Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's how to stop a broken heart also breaking the bank. Hosted by Frances Cook.

Just like finding someone to team up with in the game of life can have the happy side effect of boosting your wealth building, going through a split can have the opposite impact. It can be financially devastating.

That's why the latest New Zealand Relationship Property Survey caught my attention.

It found that people in their 40s are in the most danger of a split, and the 50+ age group is also on the rise.

That's a time pretty close to retirement, and could make it hard to recover well enough to enjoy your golden years.

So, is there any way the system should change to reduce the financial hit, if you really need to separate?

And is there anything you can do when you first get into a relationship, to future-proof yourselves?

For the latest Cooking the Books I talked to Kirsty Swadling, chair of the family law section at the New Zealand Law Society.

We discussed what impact a split can have on your finances, whether the system needs to change, and how people can protect themselves at the start of a relationship.

If you have a question about this podcast, or question you'd like answered in the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookJournalist/ Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/francescooknz/ and Twitter here https://twitter.com/FrancesCook