Across the board, divorce rates have continued on an upward trend in recent years. This holds true for almost every age group, including people aged 50 and up. If you decide to get a divorce while in that age bracket, you may hear the term “grey divorce” or “grey divorcee” thrown around.
As a grey divorcee, you may also come to learn that you have unique hurdles to tackle that others may not. But what are these struggles?
Joint assets
Forbes takes a look at the struggles unique to grey divorcees. Many revolve around the fact that you and your partner have likely spent decades married at the point of your divorce. This differs greatly from younger divorcees, who have often only spent years together. While there is still an accumulation of assets at that point in a relationship, they will not have nearly as many joint assets to comb through as you.
This means you will spend a good portion of time and energy trying to divide your assets. Even in an amicable divorce, this is a sometimes enormous task. You may find help in the assistance of others, such as through mediators who will referee your discussions as you try to decide who gets what.
Retirement plans and funds
Then, you also have to worry about finances and retirement. A younger couple can bounce back from these setbacks much easier because they are likely nowhere near retirement age anyway. As for you, you may have plans for retirement in the very near future. You might need to reconsider these plans depending on your divorce, and decide whether or not it is worth losing this financial backing.
