What Do I Do with My Wedding Ring?

What can I do with my wedding ring when I'm divorced?Once your Chapel Hill divorce lawyer has filed all the necessary paperwork, what are you supposed to do with your wedding ring? Do you give it back, toss it down the garbage disposal or send it sailing from a moving car window? What you do with the ring is completely up to you—and it largely depends on how you feel about the divorce.

Returning the Ring
While it’s usually not necessary, you might feel like giving your wedding ring back to your ex. If that’s what gives you closure, go for it; just remember that once it’s gone, it’s gone. You can’t very well ask for it back. If your ex demands that you give it back, call your Chapel Hill divorce lawyer to make sure that you don’t have to.

Rest in Peace, Marriage
Sometimes a little dark humor is the perfect way to close the lid on your marriage. A wedding ring coffin lets you keep the ring where you can occasionally visit it and nod your head at how appropriate its new digs are.

Trading it in for Cash
You might be on the lookout for a shop that purchases jewelry so you can ditch your wedding ring and walk away with some cash, but be warned: most of those shops don’t buy jewelry based on what you paid for it. Instead, they’ll weigh it and pay you for the metal and individual stones. In many cases, you’ll get only a fraction of the amount originally paid for the ring.

Sending Your Ring to Sleep with the Fishes
Everybody has their own idea of closure; yours might be tying your ring to a cinderblock and pushing it off the edge of a boat near Cape Hatteras. If that will make you feel better, that’s great—but see if you can sell it and make a profit first. After all, you earned it.

No matter how you decide to wrap up that chapter of your life story, doing something that you’re comfortable with is key. Whether you’re asking your Chapel Hill divorce lawyer if you have to give back your wedding ring or you’re stashing it in a safe deposit box so you can leave it to your kids, the decision to let it go is one that only you have to live with.

  • Fox 50
  • cnn
  • cnbc
  • abc.com
  • The new york times
  • Good Morning America