The Finance Blogger


Your Finances and 2nd Marriages

Your Finances and 2nd MarriagesIn our last post we were talking about some of our buddies who have to work long into their retirement years because of their poor finances associated with being married more than once. We decided in this post to look at your finances and 2nd marriages and what the extra expenses are associated with the 2nd or even 3rd marriage and why this could have such a large impact on your retirement plans.

You may have to work a few more years to make up for the extra expenses that you have while dealing with divorce and getting remarried. Add kids to the mix from one or more marriages and you may as well just keep working unless you have an excellent job that pays very well in retirement.

Additional Expenses Associated with Divorce and Remarriage

Here is our list. Do you have any to add?

  • Legal fees associated with your divorce settlement
  • Legal fees associated with a pre-nup on your 2nd marriage
  • 2nd marriage getting married expenses
  • Support costs especially if your spouse was not working or made less
  • Support costs for the kids
  • Paying for two lodgings instead of one
  • Paying for travel costs for the kids to visit
  • Retirement pension cut by 50%

There are probably others , but these are the big ones that come to mine. Note that the legal fees are within your control and can be reasonable. Or they can be huge if  you decide to contest the settlement.

From friends I have spoken to, legal fees can be really huge. One friend was so frustrated. They had just spent a hundred thousand dollars on legal fees. There was a lot of anger and both parties contested the divorce settlement. Another who was well aware of these costs, decided to use a person who is a marriage settlement counselor to help them resolve issues. There was still some cost that had to be dealt with. However the costs were much less than what the other person in the example experienced.

What happens if you Get Remarried

It gets very complicated to say the least. Now you have sharing arrangements with a variety of kids and families, more gifts to buy at Christmas and birthdays and more expense associated with the family in general.

If you happen to marry a working spouse, some of the extra expense mention above in our last section can be reduced somewhat. You can at least share the cost of some of the bills such as lodging expense and travel costs. Even retirement can be better if two people are supporting retirement costs. You still have all of the legal fee costs which is just money that is gone and can never be recovered or replaced.

Your Finances and 2nd Marriages – Consider Carefully When you Remarry

Although everyone wants to be in love and not worry about finances. The reality is that we must if we are to continue to live comfortably. Be very careful when you remarry. Protect yourself as well by having a pre-nup for both parties which spells out how your expenses will be handled. How your assets will be handled especially if there is a breakup in the future.

Our friends who are married for the 2nd or 3rd time just have to face the music. They know that they are going to have to work for a while longer to make up all of these extra costs that they have. Retirement may not come as soon as they planned. They may not be able to do all of the things they planned during retirement.

 

 


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