Customer Reviews

Fair Share Divorce for Women

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3 star:		(1)
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Kathleen Miller, a practical financial planner, has compiled one of the best and most comprehensive financial resource for women facing divorce. She likens divorce to riding an escalator "once you're on you are going to get off--whether under your own power or by being thrown off by the unrelenting process of the legal system (p. 2)."

Miller takes a tough, no-nonsense, eyes-open approach while holding your hand every step of the way. She divides the process into 5 predictable stages 1) Pre-divorce, 2) Decision, 3) Acceptance, 4) Mourning, 5) Re-Equilibrium. She addresses the various kinds of wives for example the starter wife, the corporate wife, and the alpha earner wife and how each one differs and faces different problems in divorce.

She helps you decide what to do first, shows you how to make an organized plan, what to anticipate and how to navigate through various obtacles. She aims to empower you to take control (to the degree possible) of what can be an overwhelming and unwieldy process. She shows you how to stay focused on moving forward, how to assemble a team to help you through the grueling process, how to choose the type of divorce vehicle that is best for your circumstances, how to cope with change, and most of all--how to avoid poverty. A glossary and appendixes are provided help you understand the not only the basics of finances but also some of its obscurities.

It's a pretty great book for a pretty awful time.

This is the 4th book I've read on divorce. It is very well-written and highly accessible. The author approaches the process in a logical, humane fashion that left me feeling empowered, rather than burdened with list of to-dos.

The author's superb table delineating the phases of a divorce with a timeline makes it relatively easy to form the big picture of what divorce constitutes. She then deconstructs each phase with clear explanations.

After reading the entire book in 2 days, I feel confident in my understanding of what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and the emotional and legal pitfalls that I need to be aware of.

The flow from chapter to chapter makes for pleasurable reading, an comforting experience when undertaking dissolution of a marriage. Throughout the book, I felt both supported and validated by what I read.

This book provides detailed information on helping women to understand their financial state. It prompts you to think about all of the essential areas that comprise the development of a financial plan for now and later. It addresses budgets, insurance, QDRO's, retirement planning and so much more. Information is power in divorce and this book helps you to think through and document financial information which will be difficult for someone less prepared to dispute!

The book seems primarily geared to women who have stayed home with the children. It does not adequately address women who are the primary income earners who also pay for daytime childcare out of their salary and do 90% of the household duties (laundry, organizing kids' activities, shopping for kids' clothes & sports equipment, household groceries, household accounting) and pay all the household and child expenses, while the spouse throws his and any extra household money at a money losing business (or gambles it away or spends it in some other fashion on himself). When the role reversal is mentioned in the book, it is "presumed" that the male "wife" did his wifely duties, but this is not always the case.