Helping clients recover from a midlife divorce
January 23, 2024
By Kelley Long, CPA/PFS
Divorce at any stage of life can be financially stressful, regardless of one’s age, family status, or the length of the marriage. However, as many financial planners can attest, when a couple divorces after many years of marriage, particularly when they have multiple children together who are still living at home, it’s more likely that one or both partners will be starting from scratch or with very little progress made toward their individual journeys to financial independence.
This is especially true when one or both members of the couple made career trade-offs to be more present with child-rearing, such as limiting work to part-time or forgoing career advancement because of the demands of a busy household. After the divorce, the conditions that informed these career-related decisions may still exist, but the need to increase earning capacity becomes more critical.