Divorce Is Destroying the Finances of Americans over 50

This article confuses me. It keeps referring to income without distinguishing between household and personal. It also doesn’t seem to go into wealth as opposed to income.

Without diving into the underlying data, it seems like a pretty obvious effect that would only have a significant impact on couples with a “traditional” relationship where one partner significantly out-earns the other, who takes time off work to raise the kids. In that situation, of course splitting up will be bad - the higher earner in the relationship sees their net worth drop by half while the lower earner sees their household income drop by up to 100%. But for couples that are more equal financially, the only real impacts should be things like loss of joint health insurance and higher per-square foot living cost for smaller houses/apartments.

I'm 58, due to circumstances like taking a voluntary layoff 3 years ago, my nominal income an my then-spouses were about equal when we divorced a year ago. It's just plain costly to get divorced, dealing with legal system and legal system people is expensive. The higher rent/mortgage is nothing to sneeze at, either, at least in higher-cost-of-living metro areas.

It's probably better for their health and stress to get the divorce and continue a failed marriage - I wonder if we'll see middle aged divorces go down over time as divorce in general becomes more socially acceptable allowing it to occur earlier in life.

Avoid divorce - just find a woman you hate ... and buy her a house !