Is Your Gray Divorce Settlement Enough to Protect You From Third Act Hardships?
Some people start to look forward to a new chapter of their lives after divorce, once divorce mediation reaches a resolution. Yes, you have to work around the clock to afford the mortgage payments on the former marital home that your ex-spouse agreed that you could keep, but now the house is yours, and you can decorate it however you choose. The financial hardships are temporary. You are free to pick up a second job to pass the time on the days when your children are with your ex-spouse, and you gradually see your bank account balances rising and your debts getting smaller. You might even meet someone new; your new partner might eventually move into the house and share the bills. Even if you decide that you want your next relationship to have boundaries that include no cohabitation, you might get a new job that pays more, or your current job might give you a promotion. Your perspective on finances and the future is different if you divorce late in life. You have carefully considered the decision to divorce, and you might have thought in detail about how your financial situation will be as a single senior, but it might hit you harder than you expected when you find out how alone you feel when life’s vicissitudes happen to you after you divorce after a long marriage. For help stress testing your plan for gray divorce, contact a Boca Raton divorce lawyer.
Leaving an Unhappy Marriage Means the Possibility of a Lean, Lonely Retirement
Gray divorce is difficult because the parties have been together so long that most of their property is marital, unless they have signed a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement declaring it separate. What makes it simpler is that both parties are mature enough to think clearly about a realistic way to separate their finances. Most divorce cases where one spouse insists that she needs alimony and the other refuses to pay involve younger couples. In a gray divorce, you settle into your separate lives, each with your share of the estate you built up together.
You have recourse to post-divorce litigation if your ex-spouse does not fulfill his or her terms of the marital settlement agreement (MSA) or if you need to reduce your alimony obligations because of an unexpected financial hardship. Unless you are paying alimony, though, the divorce court is not the venue for your grievances about how life has been unfair to you since your divorce became final. If you suffer a serious illness when you are 62, your only choice might be to retire, start taking withdrawals from whatever share of your retirement savings the QDRO didn’t take from you, and draw a lower Social Security payment than you could have gotten if you had stayed in the workforce longer. You could ask your ex-spouse for money directly, but your ex has the right to say “tough luck.” You can’t be married to your spouse and divorced from your spouse at the same time.
Contact Schwartz | White About Gray Divorce
A South Florida family law attorney can help you achieve a divorce settlement that will sustain you, even if things take a turn for the worse. Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.
Source:
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