Thought your retirement would be like this?
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But instead it turned out more like this?
The baby-boom generation is showing that it ‘s never too late to consider divorce. As our life span extends, people in their fifties and sixties with better health expectations figure they have a number of good years left. Why not live them to the fullest? That may mean ending their long term marriage and going it alone.
The problem with getting divorced late in life, is that most people find it hard enough to save for retirement and don’t imagine living off of just half of their savings, whatever they may be.
If a couple had money in the marriage, there may be enough money to go around after divorce. The challenge is for normal middle-class couples who just scraped by. Or those couples who lived beyond their means. When they try to make their house and retirement assets cover two households instead of one, there’s simply not enough to go around. And they’re not likely to go back to work. They may be expecting to do the things they never allowed themselves to do while they were married like join a club, travel etc.
When people are relying on a pension or savings, there’s never going to be enough to duplicate the marital lifestyle. If you’re divorcing at 55 or 60, it may be too late to go back to work or too late to recover financially.
If you didn’t consider that divorce would be par t of your retirement plan, you may want to work with a divorce team that consists of both legal and financial professionals. They are there to help you navigate this difficult time, both in a legal and financial capacity.
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