I just realized that every Sunday the LA Times does a free financial plan for people.  Its actually a pretty neat section.  This is the first one I read which involves a recent widow and her family.

In the article you will notice that they hit on most of the major financial planning topics.  In fact, her case was even more complex because her husband wounder war veteran from Vietnam.

Below is a piece of the article.  The full story can be found at http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-money-makeover28-2010mar28,0,4438229,full.story

After 39 years of marriage, Sue Gililland was looking forward to enjoying early retirement with her husband as early as this year. But Don Gililland’s unexpected death last March means she now must make significant changes to provide for herself.

“Had I retired with Don, we could have done nothing and been happy,” said Gililland, who has three children and five grandchildren. “Now it’s hard enough getting through the night.”

Worse, three months after her husband died, Gililland was furloughed from her state job because of the ongoing budget crisis. Missing two Fridays of work every month as an aide to the president of Cal Poly Pomona amounts to a 10% cut in Gililland’s salary, or six years of lost raises. She now makes $58,500 a year.

“She’s taken a couple of big hits,” said financial planner Delia Fernandez of Fernandez Financial Advisory in Los Alamitos. And if she doesn’t act soon, “there will be a couple more coming.”

Gililland’s situation is one Fernandez sees often.

“Men typically die sooner, while women tend to live longer and need more care,” she said.

Nationally, 70% of all married people who lose their spouses are women, and most widows who live below the poverty line were not poor before their husbands died, according to the nonprofit Women’s Institute for Financial Education.

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