Apparently an affinity for cliché tattoos and pseudo rock music just isn’t enough to keep a marriage together. Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz are headed to Splitsville. The couple filed for divorce after two and a half years of marriage.

While one source close to the couple describes the breakup as “amicable” and insisted, “They're on very friendly terms and speaking — it's fine,” others claim Wentz begged Simpson to stay.

No word on what instigated the split other than “irreconcilable differences” and vague reports of the two growing apart.

The young couple’s divorce is part of a nationwide trend. As the economy recovers, marriages fail. The divorce rate is making a comeback after plummeting by seven percent in the recession.

Unfortunately it wasn’t a lovey-dovey “Let’s stay together” Patti Smith sentiment that kept couples from calling it quits when the stock market nose dived. Simply put, people didn’t have enough money to break up. Divorce costs a pretty penny and divvying up assets isn’t simple.

And believe it or not, a recent NPR report used Simpson and Wentz's marriage and recent split to illustrate the trend of couples waiting through a recession, only to divorce when financial light is in sight.

In general, many people apparently delayed divorce because they couldn’t sell their home after the housing bubble burst. Between 2006 and 2009 divorce lawyers across the country saw business lull while bankruptcy attorneys kept busy. But all that's changing.

"I would say that over the last six months, the activity in our firm has probably picked up by 20, 25 percent," Sandy Ain, a divorce lawyer in Washington, D.C. told NPR.

In fact, Ain is getting more clients than he can handle. He cited several reasons for the increase. "One is the credit markets are actually loosening up," he said on air. "Banks are starting to lend money again."

That means someone can borrow money to buy out a spouse, to pay for his or her share of the house or family enterprise for example.

But it isn’t all bad news for those who have tied the knot. While marriages troubled by financial woes may eventually end in divorce, a study compiled by the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia found that three in 10 respondents said the stress of the economic downturn has actually “deepened” their commitment to marriage.

“For some couples, our data indicate that they have deepened their commitment to marriage. I think that deepened commitment will be there even after the economy improves,” reported W. Bradford Wilcox, associate professor of sociology and director of the National Marriage Project.

It’s unclear if this deepened commitment will slow the divorce rate’s comeback, though it’s certainly refreshing to believe that anything that doesn’t kill a marriage makes it stronger. Only time will tell if Americans stick with this new marriage view, but the stronger outlook is certainly refreshing.

Whether it ever truly applied to Jessica Simpson's sister or not.