Financial Infidelity – How To Protect Yourself?
It doesn’t matter if you are single and beginning a relationship, if you are in a long-term relationship, or if you are negotiating the breakup of a marriage–people often overlook the warning signals for the ways in which they might be taken advantage of financially.
Divorce is expensive, often ruinously so. You don’t need an expert to tell you that. However, an expert can help couples going through it to soften the blow.
Divorce Rates: Lower overall, higher for older couples
Sept. 7, 2019
Unbelievable! Divorce rates are down 40% from 1992 when there were 4.8 divorces for every 1,000 Americans. By 2017, that rate was only 2.9. However, divorce rates for older Americans have skyrocketed.
Divorce: How to stay financially secure when you’re splitting up
Getting divorced is an emotional roller-coaster. It also can be a real threat to your personal finances.
If you don’t approach your settlement with a clear head and an accurate accounting of your finances, you may find that you can’t afford your new life alone or, just as bad, you could jeopardize the retirement you’re envisioning for yourself in the future.
For those splitting up in their later years or for spouses who worked at home for most of their lives, the financial ramifications can be even worse.
The key things to focus on in divorce, by the decade
Love aside, the impact of divorce in your 20s and 30s is quite a bit different than in your 40s and 50s.
Divorce by the decade seems like an odd way to call the shots to identify the risks for a marriage. For years, it seemed like the longer you were married or the longer you waited to get married, the better.
Most people believe that the relationship between age at marriage and divorce risk was almost linear: the older you were, the lower the chances of divorce. Curiously, not only are these basic assumptions mistaken, but also the premise that all divorces face mostly the same financial issues.
Divorce by the decade seems like an odd way to call the shots to identify the risks for a marriage. For years, it seemed like the longer you were married or the longer you waited to get married, the better. Most people believe that the relationship between age at marriage and divorce risk was almost linear: the older you were, the lower the chances of divorce. Curiously, not only are these basic assumptions mistaken, but also the premise that all divorces face mostly the same financial issues. Granted there are three financial topics potentially relevant to every divorce: support, custody, and property division. The factors of each vary considerably by your age and should influence what’s most important to you.
“Divorce by the Decade” from Divorce & Other Things You Can Handle by Worthy with Lili Vasileff.
“Dirty John: Narcissism & Control Over Money in Romantic Relationships with Divorce Financial Expert, Lili Vasileff” on Breaking Free: A Modern Divorce Podcast #142
Protecting Yourself Financially during Divorce
I HAVE BEEN PRACTICING AS a financial advisor in divorce for more than 25 years, and in the last 10 years the divorce rate in the U.S. for adults over the age of 50 has doubled.
Lili is interviewed on the Trevor & Jill Show about how to prepare for divorce.
