The end of any marriage can be a traumatic experience, but it can be a lot more complex if the marriage has lasted decades. Divorces that involve individuals who are over 50 years old are commonly referred to as grey divorces. These divorces have some special considerations that aren’t present in others. One thing to remember is that these divorces often don’t happen because of a life transition. Instead, your marital history is one contributing factor. The rate of grey divorce appears to be much higher in individuals who were married prior to their current marriage.
Time isn’t your friend when it comes to finances
One of the biggest challenges of a grey divorce is that you don’t have the time to recoup the money that you’ll need for retirement. When you started saving for retirement, you were likely counting on having two retirement accounts to support one home. Now, you’ll have to build your new life with only part of the retirement savings.
Because of the financial hit of having to support a home on limited funds, you may find that you have to return to work. Even if you only have to work part-time, it can have a big impact on your retirement. You should work to get the best property division settlement possible so you have a good financial foundation for the future.
Making sure you’re ready for all aspects of the divorce is important so you should explore your options as soon as you realize that there’s a chance you’ll divorce. This can help you to come up with a plan for property division and anything else you need to address during the legal process. Working with someone who can help you through this can reduce the stress you have to deal with as you transition to single life.
