The expression “timing is everything” has come back to haunt Brian Myerson, a wealthy City tycoon who last month failed in his bid to renegotiate his multi-million pound divorce settlement on the grounds he had been wiped out by the recession. A judge told him he was responsible for agreeing the settlement and just because his shares had fallen in value since then, it didn’t mean he was legally entitled to change it.

The judge also issued a stark warning for fellow investors thinking about doing the same thing. They would all be "well advised to heed the warning that very few successful applications have been reported", he said.

Mr Myerson’s unsuccessful legal challenge may have put off some people, especially the rich, from beginning – or continuing – with divorce proceedings until the economy starts to recover. This would be a mistake.

For a start, no one knows for sure when the “green shoots of recovery” will emerge: predictions range from a year to 18 months, and even then they’re only educated guesses.

The divorce process can take up to two years to complete – longer in complicated cases – so if you’re planning a “recession divorce”, the time to be starting it is now.

Even more importantly, timing the completion of your divorce with the predicted end of the credit crunch makes psychological as well as economical sense, for it means you can move on in both your business and private lives.

I’m aware that some people are reluctant to begin proceedings at the moment, even though a fall-off in the value of their assets may result in a lower settlement to their spouse, and instead are waiting to see what will happen to the economy. Wealthy entrepreneurs especially might believe they will lose out as much as their estranged partners in a recession-brokered settlement. They may also think they’ll feel stronger mentally to deal with the ending of their marriages once their beleaguered businesses return to profit.

Such procrastination is misguided, however. A good divorce lawyer will achieve the best settlement possible, recession or no recession, and if proceedings start now, they should be done and dusted by the time the downturn begins to up-turn. That means people can start afresh, with the gloom of the credit crunch and their divorces behind them.

To get your business back on track requires focus and energy: if you have to deal with a divorce as well, that focus and energy will be dissipated. Who wants to be in a situation where the economy is moving forward but you can’t because you’re being held back by fraught and complicated divorce proceedings?

Even in financially good times, many men say, post-divorce, that they need to go out and make up the assets they have lost to their ex-wives: how much easier that is to do when the economy is healthy.

So if you’re hesitating about whether now is the right time to initiate a divorce proceeding, my advice is that, yes, it is! The coming months might be tough, emotionally and business-wise, but when it’s all over you will be ready to springboard into your new life.