways that someone can make a mistake in the business valuation process that will skew the value of the business:

1. Using the Wrong Valuation Method: There are generally three methods of valuing a business: income-based, asset-based, and market value. The accuracy of each method may depend on the type of business you are valuing. For instance, the market value approach is not considered to be an accurate way to value a privately held company if you are comparing it to publicly traded companies.
2. Overlooking Assets and Liabilities: The asset-based valuation approach should include all of your business’ assets and liabilities. Some assets and liabilities can be easy to overlook because they are not tangible properties or part of your regular balance sheet. For instance, your business may have long-term debts that are not listed in your budget or goodwill value that only exists because of your reputation.
3. Not Considering Risk in Growth Projections: Another part of the value of your business is how much it is expected to grow in size and profits. Your business plan may project a certain amount of growth in the coming years but also considers risks that may hamper growth. A business valuation that does not consider risk may overvalue your business by projecting unrealistic growth.
4. Giving Too Much Weight to Outlier Events: Situations arise that may change your business’s value in ways that you do not expect to continue. We are currently going through a big outlier event because of the coronavirus outbreak. Many businesses have been forced to close, while others are seeing an increased demand for their products. Once the economy fully reopens and consumers return to their normal spending habits, your business’s value may also revert back to normal.

Contact a St. Charles, Illinois, Divorce Lawyer

Valuing your business is not something you should attempt to do on your own because of the many ways that you can make mistakes. A Kane County divorce lawyer at Goostree Law Group works with professionals who regularly assess the value of businesses for the purpose of divorce. To schedule a free consultation, call 630-584-4800.

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