You can never start planning for the future too soon, and when it comes to your career this is especially true. Now is the time to make those plans for your future financial responsibilities.

Unless you are independently wealthy, or you already have a salary that’s enough to support yourself and/or your family, you need to get your career plans in order. You can’t risk being unable to support yourself adequately. Sometimes, people refuse to pay support amounts set by a judge despite court orders, and sometimes they aren’t ordered to make support payments at all. You need to be prepared for all of these scenarios. Divorces can be startling in their expense; keeping up two families is not one plus a little, it is two of everything or double what you need now.If education is an issue because you don’t have a high school diploma, didn’t finish college, need to update your skills, or you have let a professional license lapse, now is the time to get busy. For information on obtaining or finishing a degree, see www.educationdegreesource.com.

After the divorce starts in earnest, it will be much harder to begin.

Ideally, if you’ve been out of the job market for awhile, you will receive enough money from your spouse to ease your transition back into your career. This happens very rarely in practice. Either the family doesn’t have enough money, your spouse disappears or doesn’t pay, or your education or career move takes much longer than expected.

Several years ago, lifetime alimony awards for housewives were commonplace. Not so anymore. Women are expected to work, even if they cannot support themselves fully. Several states have abolished alimony entirely. And, with changing sex roles, it is not that unusual for men to put their careers on hold for children and other responsibilities. Nowadays, some men are awarded alimony, as well as child support, when they are awarded custody of children.

Lifetime alimony orders were also common in the past. Perhaps a housewife’s husband had an affair with his secretary, and that is the reason the marriage broke down. Twenty years ago, that would have meant a huge alimony order. Not so anymore. Alimony is now based on the spouse’s ability to pay, as well as the needs of the recipient.

In addition, the economic reality for most families is that maintaining two households will necessitate two incomes, even if one is small than the other. There simply isn’t enough money to go around, no matter how deserving the prospective recipient. 

Excerpted from Your Divorce Advisor: A Lawyer and a Psychologist Guide You Through the Legal and Emotional Landscape of Divorce (Simon & Schuster/Fireside 2001). For more information: http://www.yourdivorceadvisor.com.