To Do by Honorable Anne Kass. Ann Kass is a District Judge in the Second Judicial District State of New Mexico. The other day while talking to several lawyers who do not handle divorce cases, I made the comment that divorce is not a legal problem, it's a cash flow problem. They laughed, but I was serious. Most American families live to the full extent of their incomes.
Many families live well beyond their incomes by using credit cards.
In many families, it takes two incomes to run one household. When divorce happens, the first economic consequence is the establishment of a second home, which doubles or at least dramatically increases housing and utility expenses. This creates an immediate and severe financial crunch that seems to take most families by surprise. One unavoidable consequence of divorce is the downward adjustment of standards of living, which is a very painful experience. What's more, the longer divorcing people struggle against this inevitable consequence, the worse it gets.