Divorce Is Destroying the Finances of Americans over 50(bloomberg.com)
bloomberg.com
Divorce Is Destroying the Finances of Americans over 50
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-19/divorce-destroys-finances-of-americans-over-50-studies-show
3 comments
I'm 58, due to circumstances like taking a voluntary layoff 3 years ago, my nominal income an my then-spouses were about equal when we divorced a year ago. It's just plain costly to get divorced, dealing with legal system and legal system people is expensive. The higher rent/mortgage is nothing to sneeze at, either, at least in higher-cost-of-living metro areas.
It's probably better for their health and stress to get the divorce and continue a failed marriage - I wonder if we'll see middle aged divorces go down over time as divorce in general becomes more socially acceptable allowing it to occur earlier in life.
Avoid divorce - just find a woman you hate ... and buy her a house !
Without diving into the underlying data, it seems like a pretty obvious effect that would only have a significant impact on couples with a “traditional” relationship where one partner significantly out-earns the other, who takes time off work to raise the kids. In that situation, of course splitting up will be bad - the higher earner in the relationship sees their net worth drop by half while the lower earner sees their household income drop by up to 100%. But for couples that are more equal financially, the only real impacts should be things like loss of joint health insurance and higher per-square foot living cost for smaller houses/apartments.