and i m not going to lie. lost a lot of money, and that hurt. she started off changing back to her maiden name, she downsized and started a small business as an interior designer out of the new home. i discovered a niche where i m working with all the clients are divorced or separated, and so it s kind of nice to boshg with people that are in similar circumstances. if there s a silver lining, in their smaller home we spend a lot more time together as a family, because there are fewer places for them to scurry away to. gabrielle is a certified divorce analyst, and she s featured in my new book. how do you prepare in this situation or if married thinking of divorcing. she joins us to help through sticky financial situations that come along with divorce. if you re in this situation and stuck together because the economy has kept you stuck together, what should you do? what s the most important advice ? protect yourself financially from the spending habits of your
marriage, research shows that paying down debt is a very good way to stay married. believe it or not, high levels of debt right up there with alcoholism and abuse for reasons that people say that they are splitting up. so financial disagreements can be very hazardous to your health. mean while, i want to tell you about a woman we spoke to. we spoke to a woman who put her emotions on the back burner for her family s financial well being after her divorce. oh, good girl. we first introduced you to sally gibson 18 months ago and found out that breaking up is hard to do. sally and her husband of 15 years were getting a divorce but still living under one roof. my husband lives in the guest room and comes home on wednesday nights early to have dinner with the kids and the other nights he comes home late to give me my space. so it s not perfect. it s been difficult. reporter: as legal bills for two divorce attorneys piled up,
six or eight months, and that s what the mortgage companies want to see. they don t trust it. there may be a court order, but until she see the check hit the bank on a monthly, consistent basis they re not going to from my own reporting, your credit can be dinged during this process because one person isn t paying the credit card bills, one person is. there s all of the things that can happen. most important thing here, what do you say to people when they re doing the divorce settlement? how do you make sure you protect yourself for the uncertainties of 10, 20 years down the row. a lot of people say i don t have health care, and now there s not as much in the 401(k) as i thought and they have to re-open it up. long-term financial planning before you sign your settlement agreement. you have to think about it to run the numbers. you have to say, how is this going to look after the divorce? when you re in the middle of divorce there s crisis, drama and emotion. it s difficult to thi
the couple switched to a less expensive mediator. but the situation with the house wasn t as simple. right now there are 20 houses on the market in town that are in our price range, and there are no buyers. so my broker has pretty much prepared me that the house is going to sit for quite a while. reporter: for sally, remaining financially sound meant remaining under the same roof as financially sound meant staying under the same roof. for some getting a divorce isn t the option. they say 57% of attorneys polled reported fewer divorces during the recession. the couples stayed in the home for a full year before deciding emotion trumped finances. it was a very difficult time, very emotional time, and we made the decision to sell the house and it could have easily sat on the market for a year. i didn t want to put my kids through that because it was tough enough. i priced it to sell, and we sold the house right away.
well, this recession has changed about the way americans have thought about a lot of things, including marriage. the number of adults choosing not to marry has surpassed the number of young adults 24 to 35 who have chosen to marry. and of the couples who are getting married, many people are protecting their assets more than they have in the past. nearly 3/4 of divorce attorneys polled have seen a number seen a rise in the number of prenups and that s according to the american academy of matrimony lawyers. christine romans joining me again, something she touches on her fantastic new book called smart is the new rich. one thing about marriage, as well, is more people are initiating prenups, but it s more women are initiating prenups. also in terms of saving the