Tuesday, March 23, 2010
POSTPONING DIVORCE IN A DOWN MARKET
Lisa Belkin writes in "Postponing Divorce in a Down Market":
Interesting enough, we, as a society, appear to recognize that the economy impacts on people's ability to meat their financial obligations. Unless, that is, the obligations are child support obligations.There’s staying together because of the children, and now there’s staying together because of the economy.
In The Washington Post’s metro section yesterday, the reporter Donna St. George explored whether a recent downtick in the divorce rate (there were nearly 20,000 fewer in 2008 than in 2007) has been caused by the Great Recession. “How do they start over if debt is all that’s left to divide?” she asks.
Not too long ago, many couples used the equity in their homes to finance a split, with each spouse walking away with enough to finance a new life once their joint property was sold.
