Day-to-day money management reduces stress.

The alternative to saying, "No, I cannot afford it right now" is "I’ll put it on the credit card and worry about it later."

This regime of thinking, which gets so many married couples in trouble, invites disaster for divorcing couples that are starting over as newly recreated single people. If anything, the budget of a divorcing person should include a cash reserve surplus if at all possible because people starting over face expenses they cannot anticipate. As a couple, spouses could perhaps manage this trip to Disneyland and finance it by drawing on reserves if need be. As a single person, those reserves - for example, a Christmas bonus that went into a joint account - are not there. Paying the bills cash-in, cash-out from a joint checking account is not very stressful for a married spouses who know that, push come to shove, there are other reserve assets that can be tapped if need be. Paying the bills cash-in, cash-out from a checking account and knowing that there are no reserves - essentially living paycheck to paycheck -- is very stressful. It invites check kiting and borrowing from Pete to pay Paul and, worst of all, it almost always adds tensions to the relationship between the formerly married spouses.