Pile of credit cards.

Every couple of years, there are headlines about how debt causes divorce. This year’s sensationalistic headline on Men’s Journal (“Survey Finds Shocking Link Between Debt and Divorce“) had just the right amount of hyperbole to attract my attention, and a light morning induced me to go down that rabbit hole.

The story, which several news outlets have picked up, is based on a press release from debt.com. Have you heard the phrase “where you stand depends upon where you sit?” The fact that a debt-relief company was hyping debt as a cause of marital breakups struck me as a little self-serving – the implicit message being that you’d better get your debts under control if you want to save your marriage. And the company behind the press release just so happens to be able to help…

Skewed Debt & Divorce Survey?

The actual 2025 survey was a little more nuanced. There were several debt and finance-related questions, but two of them stood out:

  • Were debt or other financial difficulties the primary factors in your divorce? (33% were “agree” or “strongly agree”)
  • Was credit card debt and spending a factor in your divorce? (42% said “yes”)

Leading questions appear to be a sure way to skew the results. But what really struck me was that this did not appear to be a random poll. Instead, they had a blurb below their survey results that read:

Methodology: Debt.com conducted an online survey of 507 U.S. adults who are divorced using SurveyMonkey on September 1, 2025. Respondents were screened for marital status (divorced) before completing the questionnaire. People responded from all 50 states and Washington, DC, and were aged 18 and above.

Now I’m no pollster, but the reputable survey companies reach out to a random population sample (e.g., call 1000 adults, and only proceed with the survey for those who have gone through a divorce). By contrast, the method used in this survey, asking people to complete a SurveyMonkey survey, presents at least a couple of problems:

  1. How was the original sample of people selected? The website doesn’t say, but I suspect they had a link to the survey on their own website, which means that only those who were already seeking help for financial problems were part of that pool.
  2. Only those motivated enough to click on the link and respond were counted – i.e. a self-selected subsample of an already-skewed pool.

I took one year of statistics in college, a long time ago, so I am not remotely qualified to assess the veracity of a poll. However, since I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express at some point in my life, I will opine that this is a sensationalistic survey, pushed by a company seeking attention for its debt services. Still, ultimately, the results are no more reliable than an online survey of Sean Hannity viewers about a right/left political issue. They are interesting and touch on legitimate areas of concern, but the results are likely not scientific.

Does Debt Play a Role in Divorce?

Absolutely. Since Colorado is a no-fault state, a spouse’s motives for seeking a divorce are not relevant to the outcome. Therefore, in our consultations, we never ask a client why they want a divorce. Still, clients often volunteer that information, and debt rarely comes up as a cause of divorce. Out of approximately 1000 divorces in my career, perhaps half of the clients volunteered the reasons for their divorce in our conversations. I can count on two hands the number of clients who mentioned that their spouse’s spending was a significant factor in their divorce, so that’s maybe 10 people out of 500, or about 2%.

That’s not to say debt is not significant – debt issues do arise during a divorce. However, it’s not like having a secret credit card and spending too much time at the mall (or online) would normally cause a break-up in an otherwise healthy marriage.

Hidden Debts in a Divorce

Dollar sign on stack of hundred dollar bills

It is not uncommon for one spouse to conceal their spending from the other, particularly towards the end of a marriage when communication has already broken down. I’ve had cases where clients are surprised at the depth of their spouse’s spending and resulting debt, which they had no idea about. And those same clients were even more shocked to discover that they may be liable for debts they were unaware of.

What matters to the judge allocating a debt is not whether the other spouse knew about it, but whether the debt was incurred for marital purposes. So, if a husband incurs $15,000 of credit card debt on a fancy vacation with the family, that debt will be considered marital, even if the wife had no knowledge that the family was living beyond their means. (Believe it or not, hidden debts a spouse learns about during the divorce process are much more common than the underlying debts actually causing the divorce).

However, if one spouse went into debt for private trips with their significant other or to support a friend/extended family member without the other spouse’s knowledge, then the court may find that the expense was a dissipation of marital funds and allocate that debt to the spouse who incurred it. But dissipation findings are rare – never something you can count on.

Allocation of Debts in a Divorce

In Colorado, all assets and debts acquired during a marriage are presumptive marital, and the family law judge will allocate those debts equitably. Usually, an equal allocation ends up being the most equitable, particularly when there is a net positive marital estate. Some of the more typical factors that may cause a court to allocate debts disproportionately include:

  • The higher-income earner is in a better financial position to pay the debt.
  • The debt was incurred after the parties separated, as a result of that spouse’s extravagant spending.
  • The debt is secured by an asset awarded to a particular spouse.
  • The debt was one spouse’s student loans, and the spouse who incurred the debt will have years of post-divorce benefits from that education, compared to relatively little benefit during the marriage.

Colorado requires exhaustive financial disclosures in a dissolution of marriage proceeding, including the balances of all outstanding debts (hidden or not!) and the most recent statement for each debt. Moreover, if the debt was a surprise to the other spouse or there is a concern that funds were dissipated, one spouse can request historic credit card statements through the discovery process and review them to see how the money was spent.

The moral of the story? Beware of sensationalist headlines from a company trying to generate business. Debt issues do arise in a divorce and are a motivating factor in a minority of dissolution cases. But they are not the primary reason why marriages fall apart.

Award-Winning Southern Colorado Divorce Team

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