A 70-year-old man still works at my plant even though he could have retired years ago. Has a pension and a 401k but won't quit because his ex-wife will get half his pension. Half of his pension is WAY more than anyone on this forum needs to FIRE -- not to mention the 401k, a paid off mortgage etc. I thought how sad that someone is so bitter that they'd rather work until they die than retire. Seems absolutely insane to me.
Maybe he's hoping that his ex will die first...
In the USA, generally are divorce settlements like this terminated when the ex spouse remarries or dies?
Typically around here, the spouse would get half of the pension
for the timeframe of the marriageLets say I have 10 years of marriage while earning my pension, which pays out at 2.3% per year of service. Then I divorce, and continue working another 20 years.
30 years of pension @ 2.3% per year = 69% of base salary as pension.
But the ex gets her "half" which is 10 years of pension @ 1.15% = 11.5%
Therefore, when taking the pension I would get 57.5% of base salary, ex would get 11.5% of base salary.
Which is notionally fair. Gains during the marriage are split upon divorce.
However, a lot of guys are so bitter, they will basically lie about the "half" the ex will be getting, and keep working out of spite.