According to a 2006 article on Forbes.com, "divorce proceedings can range from a few hundred to many thousands of dollars, with the average cost of a contested divorce ranging from $15,000 to $30,000. Most of this money is spent on legal fees." One gentleman told me that his divorce cost him upwards of $100,000.
When you consider the cost of separate households, split income, costs for psychological trauma, emotional costs to the children, extra travel time, future court costs, and years of many unknown and hidden costs, I estimate the total cost of the divorce to range from $500,000 to millions of dollars.
The cost of marriage counseling is pennies compared to the financial, spiritual, family, child, and social costs. In fact the financial cost of counseling is far less than 1% of the total cost of the divorce. One calculation is that the cost of counseling is 00.42% of the cost of a divorce.
Counseling wins the battle of cost decisively. Plus, depending on your circumstances you have a 80-90% chance of saving your marriage and making it great if you both come to counseling together. If you come to counseling by yourself you probably have a 30-65% chance of saving your marriage.
Don't let the cost of marriage counseling hold you back. The financial risk is small compared to the opportunity for incredible positive returns. And remember that children are never the same after a divorce. There can be healing, but the scars will never go away.
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- Image: Allef Vinicius via Unsplash