Most people in New Jersey know someone who has gotten divorced and struggled to get back on their feet financially. Some people have an easier time doing this than others and there may be many factors that contribute to this. One of these factors may be age. Gray divorce, the term used to describe a divorce when the couple is in their 50s or later, can be especially hard on people financially as they have fewer years left to recoup any losses as they will not work as long as someone in their 30s or 40s.
Yahoo Finance recently reported on the results of some research by sociologists at Bowling Green State University that found women in particularly were negatively impacted by a gray divorce. In fact, the research seems to indicate that women who have experienced a gray divorce and who never got remarried again have a startling high rate of poverty by the time they are 63 or older compared to others in their same age group.
For women over 62 whose marriages ended after they turned 50, the poverty rate was a staggering 26.9%. The poverty rate for people who had never been divorced at all was 3.4%. Only people who had been divorced previously but subsequently remarried had lower rates with 3.1% among those divorced prior to 50 and 3.3% for those divorced after 50.
Women whose marriages ended before they turned 50 had an 18.6% poverty rate. Men in that same group had a 10.7% poverty rate. Gray divorced men’s poverty rate was just a bit higher than that at 11.4%, still notably lower than their female counterparts.