Investing after a Divorce – Tips and Tricks*

Investing after a Divorce – Tips and Tricks*

Adapting to life after a divorce is one of the biggest challenges in the process. A lot has changed – or is changing – after the difficult separation process. You may need to spend some time adapting to those changes before you can return to everyday routines.  

One of the major challenges to overcome is your financial state. Your personal finances may not be in the best condition after a divorce. Some reorganising is needed, plus you have to start thinking about sources of income and how to best sustain yourself.

Investing in revenue-generating instruments is a fantastic option to consider. There are actually a number of investments you can make to secure a better financial future. These next several tips and tricks will help you get started with the best investment opportunities immediately.

Invest in Yourself

One thing you must not neglect when thinking about post-divorce investments is investing in yourself. When you invest in yourself, you are preparing yourself better for the challenges of the future. Whether you want to return to a fulltime job and develop your career, or you are thinking about starting a business to support your life, investing in new skills and certifications is highly valuable.

For example, you can train to become a sports massage therapist and pursue a career in this field with a certification from OriGym. With the market for health services and fitness-related help growing exponentially, you know you have a lot of opportunities to explore with the new certification.

The same is true with short courses that are now available online. You can even choose to go a step further and pursue a higher degree. The addition of certifications and a formal degree will take your resume to the next level. Finding a job and returning to a career in a field you love will not be difficult at all.

Think Short-Term

We tend to think about long-term objectives and bigger goals when investing our money, but this is the kind of approach that needs to be avoided when you are building an investment portfolio after a divorce. Your first priority should be securing a better life for yourself and making that life sustainable, and the way to do that is by focusing on investments that offer short-term returns.

You can take the time to learn about instruments like stock and forex in order to pursue capital gains. Starting a retail business with a healthier cash flow projection is also a good idea, since you can rely on the day-to-day income from the new business almost immediately.

Don’t forget to define your short-term goals carefully too. Having clear objectives in mind helps make investing more manageable. Think about the kind of lifestyle you want to have, how much revenue you need to generate, and how to best meet your investment objectives over a shorter period of time. The rest of your investment plan will be easier to formulate with these objectives in mind.

Be Conservative Towards Risk

While there is no definite rule to follow when investing, it is better to lean towards a more conservative risk profile as you begin investing your money after a divorce. Yes, it is okay to take risks and expand your profitability, but staying conservative offers a more balanced approach to creating a healthy income stream.

Having a conservative risk profile doesn’t mean you are not allowed to take risks. It simply means you are approaching investment risks with extra care. Rather than aiming for big margins and absorbing large potential losses, for instance, you adopt a safer strategy in general. Since you are looking for ways to achieve short-term objectives anyway, the approach works really well.

Remember that risk-return trade-off is a principle that applies to all investment opportunities. If an investment opportunity promises big returns, you are looking at big risks as well. You cannot eliminate risks, but you can take steps to manage them. That brings us to our next tip, which is….

Master Good Management

Management is the next key component to master if you are just getting started with investments. Even when you are investing in yourself, you have to think about how you manage your money and balance between going after certifications and generating income from different sources. The same is true with your investment portfolio.

Risks are all manageable when you know how to handle them properly. You can use strategies like hedging and copy-trading to help minimise your investment risks. Some risks are linked to the instruments themselves, so you can also avoid them by going with safer investments like rental properties or gold.

Create a diverse portfolio and generate more than one income whenever possible. The last thing you want is to be relying on a single income source without taking steps to venture out to new investment instruments. The sooner you add a second (and subsequent) income source, the sooner you’ll be able to build a stronger foundation for yourself.

Control Your Expenses

Last but certainly not least, make sure you maintain control over your expenses. Just because your investments are paying off, doesn’t mean you can spend more money or increase your expenses. You should redirect the extra income generated to savings and more investments.

That’s how you work towards creating a sustainable financial foundation for yourself. The approach also helps increase the amount of money you can afford to invest when you are just getting started, since cutting unnecessary expenses is the fastest way to save money over a short period of time.

When you are used to controlling your expenses, you don’t have to worry about lifestyle changes or unnecessary expenses ruining your investment plan. You don’t even have to worry about not being able to find suitable investment instruments to use; invest in yourself and the rest will follow.

Life after a divorce is a lot easier when you don’t have financial matters to worry about. With these investment tips and tricks in mind, you can tackle this particular challenge as quickly as possible and start reorganising other parts of your life soon after.

* This is a contributed post and may contain affiliate links