While divorce is hard at any age, for midlife women whose time and energy has gone into their families -- not themselves -- it's particularly important to be as savvy as possible.  Since many women are far more likely than men to suffer financially when their marriage unravels. According to the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University, a woman's standard of living will drop by as much as 27% -- compared to 10% for men -- after a divorce.

After her own experience, Melanie Johnson, our women and divorce expert, decided she wanted to help women avoid the pitfalls she didn't know about then.  When you're in midlife, if you suffer a drop in your standard of living, there aren't as many years left to make up the shortfall. Here, Melanie gives some great advice for us and for any woman we know going through this difficult transition.

Putting our affairs in order, or proactively helping our loved ones get theirs in order, is VERY easy to put off.  Most of us in midlife don’t really want to think about that subject.  It’s awkward, we don’t really know how to start the conversation, or we rush through when it does come up because we are uncomfortable.

Our member, Frances, finds herself unexpectedly the co-executor of her cousin’s estate because she didn’t really probe deeply enough when she was asked to ‘help out’.  Amy Praskac, our end of life organizing expert, tells us how to avoid being put in that difficult situation.