What to Do First When You Need to Create a Budget During Divorce

The spreadsheet has been open on her laptop for eleven days.

She opened it the morning she realized the joint account was being closed. She typed in her salary. Then she stopped, because she did not know if the child support number was final. She did not know what the mortgage would look like once it was refinanced in her name alone. She did not know if she was keeping the car or if that was still in negotiation.

So she closed the spreadsheet. Told herself she would come back when she had real numbers.

That was eleven days ago.

This is the most common way budgeting during divorce gets indefinitely postponed: the belief that you need final numbers before you can begin. It is also incorrect. A budget is not a verdict. It is a snapshot. And the snapshot you need right now is not of your future. It is of today.