Financial planning after divorce, seven moves that matter

The first thing I did after the orders were signed was open a spreadsheet. Not from discipline. From panic.

I'd been running a four-property portfolio across NZ and AU for years and I still didn't have a clean view of where my numbers had landed post-split. The shared accounts were closed. The joint super wasn't joint anymore. Half the direct debits were still pulling from a card that no longer made sense. I sat at the kitchen bench with a flat white going cold and started typing.

Two days later I had a balance sheet. Three weeks later I had a plan. What follows is what I wish someone had handed me on day one.

1. Build the post-split balance sheet first

Before you decide anything, you need the picture. All of it. Honest numbers, not the version you tell your mum.

• Every bank account, balance, interest rate
• Every loan, balance, rate, repayment, end date
• Every super fund, balance, insurance attached
• Every credit card / Afterpay / personal loan
• The house (or your share of it), valued realistically
• Any business interests, vehicles, crypto, ETFs, term deposits

Tally assets. Tally liabilities. The number at the bottom is your starting line. Mine was uglier than I expected. Knowing that was still better than not knowing.

2. Rebuild the budget around one income

The bills haven't shrunk just because the household did. Rates, insurance, internet, streaming subs, the gym you forgot to cancel. They all kept invoicing.

I stripped my outgoings into three buckets: fixed (mortgage, utilities, insurance, child support), variable (food, fuel, kids' stuff), and optional (subs, takeaway, the things that quietly add up to $600 a month). I cancelled around forty percent of the optional column in one sitting. Didn't notice anything was missing for weeks.

The brutal arithmetic: if your fixed costs are above 60% of your post-tax income on a single salary, something structural has to change. The house. The car. The location. Better to have that conversation now than at month nine when the buffer is gone.

3. Kill the high-interest debt before anything else

Credit card interest in Australia sits around 19-22% APR. No share market beats that, no super fund beats that, no property deal beats that. Paying down a card balance earning you 20% is the highest-return investment available to you, full stop.

My approach:

• List every debt by interest rate, highest first
• Throw every spare dollar at the top of the list
• Pay minimums on the rest
• Once the top one is gone, roll its repayment into the next

It's the avalanche method. Boring. Mathematically optimal. Works.

4. Rebuild the emergency fund to three months, then six

Pre-divorce I held about $20k in cash buffer. The split, the legals, the bond on a new place, all of it ate the buffer in about four months. I was running with nothing.

A single bloke with a mortgage and shared kids needs at least three months of total expenses sitting in a high-interest savings account. Six is better. The point isn't returns. The point is that a busted hot water system or a quiet quarter at work doesn't become a crisis.

Open a separate account. Different bank if you can. Out of sight, out of tap-to-pay range.

5. Look at your super properly (most blokes don't)

If a super-splitting order came out of the property settlement, your balance just took a haircut. Even if it didn't, divorce is the moment to actually open the app and check what you've got.

What I look at:

• Total balance across all funds (consolidate down to one or two)
• The investment option (default Balanced is fine for most, High Growth if you've got 15+ years to retirement)
• Insurance inside super (life, TPD, income protection) and whether the cover and beneficiaries still make sense
• Whether you can afford a salary-sacrifice top-up to use the concessional cap (around $30k per year for FY 2025-26, including employer contributions)

Concessional contributions are taxed at 15% inside super versus your marginal rate outside. If you're earning $120k, that's a 22.5% tax saving on every dollar you put in. Compounded over twenty years, that's not small.

6. Update every insurance policy and every beneficiary

This is the box almost nobody ticks. Your ex is probably still listed as the beneficiary on your life insurance, your super, possibly your will. Your private health is now a single policy, not a family one. Your home and contents insurance is on a property you might not even live in.

What I worked through:

• Life and TPD beneficiaries (super and any standalone policies)
• Will and enduring power of attorney (talk to a lawyer, not a website)
• Private health (drop to single, save several thousand a year)
• Home and contents (new address, new policy)
• Income protection (essential on a single income, especially if kids depend on it)

Took me a Saturday afternoon. Saved future-me a legal nightmare.

7. Get a one-off financial planner session

I'm a DIY guy. I run my own portfolio. I still paid for a single fee-for-service session with an independent planner about four months post-split. Best $750 I spent that year.

What I got from it: a sanity check on the structure (trust, super, personal), confirmation the asset allocation made sense for my new timeline, and a written plan I could refer back to when the noise got loud. I didn't sign up for ongoing management. One session. Specific brief. Walked out with clarity.

Look for someone who charges flat fees, not commissions, and isn't tied to a single product provider.

The shape of recovery

Twelve months on from the orders, my net worth was lower than the day I signed. Twenty-four months on, it was above. Thirty-six months on, it was the highest it had ever been.

The work in months one to six is the work that makes that arc possible. Boring spreadsheet hours. Hard cancellation conversations. The dull, daily grind of rebuilding a financial foundation on one set of shoulders.

Stand up. Open the spreadsheet. Begin.

Not financial advice, talk to an adviser before acting.