As an older couple considering divorce, you need to carefully examine the difficulties unique to your age bracket. The divorce between couples age 50 and over is “grey divorce”, and the people involved are grey divorcees. As grey divorcees, you will face potentially difficult hurdles.
So your first move should be figuring out whether or not grey divorce is worth it to you.
Will you have to work again?
Forbes talks about the hurdles commonly faced by grey divorcees. Most of them tie to assets. In specific, one of the biggest issues older divorcing couples face is retirement. If your retirement plan relied on your spouse, what happens after a divorce? In some cases, you may still get a share of the retirement plan. It may get included in spousal support. But what if it does not? What if what you end up with is not enough to sustain your current lifestyle?
Dealing with your joint assets
On top of that, you will likely lose more in asset division than a younger couple. Even if everything ends up divided equitably, you still have more accumulated joint assets from over the years. This also makes the division process somewhat difficult and long. Even for amicable divorces, it can take a long time.
Thus, you often end up weighing financial comfort and stability versus the life situation your marriage creates. It is a very personal gauge that will differ from couple to couple. You will likely need to sit down and do a lot of thinking and reflecting on your own before coming to a decision. You may also want to consult others to get a more full picture of the potential risks you face.