Word of advice. If and BEFORE you decide to make tracks, get “stuff”. All documents. Financial, household, legal etc. I even took all the appliance manuals and warranty docs. Your lawyer will appreciate not having to hound her legal reps for the stuff and it will cost her $ to get copies of the stuff. Put it in a safe, undisclosed place. I even took boxes of family pictures before I made the move. Once you initiate the action you cannot legally remove any of those things and if you leave she ends up controlling everything in the house. Plan ahead.
Good advice. When you dip, that’s it. You’ll never be able to get back in the house unless she lets you. I always advise my clients not to EVER leave the house unless there is physical violence going on. The first one to leave is out for good. Make sure you get EVERYTHING. Anything left behind will be held hostage.
Your advice is sound and mirrors what I've been told by friends and my divorce attorney.
At this point I have it setup to the point that I simply logon to my online banking accounts in the morning and initiate the transfers to separate bank accounts in different banks. By transferring to different banks, there's no way she can talk them into transferring funds back since she won't be on the account AND not being the same bank as existing accounts.
Immediately after funds are transferred, moving crew shows up. I'm not taking much (frankly don't want much) as all I want are my clothes, computers, guest bedroom set and my amateur radio gear (which I'll be selling off anyway.) She can have the house, everything that's in it, and half of all the accounts. I'm just walking away. She'll be financially well off and capable of taking care of herself, I can always make more money --- and I will.
Not bitter or angry and not out to "screw her" financially -- just want my life back and move on.
I would add: Serial Numbers, and for any computers get the logins, passwords, OS types, part numbers, activation codes and registration keys.
Backup all computers as well. Yesterday. Before any changes can be made. DVDs are less than the cost of a postage stamp, or you can set up cloud accounts and back them up that way. Immediately remove all external drives, flash drives, and media chips such as SD devices.
Do not forget: appliance serial numbers and model numbers. If they do not have one for whatever reason such as age, add one -not with a name or phone number, please. It’s been some time but a reliable engraving pencil cost about 8 AUSD so you might think about investing in one.