A lot of people don't even think about what would happen if "worst comes to worst" until it happens. You can never predict when disaster is going to strike in your life and that's probably a positive thing. Really who would like to know? One thing that is often is forgotten is the recovery planning if it happens. When it does, the last thing you would like to worry about is money and mortgage payments. What I would advise any woman to do is to make sure that if something unfortunate were to happen in your life, is to be prepared.

We save money to go on holiday, send our kids to college, to buy furniture, cars, to upgrade our house, gosh some people even take out loans to achieve these things! Now this is only what we save money for. What we waste money on is even worse! We buy expensive clothes, makeup, some people spend $25.00 a week on lattes, isn't that insane!!!

So, as the economy is no longer trustworthy, what can we do to disaster proof our lives?

1. "Become involved"; the one thing a stay home mother needs to do is to become involved in these things. Make sure that you know that the life insurance, income protection insurance and all those things are actually being paid. If you don't chances are that if something ever happened to your husband you don't even know how much you owe or how much money you have in the bank. Always be involved in keeping track of these things, it will not only empower you but make it easier for you to know how much money you can spend on the necessities in your life.

Let's say that you're a family of 4, 2 parents and 2 kids and your husband is earning a good income.

2. "Build a disaster network" The most important thing to do is to make sure that you've got life insurance and income protection insurance! Where would you get money from if your husband were to be made redundant? Even worse what would happen if one of you died, or if you get sick?

3. "College funds" Do your kids have college funds? If this is the case, use the money as savings. If you need to use the money, then you can look at spending it on college for your kids! Your kids can go to state\public universities or community colleges, really, they'll get an education, and it’s not the end of the world.

I know people that are struggling to make mortgage payments and pay credit card bills and their kid’s college funds are big enough to pay off the mortgage! Your house is your main expense and eventually your biggest asset. Don't listen to what all financial experts say about penalty fees if you pay it off too soon. They are right about the penalty fees, but truth of the matter is; those fees will be lower then the amount of money that you would pay in interest if you carried out your term on the mortgage. The sooner you get out of debt, the sooner you can start making your money work for you!

4. "Credit cards" Now how many credit cards do you have, and how much do you owe on each?

It is rather fascinating how lightly people take charging things onto their credit cards. Have a credit card that charges you no interest if you pay the bill in full within a month and that has a low credit limit, 1-2 thousand dollars maybe. If you have to pay interest on the money and get no "free credit period" don't even go there.

My reasoning behind this is, why would you pay to use money that you earn? Aren't you better off spending wisely and just save? Have money rather than owing money? It may be that you have to live within your means, but if you don't owe, you're nobody's slave!

5. "Spend wisely" This is the one thing that will make your personal finances flourish the most. So how do we actually cut on costs when we are used to spending too much?

Some of the things that we don't even think about in our everyday lives of spending is, the most simple things. Make your own coffees you don't need to buy 3 lattes a day. Cut down on your phone bills, think before you make cell phone calls, do you really need to make this call now or can it wait until you get back home or the office? Clothing everyone needs clothes, but do you really need 19 pair of designer jeans maybe 3 pairs will be enough. If you're working, you're only going to use them when you have time off anyway. Separate "needs" and "wants", what you need you should buy but if the funds aren't there instantly save up for it. What you want on the other hand, should be the very lowest on the priority list.

When the economy has ended up the way it has, now is really the time to take care of your self. Things are left in instability and you don't know what will happen in the future, if you have the possibility I suggest reading some of Suze Ormans books or have a look at her website .http://suzeorman.com/ If you live in America these books could really help you to set up a plan for your self.