Any person in Michigan who has ever been divorced knows firsthand the type of financial losses that one can endure through the end of a marriage. However, some information has been showing that the financial hardships associated with divorce may be particularly pronounced for women who have gotten divorced after the age of 50. In fact, this group may even have a higher risk of dipping into poverty than their male counterparts or than younger divorced women.
One of the problems that anyone, regardless of their gender, faces when a divorce happens after 50 is that there are fewer working years left in the person’s life. This means there is less time available to earn income that could help recoup some of the losses of the divorce. According to a report by Yahoo Finance, the average person who goes through what is called a gray divorce sees their overall wealth drop by up to 50%.
For males who have been divorced after 50, a 21% decline in their standard of living can be seen. For women, however, the standard of living is said to drop by 45%. The fact that a woman’s lifestyle declines by more than twice of a man’s after a gray divorce is startling.
Other statistics show that women who are 63 or older and divorced have a poverty rate of close to 27%. Men in this same group have a poverty rate of just above 11%. The poverty rate for the divorced women over 63 is higher than the poverty rate for any other demographic group.