January is such a common time to file for divorce that it’s been long known as “divorce month” among family lawyers. It marks both the end of the holidays and the start of a new tax year, which can make it simpler to financially separate from your ex.

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A key part of navigating a divorce is deciding what to do with your home. Your property is likely among the most valuable assets in the marriage, and it’s important to take the time to understand your options. The best outcome for yourself and your family may not be the one you expect.

1. Do you want to stay in the home or sell?

“The first thing that I would ask a client is, what would you like to do with the home?” says Kenneth Glasser, an attorney who specializes in divorce and property distribution in New York City.

It’s not unusual to have a deeply personal connection to your home, and divorce can be a time when emotions run high. Maybe you don’t know yet what you want to do — in this case, a financial planner or lawyer may be able to help you reach a decision.

You could also consult a certified divorce lending professional (CDLP) to learn more about your financial position. A CDLP can model various scenarios for dividing marital debts and assets to help you understand your ability to qualify for a new mortgage or refinance. The Divorce Lending Association maintains a database of these professionals, so you can contact one local to you.

2. What’s the value of the home?

You’ll need to have the property appraised to determine a fair value. Then, consider your options for covering your ex’s share of home equity.

The most straightforward way to do this is to sell the house and divide the proceeds accordingly. If one of you wants to keep the home, you’ll need to find a way to buy out the other.

This may involve tapping your 401(k) or other retirement accounts, says Angela Zangarola, a certified divorce financial analyst and founder of Quantum Wealth Strategies in Shelby Township, Michigan.

For many couples, retirement funds are the largest asset in the marriage apart from the home. While some folks may cringe at taxes and potential early-withdrawal penalties, this could be their only resource to buy out their spouse’s equity. “You have to do what you have to do to resolve the situation,” Zangarola says. She recommends that you have a financial professional review your case, as everyone’s situation is different.

3. Can you qualify for a mortgage on your own?

If one of you wants to keep the home and there’s still a mortgage on the property, the person keeping the house will have to refinance the loan.

This is an important part of disentangling your debts, and may be necessary for the other person to be creditworthy enough to buy or rent another home. Until the home is refinanced or sold, if you’re both on the mortgage, then you’re both on the hook for payments.

Consider whether you meet lenders’ requirements for a refinance or new mortgage on your own. Even if you expect to receive child support or spousal support, a lender is unlikely to take those payments into consideration before you’ve actually started receiving them for at least six months to a year.

This long waiting period could draw out divorce proceedings, Glasser says. “Most people don’t want to resolve the case piecemeal. They want to settle the entire thing.”

According to Zangarola, one way around this may be to have your attorneys draft a child or spousal support agreement while you’re separated but not yet divorced.

If you can start collecting at least six months of payments before your divorce is finalized, you could build a stronger financial profile for yourself as a newly single mortgage applicant. Per Fannie Mae guidelines, an official separation agreement is required for a lender to consider these payments as income. State laws and lender requirements can vary.

4. Can you afford a mortgage and other homeownership costs?

Even if you can qualify for a mortgage on your own, you’ll still need to make sure that you can afford it at today’s rates. If you want to keep the home and mortgage rates have gone up since the house was purchased, you’ll now be making larger monthly payments on your own.

You’ll also need to pay closing costs, even if you’re refinancing. These are often between 2% and 6% of the loan amount.

There are also expenses beyond the mortgage that you’ll have to take into account. Do you belong to a homeowners association? Will the roof need to be replaced? Will you have to pay for upkeep expenses like snow removal or cleaning gutters? There are tons of expenses that go along with homeownership, and you’ll want to make sure that you can afford to maintain a house on your own.

5. Are your children currently living there?

If there are children living in the home, it could add another layer of complexity to the situation.

You and your ex (or the courts) could decide that it’s best for the children to remain in the home with the primary custodial parent, and that you should defer the sale of the home until the children reach a certain age. This could mean delaying the full equity payout to the other parent for years, says Glasser.

In the meantime, you’d both continue to own the home. You’ll have to delegate maintenance and expenses, and you should get the arrangement in writing as part of your divorce or separation agreement to avoid future headaches.

Buying or refinancing a home while paying child support

The cost of shelter for the children could also be a child support consideration, so the non-custodial parent may be required to contribute to mortgage expenses.

These mortgage contributions are frequently wrapped into child support payments, says Zangarola. If you pay child support and apply for a new mortgage, lenders will include this in your monthly debt obligations when evaluating your ability to repay the loan.

Buying or refinancing a home while receiving child support

If you receive child support and apply for a new mortgage, lenders will also consider the number of years that you’ll be collecting payments. Most lenders will want the payments to continue for at least three years from when you apply. So, if you receive child support for a 17-year-old, a lender may be wary of counting that income towards your ability to repay a 30-year loan.

Taking ownership of your decision

As you consider whether you should keep the home, receive a buyout from your ex or sell and split the proceeds, you’ll need to be fully informed of your financial situation before you make a choice. Review your finances, get an appraisal and check current mortgage rates before committing to a path.

Taylor Getler writes for NerdWallet. Email: tgetler@nerdwallet.com.

The article January is ‘Divorce Month’ — 5 Questions to Ask About Your Home originally appeared on NerdWallet.

By KELVIN CHAN, Associated Press Business Writer

LONDON (AP) — The CEO of Ryanair on Wednesday dismissed Elon Musk’s idea of buying the budget airline and shrugged off insults from the billionaire, in a war of words that erupted over installing Starlink systems on aircraft.

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The spat between one of the world’s richest individuals and one of Europe’s most outspoken corporate bosses has been escalating for days. Michael O’Leary said last week that the airline had ruled out putting Musk’s Starlink satellite Wi-Fi on Ryanair planes because the extra fuel drag from the system’s antennas would be too costly.

Responding to Musk’s accusations that he was “misinformed,” O’Leary told an Irish radio station that Musk he would “pay no attention whatsoever Elon Musk said, he’s an idiot.”

Musk fired back on his social media platform X, calling O’Leary an “utter idiot” and an “imbecile.” He polled his users on the idea of buying the airline, and posted, “Should I buy Ryan Air and put someone whose actual name is Ryan in charge?”

O’Leary told reporters in Dublin, where Ryanair is based, that non-European citizens can’t own a majority stake in a European airlines. Musk was born in South Africa and lives in the United States.

“But if he wants to invest in Ryanair, we would think it’s a very good investment. Certainly a significantly better investment than the financial returns he’s earning on X,” O’Leary said.

Musk purchased X in 2022 for $44 billion after clashing with top executives at the platform previously known as Twitter.

O’Leary, who’s known for trolling critics, thanked Musk for “additional publicity.” The airline has taken advantage of the spat to launch a seat sale with promotional material featuring a caricature of Musk.

He brushed off the billionaire’s insults.

“All I would say to Elon Musk is he would have to join the back of a very, very, very, very long queue of people” who have already insulted him, “including my four teenage children,” he said.

O’Leary said Ryanair had been in discussions with Starlink for about 12 months on installing the system,

“We like the Starlink system. It is a terrific system. It works very well,” he said, but adding it would cost the company about $250 million a year. That includes the cost of installing two antennas onto each aircraft fuselage, plus an extra 2% of aerodynamic drag that would increase the fuel bill by $200 million.

Ryanair would have to charge for Starlink but O’Leary estimated that less than 5% of passengers would want to spend a few extra euros for the service on its short-haul flights, which average about one hour and 15 minutes.

The airline is still in talks with other telecommunications providers, including Amazon, which is launching its Starlink rival Kuiper, to provide onboard internet service, “but only in a way where it will lower our costs,” O’Leary said.

He also addressed a recent controversy around Musk’s AI chatbot Grok, which is available through X and was being used to generate nonconsensual deepfake images.

“Social media, X in particular is, a cesspit,” O’Leary said. “The most recent controversy with, you know, undressing children or undressing women is frankly offensive.”

By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s foreign minister issued the most direct threat yet Wednesday against the United States after Tehran’s bloody crackdown on protesters, warning the Islamic Republic will be “firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack.”

The comments by Abbas Araghchi, who saw his invitation to the World Economic Forum in Davos rescinded over the killings, comes as an American aircraft carrier group moves westward toward the Middle East from Asia. American fighter jets and other equipment appears to be moving in the Mideast after a major U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean saw troops seize Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.

Meanwhile, an Iranian Kurdish separatist group in Iraq claimed Iran targeted one of its bases in a drone and missile attack that killed at least one fighter. Iran did not immediately acknowledge the attack, which would be the first foreign operation Tehran has launched since the protests started.

Araghchi makes threat in column

Araghchi made the threat in an opinion article published by The Wall Street Journal. In it, the foreign minister contended “the violent phase of the unrest lasted less than 72 hours” and sought again to blame armed demonstrators for the violence. Videos that have slipped out of Iran despite an internet shutdown appear to show security forces repeatedly using live fire to target apparently unarmed protesters, something unaddressed by Araghchi.

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“Unlike the restraint Iran showed in June 2025, our powerful armed forces have no qualms about firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack,” Araghchi wrote, referring to the 12-day war launched by Israel on Iran in June. “This isn’t a threat, but a reality I feel I need to convey explicitly, because as a diplomat and a veteran, I abhor war.”

He added: “An all-out confrontation will certainly be ferocious and drag on far, far longer than the fantasy timelines that Israel and its proxies are trying to peddle to the White House. It will certainly engulf the wider region and have an impact on ordinary people around the globe.”

Araghchi’s comments likely refer to Iran’s short- and medium-range missiles. The Islamic Republic relied on ballistic missiles to target Israel in the war and left its stockpile of the shorter-range missiles unused, something that could be fired to target American bases and interests in the Persian Gulf. Already, there have been some restrictions on U.S. diplomats traveling to American bases in both Kuwait and Qatar.

Mideast nations, particularly diplomats from Gulf Arab countries, had lobbied Trump not to attack. Last week, Iran shut its airspace, likely in anticipation of a strike.

The USS Abraham Lincoln, which had been in the South China Sea in recent days, had passed through the Strait of Malacca, a key waterway connecting the South China Sea and Indian Ocean, by Tuesday, ship-tracking data showed.

A U.S. Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the aircraft carrier and three accompanying destroyers were heading west.

While naval and other defense officials stopped short of saying the carrier strike group was headed to the Middle East, its current heading and location in the Indian Ocean means it is only days away from moving into the region. Meanwhile, U.S. military images released in recent days showed F-15E Strike Eagles arriving in the Mideast and forces in the region moving a HIMARS missile system, the type used with great success by Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion in the country in 2022.

Kurdish exiles claim Iranian attack in Iraq

The National Army of Kurdistan, the armed wing of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, or PAK, claimed Iran launched an attack against one of its bases near Irbil, some 320 kilometers (200 miles) north of Baghdad. It said one fighter had been killed, releasing mobile phone footage of a fire in the predawn darkness.

Iranian state television, which has confirmed attacks on the group in the past, did not acknowledge the assault.

A handful of Iranian Kurdish dissident or separatist groups — some with armed wings — have long found a safe haven in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, where their presence has been a point of friction between the central government in Baghdad and Tehran. The PAK has claimed it launched attacks in Iran as a crackdown on the demonstrations took place, something reported by semiofficial Iranian news agencies as well.

Protest death toll rises

The death toll from the protests has reached at least 4,519 people, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said. The agency has been accurate throughout the years on demonstrations and unrest in Iran, relying on a network of activists inside the country that confirms all reported fatalities. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll.

The death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding the 1979 revolution that brought the Islamic Republic into being. Although there have been no protests for days, there are fears the death toll could increase significantly as information gradually emerges from a country still under a government-imposed shutdown of the internet since Jan. 8.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that the protests had left “several thousand” people dead and blamed the United States. It was the first indication from an Iranian leader of the extent of the casualties.

More than 26,300 people have been arrested, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Comments from officials have led to fears of some of those detained being put to death in Iran, one of the world’s top executioners. That and the killing of peaceful protesters have been two red lines laid down by Trump in the tensions.

Associated Press writers Stella Martany in Irbil, Iraq, Konstantin Toropin in Washington and Elena Becatoros contributed to this report.

By CHAN HO-HIM and MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writers

Global markets mostly declined Wednesday while trading on Wall Street stabilized somewhat ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

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Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each ticked down 0.1% before the bell, while Nasdaq futures retreated 0.3%. All three indices are coming off steep losses from a day earlier after Trump threatened to slap higher tariffs on eight European countries over their opposition to his push for U.S. control of Greenland.

Gold prices crossed the $4,800 mark for the first time, gaining 2.2% to $4,873 per ounce as money flowed into assets considered to be safe havens at times of uncertainty.

Trump’s plane landed in Switzerland following hours of delay after a minor electrical issue aboard Air Force One forced a return to Washington to switch aircraft.

Trump told reporters he planned to highlight his administration’s accomplishments during his speech later Wednesday to world leaders, elites and billionaires gathered in Davos.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who spoke on a panel on Tuesday, said the U.S. message was that “globalization has failed.”

Trump has said he will impose 10% tariffs on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland beginning in February. That would be on top of a 15% tariff specified by a trade agreement with the European Union that has yet to be ratified.

European leaders have hit back as Washington’s relations with its Western allies sour, considering countermeasures, including perhaps slow-walking ratification of the trade agreement or ordering retaliatory tariffs, analysts say.

In equities markets, Netflix tumbled 7.2% after the streaming service reported slowing subscriber growth last year, underscoring the importance of its contested $72 billion bid to take over Warner Bros.’ movie studio and HBO Max.

Netflix topped Wall Street’s fourth-quarter sales and profit forecasts, but the company’s subscriber growth fell to 23 million in 2025, down from a gain of 41 million in 2024.

Kraft-Heinz tumbled 5.5% after Berkshire Hathaway warned investors Tuesday that it may be interested in selling its 325 million shares in the name brand food giant that former CEO Warren Buffett helped create back in 2015.

Berkshire took a $3.76 billion write-down on its Kraft-Heinz stake last summer. Buffett said last fall that he was disappointed in Kraft Heinz’ plan to split the company in two, and Berkshire’s two representatives resigned from the Kraft board last spring.

In energy markets, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 71 cents to $59.65 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, shed 88 cents to $64.04 per barrel.

Natural gas futures are up more than 8% Wednesday and have soared 30% in less than a week as a cold snap and brutal storms hit large swaths of the U.S.

At midday in Europe, Germany’s DAX shed 1% while the CAC 40 in Paris and Britain’s FTSE 100 each dipped 0.3%.

In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.4% to 52,774.64. Markets in Japan have been riled both by geopolitical uncertainty and by domestic issues.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has called a snap election for Feb. 8, sending yields of long-term government bonds to record levels. The assumption is that Takaichi, who is capitalizing on strong public support ratings to try to consolidate a majority for her Liberal Democratic Party, will cut taxes and boost spending, adding to the challenges Japan faces in handling its massive government debt.

The yield on the 40-year Japanese government bond was trading at 4.061% early Wednesday, down from the all-time high of 4.22% that it hit on Tuesday.

South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.5% to 4,909.93.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rebounded to add 0.4% to 26,585.06. The Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1% higher, to 4,116.94.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gave back 0.4% to 8,782.90.

Taiwan’s Taiex fell 1.6% and India’s Sensex lost 0.4%.