Divorce can happen at any stage of a San Joaquin County couple’s marriage. The partners to the relationship may discover shortly after tying the knot that they are not compatible as a married couple. The discovery that they should not be married may not occur until after they have lived together for some time and maybe even had children. For some, realizing that divorce is a necessity does not happen until decades after the wedding and when the couple has amassed a fair amount of wealth.
Later-in-life divorces are often called gray divorces and a divorce during this stage in life can have a major impact on a couple’s financial health. For example, it is not uncommon for retirement accounts and other investments to be split between partners who have been together for a long time. As such, a couple with a hefty nest egg may divide into two parties with only modest funds for their everyday expenditures.
Additionally, spouses who have not worked outside of the home during their long-term marriages are often awarded spousal support. When a long-term marriage ends, a working spouse may find herself paying the other a significant monthly sum in order to prepare the other for life alone. A person’s end-of-career income may be significantly reduced if she must provide support to a soon-to-be ex-spouse.
Finally, property division matters can deplete a person’s wealth and can force him to spend money on finding a new place to life if his spouse is granted ownership of a marital dwelling. Losing real estate interests and other valuable pieces of property during a divorce can cause a person’s net worth to significantly fall.
These are just a few of the financial issues that can affect a person’s economic well-being when he goes through a later-in-life divorce. Like individuals who experience high asset divorces, later-in-life divorced people have many money-based decisions to make about how to separate their lives from those of their spouses. Making good decisions during such difficult times can help later-in-life divorced people manage their money.
Source: U.S. News & World Report, “7 Things To Know About Divorcing During Your Senior Years,” Maryalene LaPonsie, April 24, 2015
