Should You Sell Your Engagement Ring After a Divorce?
Even in the 21st century, marriage is often wrought with etiquette and gender or partner-based expectations. While diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, pettiness and anger often replace that bestie position during and after a Michigan divorce. Entitlement issues combined with intense emotions or even financial concerns and the desire to purge everything connected with the past may fight for dominance over common sense or possible future consequences. Contemplating whether to sell your engagement ring can be a big decision that can set the tone and course of your future, not to mention any unexpected legal ramifications. So before taking that leap, make sure you consider the following and weigh the pros and cons of those answers before taking such a potentially irreversible leap.
How Much Will Selling it Help Your Finances?
Your Michigan divorce is an investment in your future, but that may originally come at a personal cost. Split households mean split incomes and you may find that your budget needs some serious extra padding. There are some major reasons for opting to sell your engagement ring. Stressing over utility shut-off warnings, facing an eviction notice, or a potential car repossession that can seriously affect your job security or future are among those reasons. However, if your finances aren’t an issue at the moment, it may be better to keep it as a safety net in case that ever changes.
Is the Ring Keeping You from Moving On?
A beautiful engagement ring can start your marriage off with fireworks. But those fireworks can fizzle out and transform into an emotional pit of quicksand that keeps you from moving on towards a brighter future if you succumb to its power. Under Michigan law, an engagement ring is intended as a marital gift and thus has conditional ownership. As long as the engagement is not broken and the marriage is legal, the ring is considered the wife’s property even if the marriage later results in a Michigan divorce. So if the presence of the ring is a constant or continual weight holding you back from moving on and selling it would be beneficial on your end, it is your legal right to do so.
Will You Ever Wear it Again Or Pass it On?
Some engagement rings are tailored to the wife’s unique personality or tastes and therefore can be worn as far more than simple wedding jewelry. Even if that’s not the case, your engagement ring may have special meaning to your offspring. Consider whether you’ll ever want to wear the piece of jewelry again or whether someone close to you will want it in the future. Take this decision seriously as the wrong choice may result in some unintentional or long-term emotional consequences.
Is It a Family Heirloom?
Family heirlooms can be put at risk in the event of divorce. If the intention is to keep the engagement ring on either side of the family indefinitely that should be included in a prenuptial agreement prior to the wedding. If that’s not completed or agreed upon, the final outcome of ownership may depend on a couple factors including common sense and final court ruling. The family heirloom may have more sentimental value than financial value, so your Michigan divorce attorney may not be able to assign a value to it as a marital asset. In that case, the decision may come down to a mutual agreement to return it to your spouse or a legal mandate in court. Emotions can fly high in a Michigan divorce, but there’s no reason to cause or continue the emotional distress or result in further problems down the road.