If your spouse passed away tomorow, would you be financially ok?

The other day I was watching this Oprah show where this womans husband killed himself. He had been abusive during their whole marriage and spent all their money and ran them into debt. Right after he died she found out he cancelled his life insurance on himself 3 months prior. She didn't even have money to afford groceries.


So...this got me to thinking....Are you financially secure if something were to happen? Do you have a emergency plan worked out.

Right now we live paycheck to paycheck....We don't really have a savings.....although we are getting back up there.....Moving 6 times in 5 years doesn't really leave a whole lot of money left. Plus we had a horrible financial year last year.

If something were to happen to dh, Im pretty confident that I would be alright....We have talked about it before...I think its important to work out a plan together in case. Dh has life insurance and imediate death benefits. The military would pay for the funeral and supply me with the death benefits...last I read it was 10 thousand....not sure though. His life insurance policy now is pretty high. I would move back home near my family. The kids college would be paid for through the military..since he is active.

Yes and no. We'd be ok but would definitely have to scale back. Then again, after the year we had, there isn't much to scale back on I need to get his life insurance back up and running, then we'd be just fine.

Monica....Do you guys ever talk about what you would do? Me and dh talk about it every once in a while....For both of us.....I guess you can call it piece of mind....Makes me feel a little morbid though.

I didn't vote because I would have to say other. While we do have life insurance, honestly if heaven forbid something ever happened to DH....Braedin and I would be fine, but not because of the life insurance.

I guess my we will be OK...would be more long term because of the life insurance, but we would definantly be ok even without it....We have great family support. For example...say the life insurance was out of the picture....I would just move home with family (at least for a little bit) , then get a job and make it from there. Actually...that is the plan either way....because I probably wouldn't touch the LI money until absolutely necessary....

Also, I forgot that since he is active...I would also recieve his paycheck up until his next enlistment date.....He only has one left coming in October and then he is active until he retires.

This post has been edited by mckayleesmom on Mar 6 2008, 02:33 AM

No, we wouldn't.

The kids and I will never have to worry about money

We all have life insurance and we'd get an obscene amount of money if DH died. Despite our personal problems, the money is worthless, even though we'd be more financially secure with OUT him, I'd rather have DH.

Probably. DH's life insurance is enough to cover the cost of funeral and then pay off most of our 'major' bills (car, house, etc). My income would cover the normal bills and while it would be tight, we'd get by on those. Where I'd possibly run into trouble is day care. We work opposite shifts so right now we don't have to pay for day care, and I have no idea what the cost is so I don't know if that would break us or not.

The reverse, however, is the opposite. Though we make about the same and the life insurance policies are the same, I don't think DH could make it work without me. He is a financial nightmare.

Lars and i are not married yet of course but if we were i would be fine. He is a financial wiz. all cards are payed off and he has life insurance and saved for such an occasion. So i would be good.

We would be okay. We both have life insurance, and have since Ben was born. We also have wills, and living wills. It is SO important to talk about these things and get them taken care of.

Life insurance is so important, get term, not whole life, and it is super cheap. I have something like
Dave Ramsey suggests that you have around 10 times your income, and we do that for about $30 a month.

Yup, insurance was one of the first things we got when we got married and got the house. DH lost his mother when he was 2 years old so he is super paranoid that something will happen to me so he has planned for everything. Either one of us goes or both, the house is paid, and the kids will be fine. My mom has set up RESP's for them so their schooling will also be looked after. We have wills and our lawyer pushed us to plan for the worst, both of us going, so we are prepared.

Mentally and emotionally I would be a wreck but I know we would be fine financially.

me and lissa would be fine!!!

I hate thinking about this stuff. But I would be fine I think. DH doesn't have LI and won't for a little bit, I do through work though.

We don't own anything except 2 vehs and have no house payments because we rent, I can work to support my kids.

ETA: I wouldn't be able to send my kids to college, they would have to work to pay for it like I did. They wouldn't get allowances, or expensive clothes. They would have to buy their own cars, again like I did. We wouldn't go on vacations or anything but I would be able to put a roof over their heads, love in their hearts, food in their bellies and shoes on their feet.

This post has been edited by :.Mrs_Mommy.: on Mar 6 2008, 07:51 AM

The kids and I would be good! We have life insurance but I also have a wonderful family that would help out until I could figure out how to get on my feet!

I voted yea we have life insurance. Dh is covered really really well so I'd be ok and the house and cars would be paid for. And our family is also really great we'd be fine. We talk about this all the time and also what happens if something happens to both of us for the kids because although his family is great I am not sure I'd want them raising my kids so that is something we have to deal with so that things are done as I'd want them to be.

Yes I think we would be fine! Life insurance etc

Jennie has life insurance although not that much. I don't even want to think about her goin anywhere. If she went I would have to sell the house and probably get an apartment or something for me and the boys.

My kids and I would never have to worry about money again. Although I hate the thought of carrying on without him.

We also have wills and living wills.

My dh is worth more dead than he is alive . And I tell him that all the time playing around.

This is such a great topic. It scares me that so many women totally rely on DH for financial support. I have friends that I pray thier husbands don't become ill or worse. A disability can leave a family finacially much worse off than a death. As unpleasant as it is, we need to think about this kind of stuff!

We would be financially OK but as someone else noted, emotionally wrecked.

we would be SCREWED!!! DF has life insurance but it isn't much, it's like $10k through his work. He is the only source of income as I stay home to take care of Carly. Sooo yeah I'd be moving back in with the 'rents!

Yes luckily we'd be fine. We've talked about it before because of his job. Scariest thought I'd ever face though.

Ya.....alot of people don't think of even discussing it. The woman on Oprah hadn't worked in many many years, had no job skills...etc.

Well prior to August I would have been fine, DH had a $150k policy through my work, I had $300k we were allowed to cover our spouse for half I had that plus 2x my salary which was almost $400k on just me. Now at my new job spouse life is only $25k. $25k would obviously pay for the funeral but not pay off my house and I could NOT afford my house on my own. I'd probably have to sell it, I'd probably want to anyways, too many memories. I hate thinking about this stuff. We need to check out his policies at work, because I think they only cover him if he was to get killed at work...he works for the railroad (federal job) so if something were to happen to him there....then I'd be one rich woman but nothing could ever soothe the pain of losing my DH, I wouldn't care if he had $10 million in life insurance, I wouldn't even want the money, just him. Now if I die, DH is set for life. The house would be paid and every other bill we have. I have about $300k in life insurance through my new job. I mean once I sold the house I'd be fine, I make enough money to make it on my own with 2 kids and no help at all. It probably wouldn't even be too tight. Our mortgage payment is just so high, other than that we've consolidated credit cards to a very affordable monthly payment and our car payments are low so I'd be good. Our house payment is what kills us on his slow months.