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Your Separation Checklist.
We’ve reviewed our separation checklist so whether you’re planning your exit from a long-term partnership, marriage, or any type of significant relationship, you can be prepared. Separation can be one of the most daunting experiences an individual can go through. However, it may also provide a chance for personal growth, and a fresh start. Here are five separation checklist tips to help you prepare for your future after separation.
1. Prioritise self-care in your separation checklist.
After separation, it will be vital that you spend plenty of time and energy on yourself and your own well-being. This includes taking care of your mental, emotional, physical and maybe even spiritual health. Eating a well balanced and nutrient dense diet, consistent weekly exercise and sleep, and spending quality social time with the people close to you, are all part of a healthy lifestyle you should embrace after separation.
Further, general activities/hobbies that bring you happiness and calm, including reading, biking, painting, or yoga. Please do not hesitate to contact professionals if you feel the need to; therapy in all forms can be extremely beneficial to an individual’s health and assist them in navigating their own emotions during a stressful separation.
If this is all overwhelming, use your support network, and don’t hesitate to get legal advice.
2. Review/reassess your financial situation, and get your paperwork in order.
Your separation checklist is critical to your future financial stability and is often a major concern before and after separation. Taking the time to look over and re-evaluate your financial situation, such as creating a new budget, can have positive impacts on your future financial state.
You could look to renegotiate any existing debts, reassess spending habits or places of spending, or if possible, you could look to acquire a new or additional source of income. A financial advisor could certainly help with an area such as this, providing valuable tips and guidance that allow you to make a better-informed decision in order to stabilise and protect your financial future.
Above all, make sure your separation check list has details of all bank accounts, copies of all of bank statements, copies of loan agreements (make a list of all liabilities), list your assets (cars, boats, anything with a notable value), lease/rental agreements, information related to business, mortgages, investments and superannuation, deeds (arrange property searches if necessary), emails and email account details, social media posts, phone bills, utility bills, your will, and any and all other similar or personal documents no matter how insignificant they may seem right now.
If your partner can access your personal accounts, you need to know what you will have to do to make your personal accounts (bank, phone, laptop, email etc) accessible only by you, and how long that will take. Create new passwords on bank accounts, computer, phone, and others. Make sure joint accounts are ’dual signatory’; change PINs and passwords, lower your daily transaction limits, and think about a lock your credit cards. Keep a diary of everything that happens during this difficult time.
3. Build a support network.
After a separation you may find yourself feeling quite lonely and lost on a social level, that is why building a strong support network is a vital step in supporting yourself. Don’t leave this until you’re too emotionally exhausted to think about it, include this in your separation checklist. Surrounding yourself with those close to you, such as family and friends, or other loved ones, can provide you with important emotional support and practical help that can be really helpful if things get tough.
There are a wide variety of support groups that function online, or potentially in person in your local areas that can also be beneficial. These networks allow you to share your story and experiences, providing comfort and a sense of community that will help you through these tough times.
4. Set new goals in your separation checklist.
A separation checklist helps with separation which, whilst difficult, can offer individual’s an opportunity to re-shape their life. You can set new professional and personal goals to strive for, creating a new sense of purpose important in each person’s life. You should reflect on what you seek to achieve, both in the short term and the long term. Potentially writing down a list of these goals can assist you in visualising them, and how you aim to achieve them. A sense of purpose, or a goal to strive for will assist you in moving forward.
5. Embrace change
The massive amount of change that follows from separation can be daunting, but it is an inevitable part of this experience, and it can be dangerous to deny it. Embracing the changes that follow from separation and trying to view them in a positive light can make them easier to handle, potentially reshaping these changes into new opportunities. This positive and accepting outlook can be make a significant difference in how you move forward and cope with the changes around you. Practicing gratitude is one method of shifting your mind-set that can help with embracing change.
For more in depth information on separation legal advice, please visit our website.
If you need assistance with a family law matter, please contact Canberra family lawyer Cristina Huesch or one of our other experienced solicitors here at Alliance Family Law on (02) 6223 2400. Alliance Family Law can assist you once you have chosen to take a legal course of action, whether this involves separation, divorce, custody arrangements for your children, or property settlements; as well as supporting you with any related criminal law or other legal matters through our network of referral companies. Whilst we are a Canberra based firm we operate in all east coast States and the ACT.
Please note our blogs are not legal advice. For information on how to obtain the correct legal advice call us now: please contact Alliance Family Law.
More information: Australian Government and Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia
Lead author: Omeed Eshraghi – Paralegal.
