If you are a mother (or father) who stays home with the children, you may not consider how important it might be to have a plan for having to provide for the family in the event of an emergency. However uncomfortable the topic may seem, it is important to consider what your family would do in the event of the death, disability, or job loss of the breadwinner. Stay-at-home parents must make sure to have a fall-back plan in the event that they must go to work.
Be educated. Some women who get married and have children young do not take the opportunity to finish their college education. An education is crucial for everyone! Today there are many options these days for flexible schooling such as night classes or online learning. Check into the smaller colleges or schools in your community, since many of these are catered to “mature” learners who may have families and jobs to work around.
Financial aid is available if you are fit certain income requirements. It will be difficult to complete school if you have children or if you are working (or both), but it is possible. It does not even matter how old you are, you are never too old to go back to school. If you need to, you can take just a couple of classes at a time. It will take longer to get finished with your education this way, but if you are headed in the right direction you will eventually reach your goal.
Pick the right education. There are certain jobs that lend better to using as a backup plan than others. For some jobs, it is crucial to keep up-to-date in the field. It might not make sense, for instance, for a stay-at-home mom to get trained in computer programming unless she is planning on working in that field immediately. Otherwise, she might be in a bad situation if years later she needs to work years and her training has long since grown obsolete by new computer programming methods. Instead, look for educational opportunities that can still prove useful years and years down the road. Degrees such as communications or liberal arts can give a person a well-rounded education that can be applied to many different occupations.
Have an education plan. Another option for preparing to work is to have an education plan for what you would do in the event that you needed to work. With this type of preparation, you at least have the resources available to go to school and provide for your family until you can get a good job. Perhaps you might have some money saved for an emergency so that between your savings and school loans (and disability or life insurance from your spouse), you will be able to provide for your family while you go to school.
It is difficult to plan for situations that we really do not want to even think about. But we can ease a lot of concern and worry if we take some time now to plan for emergencies.
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