Approximately half of all American marriages end in divorce. One surprising trend in that statistic, however, is that more divorces are occurring among couples later in life. The couple going through a late-in-life divorce experiences problems that a younger couple most likely would not encounter; for instance, they have fewer years to recover financially from the hit of a break-up. Not divorcing but living separate lives and staying together for the sake of, say, the children also has its pitfalls; do you want a spouse with whom you no longer share a romantic attachment controlling your finances if you have an accident? Anne Margaret Carrozzo is a former New York State Assemblywoman and host of “The Laws of Your Money”, heard Sunday mornings at 10:30am on WOR; she appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to offer financial advice for couples of all ages when calling it quits.
Carrozzo, who is also an asset protection attorney, told host Larry Mendte that all couples might want to keep financial differences in mind before they get married in the first place: “I think it bears repeating that we divorce a very different person than the person that we married, and we need to go into it with our eyes open. And even in an intact marriage, you can have financial differences in your outlook. So, if you want to keep some assets separate, that makes sense for a lot of couples.”
Carrozzo added that younger couples actually tend to focus on their finances more than older couples do before they get hitched: “Gen Z is more likely to get a prenuptial than millennials are… and they pride their credit scores… The important conversation is what are we going to do from here? How can we, together as a team, move forward with solid financial goals?”
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