夕陽婚 是退休的美夢還是噩夢(1)

After she lost her second husband in 2007, Edie Tolchin started dating again at the age of 53. It was when she met Ken Robinson, who was a widower himself, that things got serious.

在2007年失去了第二任丈夫後，53歲的艾迪•托爾琴(Edie Tolchin)又開始約會了。她當時遇到了同樣喪偶的肯•羅賓森(Ken Robinson)，他們很快就開始談婚論嫁了。

“Some people don’t like marriage,” said Tolchin, who lives in New Jersey in the US. “Some people want to be by themselves. I definitely enjoyed being married. And I was lonely.”

“有些人不喜歡結婚，”家住美國新澤西州的托爾琴說，“有的人就喜歡獨處，但我確實渴望結婚，我感到很孤獨。”

In 2014, at ages 60 and 63, they tied the knot.

於是在2014年，這對年齡分別爲60和63歲的愛人喜結連理。

But unlike most newlyweds, who simply bask in the newness and bliss, one of the first things they did as a married couple was visit an estate planning attorney. There, they drew up a plan that addressed both their marriage and Tolchin’s two children from a previous marriage. “We have that all taken care of,” Tolchin said.

多數新婚夫婦都會完全沉溺在新奇和幸福之中，但與他們不同的是，這對老年夫婦結婚後立刻找到了遺產規劃律師。他們在那裏制定了一份計劃，爲自己的婚姻和托爾琴與前夫共同生育的兩個孩子做好了安排。“我們把所有事情都安排妥當了。”托爾琴說。

Second (or third) marriages later in life can create a variety of challenges, since both partners often enter the union with significant assets accumulated over decades of earning. And, there are often grown children, grandchildren and inheritance issues.

二婚(或三婚)要面臨很多挑戰，因爲夫妻雙方可能都攜帶着幾十年來積累的大量財產步入婚姻的殿堂。不僅如此，他們往往還要面臨撫養子女和孫輩，以及遺產繼承等問題。

“There is a lot to be considered at this point,” said Howard Pressman, a financial planner with Egan, Berger & Weiner in Washington, D.C.

“此時有很多事情需要考慮。”華盛頓特區 Egan, Berger & Weiner 公司的財務規劃師霍華德•普雷斯曼(Howard Pressman)說。

In the UK, the number of men getting married in their late sixties has gone up by 25% and the number of women has gone up by 21%, according to the Office for National Statistics. In the US, 67% of people ages 55 to 64 who were previously married get married again, according to the Pew Research Center, and 50% of those 65 and older remarry.

根據英國國家統計局的數據，該國在接近70歲時結婚的男性人數已經增長了25%，女性則增長了21%。而根據皮尤研究中心(Pew Research Center)的數據，55至64歲的美國人有67%選擇再婚，65歲或65歲以上的人羣再婚比例達到50%。

If you’re thinking of walking down the aisle again — perhaps with a little more grey hair this time — here’s what you should keep in mind.

如果你想再次步入婚姻殿堂——這一次可能會長出更多的白髮——那就應該牢記下面的事情。

What it’s going to take: It takes some planning to determine how tying the knot is going to affect all your assets. Marriage — especially at this stage of your life — is about more than companionship.

再婚的代價：需要制定一些計劃才能判斷婚姻對所有財產產生的影響。除了找到伴侶外，婚姻還關係到很多問題——尤其是在這個人生階段。

“What you need to be really aware of is that you are making a financial commitment to that person,” said Julia Chung, a financial and estate planner with JYC Financial in Langley, British Columbia, in Canada. “I think when people are in retirement or they’re older, they don’t think of it that way.”

“你必須明白自己向對方做出了財務承諾，”加拿大英屬哥倫比亞省 JYC Financial 公司的財務和遺產規劃師茱莉亞•鍾(Julia Chung)說，“我認爲，當人們退休或年邁時，他們就不會這樣思考婚姻。”

How long to prepare: You need long enough to make sure you understand how marriage will affect your finances and to discuss how you want things to work. “The first thing we do is spend a lot of time talking about their wishes in terms of how their assets will get distributed after their death,” Pressman said.

籌備時間：需要花費充足的時間來確保你的確明白婚姻將對你的財務狀況產生何種影響，並考慮你希望事態如何發展。“我們所做的第一件事就是花大量的時間與之展開溝通，瞭解他們希望自己身故後如何分配財產。”普雷斯曼說。

It's also important to realise that this is the person who usually becomes the default decision maker in the event that you’re incapacitated — and vice versa — unless you have financial and healthcare powers of attorney that name someone else. You’ll have to talk about what your wishes are in those circumstances. If you can’t have these kinds of conversations before you get married, you may want to rethink binding yourself legally to that person.

還必須明白一件事情：一旦你喪失行爲能力，這個人將會默認替你做主——反之亦然——除非你擁有足夠的財務和健康能力，讓律師爲你指派其他人。你們必須要溝通你在這些情況下的願望。如果不能在結婚前展開這樣的對話，那就應該重新考慮你是否願意與此人合法地“綁在一起”。