UlTImATE SUccESS GUIdEYou can probably imagine how the rest of the story goes, but when it
came to the divorce, it was the war of the roses.
Diane had not contributed much to her retirement plan because Bill had
said that his plan was better, so they maxed out contributions to his.
A forensic accounting of their finances uncovered two separate bank
and investment accounts that Bill had apparently set up to receive the
yearly bonuses he had gotten from the firm. A tidy sum for sure. The
credit cards were nearly maxed out with all the recent purchases and
trips to the Caribbean and Las Vegas, dinners out and lavish gifts to the
girlfriend and her kids. He had also convinced her that they should take
a home equity loan on the house so that “they” could buy that sailboat
they always wanted. It was not a pretty picture at all. To make matters
worse, he was very aggressive with their investments and the last two
market declines had really put a huge dent in their accounts.
Like many women, she opted for the family home in the divorce settle-
ment instead of the investments. He had a great lawyer, who managed
to leave Diane with a great deal less than she probably should have
received, and her lawyer didn’t fight too hard on her behalf. Once the
real estate market took a major downturn, Diane lost most of the equity
that was left and found it harder and harder to keep up with the increase
in property taxes and cost of home repairs. She is now 57, still has one
child attending a community college and living at home. She sold the
house, but barely came out with enough to purchase a townhome with
a 30-year mortgage, closer to her job. Fortunately, she earns a pretty
decent salary, so she is trying to contribute a good amount to her 401k.
Most of the friends she once had have moved on – since she couldn’t af-
ford to keep up with the lifestyle. Bill married the girlfriend, is now rais-
ing her two kids and they live in a brand new 5000 square foot home in
her old hometown. Last time I ran into him, he looked old, bald and fat!
Through all of this heartache and pain, one of the good things that came
out of it is that she came to me. Once devastated and broken, she is now
strong, very knowledgeable about her investments, and confident that
she will be ok.
We made sure that Bill had to purchase enough life insurance to leave
something for her and the kids if he partied himself to death, and we set
Diane up with a systematic and structured savings plan. In addition, we