Thoughts on Being Financially Prepared

Dealing with the emotional stress of your spouse having a life threatening illness is hard enough without having to deal with financial stress as well. Unfortunately in this day and age they come hand in hand. Even with great insurance, savings, good financial planning and budgeting skills it is still stressful. It costs a lot of money if you get sick - and the money has to come from somewhere.
In April of this year when my husband was diagnosed with Leukemia I was worried. Worried for his health of course, but worried about what we would do to replace his income. Worried about how to pay our mortgage and worried about how I would care for him and our 2 small children and try to keep my part-time job for some flow of income. We had an emergency fund ($1,000 set aside that you never touch). That was a great help at first, at least I knew I was covered for a little while. If you don't have one. GET ONE. Work hard and save the money as fast as you can and then forget about it. Leave it in a savings account and use it only for real emergencies. It will give you great peace of mind when the emergency you never thought you'd face, shows up. We also had a 3 to 6 month fund. This is a fund that can be defined differently for different people. We set ours up as 3 months of my husbands income. That way if one of us had to stop working or lost our job we would be ok for a while. Make plans to start a fund like this if you don't have one. You will be SO glad you did.

Even with these two funds set up - the money went so fast. The bills don't stop, mortgage has to be paid and when my husband was laid off due to being hospitalized we had to start taking over the payments on our health insurance premiums. They are SO expensive. They are a large ticket item and would be challenging for the best budget makers to work in. Without the cushion of these funds I would have been in the red very fast. I had to deal with the mounds of paperwork that were waiting for me each day: insurance, disability, doctors, home care, medications, bills, bills and more bills. I had a sick husband, bills stacking up and money running out - and I had started off pretty financially PREPARED. Ask yourself: "if this were to happen to me today where would I be, what would happen to my family?" If you are honest and the answer scares you - start saving now and don't stop until you have the money in the accounts.

I believe in God and His provision. I have been daily praying for the money we were short to somehow show up. I was willing to work for it, to take on extra projects in my graphic design business but with so little extra time that wasn't working well. I had faith that the money would come - and it has! Each month, every month, the right amount of money has come in. Just enough for us to get by.

We are facing the challenge of a bone marrow transplant in the coming weeks as my husbands only chance at a cure. It is super expensive, more than anyone could plan and save for. A fundraising effort was started on August 12th. We asked 320 families/individuals to look at their monthly budget and for 4 months find $25 they could due without and donate to our transplant bills. Over 100 generous people donated -  and we not only reached our goal of $32,000 but passed it (by Tuesday the 21st) and some pledges are still coming in. My husband and I are committed to "pay it forward" when this is all over. When he is fully healed and our lives get back to "normal" we will find it in our monthly budget to give to others in like situations and repay the kindness that has been given to us. This is what it means to be part of a community and of a family of God. Give of what you have to others. Time, money and kindness. We will forever be thankful for those who have given, our hearts are overflowing with joy and gratitude. I don't think most couples in our situation can say that. Praise God for the perspective He gives.

Don't find yourself without a plan when an emergency hits your family. Save up extra money, trust in God and have faith.