Before a divorce, there may be many things that make you suspicious of your spouse. Errant text messages, inconsistent stories and emotional distance are a few things that come to mind. Why physical and emotional infidelity may be easy to spot, financial infidelity may not be. Moreover, a spouse who siphons off money from joint accounts or sells marital property may be subject to penalties in a divorce.
As such, this post is dedicated to noticing signs of financial infidelity.
Random withdrawals – Undisclosed or unidentified withdrawals from a joint account may be a sign that a spouse is hiding money or intends to send it to someone he or she does not want you to know. This could also apply to random deposits in order to cover their tracks.
Sending statements to other places – Indeed most people enroll in paperless statement programs in order to be better about the environment. However, if your spouse is sending credit card or bank statements to an email address you have no access to, or an address other than your home, this could be a sign of financial infidelity.
Sudden financial issues – In the same vein as the random withdrawals, sudden financial problems such as a foreclosure or cancellation of services could signal financial infidelity, especially if you had no idea that you were behind on mortgage or utility payments.
Unfamiliar charges on your statement – If there are charges you do not recognize on your credit card statement, and they seem suspicious to you, this is yet another example of financial infidelity.
