Divorce is sometimes the only option if two Rhode Island adults can no longer stay married. Experts recently noticed that divorces are on the rise among people 50 years or older. While there are many causes behind gray divorces, a leading factor remains financial infidelity.
What is financial infidelity?
Financial infidelity involves any attempt from someone to hide financial information from their spouse. Habitual financial infidelity can be costly to both parties, regardless of who is spending or incurring debt.
Examples of financial infidelity
With financial infidelity covering so many actions, it’s important to understand how often this type of infidelity happens. Common examples of financial infidelity that often lead to divorce can include:
- Hiding receipts or other evidence of purchases, including the purchased item itself
- Making secret withdrawals from shared financial accounts
- Avoiding letting a spouse know about a raise at work
- Spending money on children without a spouse knowing
- Opening new credit cards in secret
- Lying about the price of purchased items
How financial infidelity wreaks havoc on a marriage
Unsurprisingly, learning about financial infidelity can end a marriage. Financial infidelity ranges in terms of severity. An isolated instance of financial infidelity might not cause much fallout. However, repeated or long-term bouts of financial infidelity can plummet credit scores and rack up lots of debt. Financial infidelity can wreak havoc on retirement and investment accounts in a gray divorce.
Financial infidelity can drastically change someone’s life post-divorce, especially if their ex-spouses brought home lots of money. Making matters worse, people in gray divorces often have limited time to compensate for lost finances or damaged credit standings.
