There was an interesting feature that caught our eye on mySA, the online site operated by the San Antonio Express-News, a few weeks ago. It looked at the jobs with the lowest divorce rates as well as the highest divorce rates, listing 50 occupations in each category.
The list itself was interesting: Among the occupations least likely to divorce were clergy, actuaries, chemical engineers, surgeons, and physicians, while bartenders were the most likely to divorce, with telemarketers, dancers and choreographers, gambling services workers, and massage therapists not much farther behind.
The article, while it didn’t quite explain why certain occupations were more or less likely to divorce, did make some interesting observations:
While public perception is that half of all American marriages end in divorce, that statistic is actually much lower. The divorce rate in the U.S. peaked in 1980 at 40% and has been dropping since. Millennials are driving that decrease, while older gen-Xers and baby boomers are divorcing at rates twice that of the ’90s. The reasons for divorce are complicated and vary across demographics and age. But one factor shows a strong predictor for long-term marital success: occupation.
The article went on to say:
Studies have shown that people with stable, higher-paying jobs tend to experience lower divorce rates than those who don’t earn as much money. Less than one-third of married people in the middle and upper classes filed for divorce, while more than one-third of those in the working class had sought divorces. The IFS also sourced information from a Bloomberg report indicating 70% of people who consider themselves upper class enjoy lasting marriages compared with just 53% of those who describe themselves as lower class.
That’s not to say that people who have high incomes are exempt from divorce; we’ve worked on enough high-net-worth divorces to know that’s definitely not the case. In fact, when a couple’s assets go beyond a shared home into stock portfolios, land, and other assets, those divorces can be more complex and may even require financial professionals to help settle those divorces.
But for couples who struggle financially, the stress of trying to pay bills can contribute to divorce, and dividing shared assets can be a particularly contentious part of the divorce.
The most important thing to keep in mind when dealing with finances, whether you’re trying to stay married or you’re proceeding with divorce, is that knowing your financial situation is better than not knowing. It might be hard to face your financial realities, but it’s better to know and get a plan in place to make it better, rather than operate as if there’s nothing wrong and do further damage to your finances.
Creating budgets, determining ways to bring in additional income, and determining ways to cut expenses can help you improve your situation — or, at the very least, making sure that a bad situation doesn’t get any worse. When people get divorced, costs can increase just because you’re not able to share certain expenses with a partner. It’s something that people need to factor in as they’re preparing to divorce.
If you’re considering divorce, and you’re concerned about the financial impact that might have, talk to the Law Office of Lisa A. Vance for a consultation. We can help you figure out the options for settling your divorce, help you discover what’s most important to you in the decree if you don’t already know, and how to create the best post-divorce life possible.