Here's a news flash: Divorce can ruin your credit rating.

We've post numerous entries here at FWW about this topic. But it seems the more we look around the Web, the more stories we find warning divorcing couples that they've got to really be on their toes to maintain their financial well-being. One such story I read the other day came from Dow Jones' MarketWatch and had all of the major points covered pretty well.

You have to separate your joint accounts, both checking/savings and your credit cards. If you don't, one person can really screw the other out of a whole lot of money.

And then you have to figure out what to do with big-ticket possessions, like houses and cars. For many couples, selling these off is the only financially feasible step to take. If one person can't handle the mortgage, both of you end up better off if you sell the place and end up with cash in your pockets. Of course, with the housing market the way it's been the last year or two, that may be easier said than done.

All of this is great, common-sense stuff. The problem — which the piece acknowledges, to its credit — is that most people aren't thinking straight when a divorce happens. The writer suggests planning all of this financial reorganization starting six months to a year before you file for divorce.

Sure, and right after I get done with that, I'll get to work on paying next year's taxes and buying Christmas presents for 2010, too.

Here's a hilarious story that also has a bit of important insight attached to it.

A Cleveland-area couple that is in the process of a divorce hatched a dispute over chickens. Deborah Valente and her husband George are still living under the same roof as their divorce plays out — which is not as uncommon as it sounds — and apparently they're not alone in the house. Deborah has five chickens that she's keeping indoors, and George objected, so he called the health department.

According to a report by a Cleveland TV station, the five chicks were found to be healthy. And better yet, they seem to be housebroken, as the report notes that "the bird droppings are confined to the newspaper at the bottom of the cage."

Yes, even chickens are crapping on newspapers these days.

Aside from the obvious fun you can have with a story like this, if you take a step back you can quickly see what's happening here. You've got a couple about to end their marriage, and the gloves are off and everything is fair game. So George called the health department, and we suppose the next development in this story will be Deborah chucking his recliner and TV out into the back yard. And maybe after that, the two of them will take turns buttering up doorknobs and hiding each other's car keys.

It's easy to be petty when you're splitting up with someone, and to retaliate for every wrong done to you. And when you look at it from the outside, you start to see how ridiculous it is to get caught up in such foolishness.

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We do a lot of writing here at FWW about how to navigate through a divorce and then move beyond it. And there's no shortage of advice on the topic. I read a lot of these types of "tips" articles, quoting one expert after another, all of them pretty much saying the same things. Like anything else repetitive, it begins to lose its meaning after a while, particularly since the advice always seems like it's being offered in a vacuum. There's only so much "divorce theory" you can read before you wonder how much of the so-called insight really holds any water in practical application.

Well, I saw a piece in the Vancover Sun about a book on divorced couples compiled by a radio producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Each chapter is an essay about a divorced couple that has managed to put aside their own differences and sometimes go to extreme measures to keep life on an even keel for their children. The writer, herself, is divorced and shares a house with her ex husband. He lives on one floor, she lives on another, and their kids have both parents under one roof, so to speak.

It sounds like this book might offer a lot of real-world solutions for families that are breaking up. Of course, there's no such thing as one size fits all, and what these people have done may not work for you. But maybe some variation on the solutions they've come up with will prove useful to you. And maybe reading their stories can offer a little bit of hope that it can all work out for the best.

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How's that for a fun conversation starter in the break room at your office? Run that by a few men you know and see what they think.

According to a study by Britain's Economic Social Research Council, couples where both the man and woman work outside the house are more likely to get divorced if the man doesn't pitch in at home. It seems unlikely that a lot of marriages break up just because the guy is a lazy bum and won't do the laundry. But as one researcher mentions, disputes about housework can be a "flashpoint" in a marriage that can add to other strains on the relationship.

The findings coincide somewhat with the rising number of working women in England, and the whole idea seems like it's teetering on the brink of suggesting that women should stay home. I don't think it's worth dredging up that debate. But it is worth wondering if couples should start doing some serious talking about how the housework gets done.

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A couple of my colleagues here at FWW wrote this week about a study from Michigan State University claiming that divorce is bad for the environment, since it means one household becomes two households.

Now, I'm going to skip over the no-brainer element of this, not only because Naomi Dunne and Brian Kilroy have already covered it, but because I read a column with another take on it that I found hilarious.

The columnist wrote a dialogue between a fictional divorcing couple and their children. Mom and dad sit down with the kids for a family dinner and to break the news that they're getting a divorce. And one of the kids is so concerned about the environment that he forgets to get upset that his parents are splitting up. I thought it was pretty effective — as if anyone is going to give a damn about the environment at a time like that. Give this one a read. It's pretty funny.

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Most of the time when you think about the way a divorce impacts kids, you think about young children who aren't emotionally mature enough to deal with what's happening. Well, it's not just younger kids who have that problem. College students whose parents get divorced may be able to handle things on the surface. But it's a strain on their emotions nonetheless.

I read a piece in the student newspaper from California State University-Chico that really shed some light on the subject. And it's a poignant subject for this time of year as college students get ready to come home for the holidays. A lot of them have two homes to go to. Balancing time with both parents can be a struggle, particularly if the divorce happened while the student was away at school.

One student quoted in the piece talked about making a trip home while her father was moving out of the house because she wanted to see his bags packed so the divorce would become real to her. She didn't want to come home for the holidays and find her father completely gone from the house. It lessened the blow for her to see it while it was happening.

Of course, all of the same rules about parenting through a divorce still apply to college kids. You can't expect them to take sides. And I think you have to be realistic about how much time they have for you and your ex. Remember what it was like to be in college. You're starting out your life, making your own decisions, budgeting your own time. And with your family split up, it becomes a bigger challenge. It takes patience and understanding on all sides.

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Thumbs up to Gannett News Service for a nice, long, comprehensive point-by-point breakdown of all the financial matters you need to think about when you go through a divorce.

With the number of divorces there are in the United States, every media outlet in the country could do this story once a month and it still probably wouldn't be enough. There are so many things to remember, and considering it's the worst time in your life, you're bound to overlook some of them.

Long story short, getting divorced is like getting ready to buy a house. Just make off that you're about to go through a loan application. Take stock of all your assets. One tip that jumped out at me was to think about assets that might not typically be on the top of your head, like frequent flyer miles and store reward club memberships. These things may seem insignificant in the grand scheme, but they should be considered and divided up nonetheless.

Another thing lots of people forget is the need to update wills and change beneficiary information. This one is particularly easy to overlook because for at a lot of us, that involves an appointment with a lawyer or financial advisor — and that's just one more thing you have to make time for.

One expert Gannett talked to says one of the key mistakes people make is trying to hold on to their house at all costs. You may get the house, but that means you also get the mortgage and property taxes and upkeep of the house all to yourself. Can you afford that? If you're staying in the house for the benefit of your kids, so they won't have to move and change schools, you should be entitled to more spousal support so you can afford everything you need.

There's lots more in this article — it's a must-read if you're going through a divorce.

A couple from California has written a recently published book on how marriages can be saved. Now, the book is published by Focus on the Family and their quotes in a McClatchy Newspapers story are couched in religious overtones. But setting those things aside, these two sound like they have some reasonable advice.

The first thing Joe and Michelle Williams point out is that despite the fact that their book was published by a religious organization, the two of them aren’t clergy. So this is not a couple of ministers telling you what they think God says you should do. On the contrary, these are two very imperfect people. They’ve each been married four times. They had a two-year separation from one another, and Joe has dealt with alcohol abuse.

Religion has been a big key in helping them get their marriage back on track. And that’s simply not going to work for everyone, yours truly included. But they also seem to have some decent real-world advice. They talk about not giving up who you are in a relationship. They talk about sticking with activities you enjoy, even if your spouse doesn’t, which is one thing a lot of people probably don’t stop to think about.

Of course, a lot of people here at FWW are already divorced. But if you’re in the “contemplating divorce” stage, and if you’re a person of faith, this may be a book you want to check out.

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The Vienna divorce fair we’ve written about here at FWW got going this week, and to say the least it sounds like a pretty interesting affair.

In addition to lawyers and private investigators on hand looking for business, a couple’s therapist and the Roman Catholic Church also have booths at the event. The church, of course, is opposed to divorce, so that makes their presence pretty interesting. One of the things I wondered about this event was how people were going to manage to discuss their situations with exhibitors in a crowded room. They’ve solved that problem by having private rooms available.

All in all, it seems like a pretty cool idea, though let’s not lose sight of the fact that the whole thing is a business venture. The guy running the show also promotes wedding fairs and he realized the opportunity for a divorce fair by looking at the numbers. According to statistics cited in a Bloomberg report on the fair, divorce has risen by 20 percent in Austria over the past two decades, and two-thirds of the marriages in Vienna end in divorce.

There are plans for more of these divorce fairs in Germany and London. Keep an eye out, because as many divorces as we have here in the U.S., it’s only a matter of time before these shows are happening here too.

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Later this month in Austria, they’re going to have what is being called the world’s first divorce fair. The event will bring together all sorts of resources to help people navigate their way through the end of a marriage -- everything from legal information and tips for spying on your cheating spouse to advice on how to help children deal with what’s happening.

Provided that this doesn’t just turn into a way for money-grubbing attorneys to drum up more business, I think it’s a great idea. As prevalent as divorce is in the U.S., it seems like it’s only a matter of time before events like this one take place here.

The only drawback I can see is that it could be rather awkward to walk up to someone at a booth in a crowded convention hall and start asking for advice or talking about your own situation. Divorce is such a personal thing, it seems like the dynamic of the interactions at an event like this might be a bit stilted. Still, it’s an interesting and worthwhile-sounding concept.

One rather ironic thing, though. The organizer of this event also organizes wedding fairs. Isn’t that versatile?

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