Posted on 09/06/2017 7:15:26 PM PDT by BJ1
Looking ahead to the next phase of life can seem pretty dreadful if you can’t stand the person who you’ll be spending it with.
That may be what some boomers are facing. Among U.S. adults ages 50 and older, the divorce rate has roughly doubled since the 1990s, according to a recent Pew Research Center report.
Statistically speaking we’re healthier and probably going to be living a lot longer — possibly 30 years longer — than average retirees once did. The surge in late-in-life — or “gray” — divorce is one possibly unintended consequence of this so-called longevity bonus.
Read: Why your retirement may not be so horrible after all
“What’s pushing gray divorce is people are living longer and they feel more entitled to living fully. They’ve contributed to raising children, they want an emotional journey, it’s their time now,” says Lili Vasileff, a certified financial planner and president of Divorce and Money Matters, which specializes in divorce financial planning. “They may have (decades) ahead and don’t want to be unhappy anymore.”
This is combined with a reduced stigma of divorce, both in terms of religion and society’s attitudes. People also feel more financially stable — especially if both partners have careers. But there are some serious downsides to divorce at this stage of life.
“Gray divorcees tend to be less financially secure than married and widowed adults, particularly among women,” Pew says. “And living alone at older ages can be detrimental to one’s financial comfort and, for men, their satisfaction with their social lives.”
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Okay, it's you time now, you seniors. Go screw over your spouse and be free.
The term “living fully” is a bit on the idiotic side.
You can always go to The Villages and fornicate in your old age. Our society is adrift and will crash on the rocks.
I’m into living three quarterly !
That is, its use is never accompanied by clear thinking about what it could mean.
I’m so lucky to have a woman with whom I want to spend the rest of my days. She loves me and cares for me like I can’t even imagine. We just went through prostate cancer together, and I truly couldn’t have done it without her. She’s the best.
When did staying married out of spite go out of style? Sheesh.
the men remarry usually within a couple of years and their second partner usually can’t hold a candle to the one they got rid of.
You have painted a mental of pic of prune textured skin with liver spots in my mind.
When you start to draw SS as a couple one of you gets 100% and the other gets 50%. If you divorce you get 100% for both of you.
Actually the few I know all fared far better the second time around. Some people like to stay miserable I guess. These guys are happy as clams.
you’re telling me a man and woman get more in social security divorced than if they stay together?
Is it an end-life crisis? The trigger from my mid-life crisis hit when I was forty. I asked myself, do I want to live the rest of my life like this? Ultimately, the answer was ‘no.’ Apparently it is a trigger for the elderly, too. The disruption of life at that age and with decades of habits having been formed that will be broken, has to be way more stressful than at mid-life, though. Plus, at advanced age with its concomitant cardiac health concerns, it’s probably better to go quietly into that good night.
All I can say is, “I’m dancing as fast as I can.”
A couple in their upper 90s walks into a lawyer’s office and says they want to get divorced. The attorney says I dont understand. You’ve been married for more than 75 years. Why did you wait so long? The wife answered, we were waiting for the kids to die.
Whatever became of love?
“The term “living fully” is a bit on the idiotic side.”
Very true, and said very simply and eloquently. No matter what life brings your way, nothing brings fulfillment to life like sharing love, and being surrounded by people you love and who love you.
Please explain.
I don’t know about that one. Could it be for a spouse that never worked?
Divorce and live together and you will end up better off financially.
Talk about a "marriage penalty"!
And if you are widowed and decide to remarry you get all sorts of horrible penalties as well.
Lots of widows are choosing to have a "church wedding" and not make it legal as the financial loss would make it impossible for them to afford assisted living.
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