In December of 2004, I became a widow. My husband had spent most of that year in and out of hospitals, and our expenses were very high. He was not able to work, had no long-term disability and/or long-term care insurance policies. I earned only about 30% of the household income so without him working, money was extremely tight. Not only did we incur huge medical expenses that year, there were normal household expenses that had to be paid such as mortgage, utilities, credit cards, insurances, etc.

When he became ill, he was between jobs, which meant he had no medical insurance coverage from a job. Thank goodness, he was on my company’s health insurance policy. While my insurance was excellent, it did not cover all of the exorbitant costs. And, because he was ill, he was ineligible to file for Unemployment Insurance which was yet another blow to our household finances. As a result, we depleted our small emergency fund and used retirement savings and credit cards to pay medical and other expenses. Additionally, when he died, he had no life insurance and I had to scramble just to pay funeral costs. 

I immediately realized I was in terrible trouble. I had a mortgage payment I could not possibly cover, outstanding medical bills, an auto loan, and credit card debt. Additionally, I had a twenty-year-old son living at home that I had to support.