Financial crises require governments. Timothy Geithner

If you want to rear financial blessings, you have to sow financially. ~ Joel Osteen

Are you a saver or a spender?

Do you buy everything you want out of impulse or dwell on it before you buy it?

How do you manage your money? You have a budget every month or you just keep spending until the account is on red? How did you learn from your parents? Did you learn to budget or you did not learn anything? How are you teaching financial stuff to your children? By buying them everything they want when they want it, or just tell them they have to save for it and work towards their goal? 

Do you have an emergency cash account in your house? Or you are always living from paycheck from paycheck? 

Do you keep your accounts separated from your husband/wife? Or do you keep them together? Did you know that if you keep them together, if one fails the other fails too as credit-wise, did you know that? Are you a stay at home mom that has no income - is your husband setting you a private IRA for yourself as well? Or you just go day to day hoping that he will stay forever married to you, be healthy, never have an accident and therefore you will be covered financially too? Did you ever thought what can happen in one day your husband cannot work anymore? Most of the moms don't consider that. Long term care insurance /disability insurance only pays so much and for so long. What do you do? do you have the skills to get into the workforce and replace that income? I thought so. When it was the last time your husband updated his life insurance policy just in case? I'll tell you: most of you outhere don't even know or don't have an insurance. 

The saddest part is when a divorce comes around. Yes, we get married and we never consider a divorce ever. Right. But...what if? What do you do then? You credit goes in the gutter because you get stuck with the house payment and yes, your paycheck might not even cover the monthly expenses. 

Marriage Divorce statistics (in percent)
First Marriage
45% to 50% marriages end in divorce
Second Marriage
60% to 67% marriages end in divorce
Third Marriage
70% to 73% marriages end in divorce

Source of this Divorce Statistics: Jennifer Baker, Forest Institute of Professional Psychology,Springfield

Wow, almost half of the first time marriages end up in divorce. That is a a big percentage, don't you think? Even 25% would be a big percentage. But almost half? Wouldn't you consider having a backup plan, just in case? So what do you do when disaster strikes? You get stressed, because suddenly you are a single parent, you have been jobless for quite a while and the job market sucks. They don't care to translate your "stay at home mom" skills into the trade, they start you right at the beginners' line: minimum wage. If you are lucky to get a job. And then if you get one you need at least two of them to keep up with the bills and you won't have time anymore to spend with your kids. 

Well if the divorce happens after your kids are grown, you are just one grown woman on your own. I am not referring to men here, because USUALLY they are the ones working. 

Yes, times have changed and there are an increased number of women who play the manly role of being the head of the household for different reasons; either they both choose the man to stay home with the kids, either he is too lazy to find a job, or he is just the kind of husband who likes to be maintained. Even in the event of a divorce they don't really have troubles finding a job because historically speaking, men earn more and are more employed than women anyway.

So, if you find yourself divorced, unemployed, no money set aside what do you do? DO YOU HAVE A BACK-UP PLAN? Are you able to land on your feet without too much drama or you have to work until you die because you SS paycheck will not be enough for you to survive on since you did not work enough as being a stay at home mom? Oh, I know, "my children are my world they need my undivided attention, I cannot do that if I am working". Nothing wrong with that if you keep in mind "plan 2". Always be prepared for the unthinkable. Being financial prepared and ready for anything it's the key to weather the worse worries. 

So, having always a plan when everything else fails, it's the insurance policy that a lot of people don't have it. I see it and I hear it every day. We insure our cars for the event we will be in a crash, we insure our house for the even that it will catch on fire, we insure our belongings in the event water or a thief will get to them, we insure our lives, why not insure our future? I mean it's not that we insure because we think it will happen right? We insure it and we hope it doesn't happen. But it's good to have aback-up plan. Don't get caught with your pants down ladies. Ooops...I meant, don't get caught without a backup plan :-)

Be a saver, not a spender. Let the government worry for spending. We need to keep our money and save it. Always!