Over 50 and getting divorced?

Okay so are you one of those people who is over 50 and getting divorced? We know that divorce among the “gray set” is rising. And guess what? If you are fifty or older, you are considered to be in the “gray set.” Duddn’t matter if you color your hair or if you pluck out the grays. If you’re fifty or older, you are in the gray set and for this demographic, divorce rates are up rather than falling like the rest of the population. And it is more impactful according to many experts and also the folks over at Smart Money Magazine. I just read this article about divorce mistakes that these people (# Over 50 and getting divorced) tend to make. Here’s an excerpt:

While the overall divorce rate has decreased slightly over the past two decades, for those over 50 it has doubled, according to the latest data from the National Center for Family & Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University. That means some 300,000 couples over 50 divorced in 2008, and if the rate stays consistent, that number will balloon to more than 400,000 busted marriages in 2030. Paradoxically, experts chalk the increase up to boomers’ affinity for marriage in the first place. More older people are on their second and third marriages by the time they hit 50, says Krista K. Payne, a data analyst for the center – and those are marriages that are less likely to last.
Regardless of first, second or eighth, the stakes are higher for couples in their 50s, 60s and 70s. By the time most people are 50, they have a long work history, own some real estate, have a retirement account, life insurance and more – in which case, it’s critical to get the best settlement possible. “You have much less time to recover if mistakes are made,” says Jeffrey A. Landers, president and founder of New York-based Bedrock Divorce Advisors, which consults divorcing women. “There are no do-overs.”