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Single Parents: Do You Have the Life Insurance You Need?

03/21/2021 Donna Comments 0 Comment

The Importance of Planning Ahead

As a single parent, you’re probably used to getting things done by yourself and provide for your family as best as you can. But what if something were to happen to you? Who will provide for your kids? In addition to having a Will, you should really have life insurance to be sure that your children will be financially provided for in your absence.

Life insurance is especially important for single parents, particularly if there is no back-up breadwinner for your children to rely on. The good news is you can usually get affordable life insurance through your employer if you have a full-time job. If you don’t have that option you will need to do some research and find an insurance provider that works for you. Take the time to scout out life insurance quotes on term life insurance, whole life insurance or a mix of both, if you haven’t already.

How Much Life Insurance should a Single Parent Have?

The amount of insurance you should buy is generally equal six to eight times your annual salary. There are a few factors that would determine how much you would have to pay for life insurance. Some factors are your age, and whether you have any pre-existing conditions. You also want to decide whether you want term life insurance or whole life insurance. And you definitely want to shop around for the best prices. Find a policy that works within your budget. You should be able to find a policy whose monthly payments are manageable.

Are there Other Sources of Income I Could Pass to my Children?

As you consider purchasing single parent single parent life insurance to protect your children’s future, look into other potential sources of income that can be passed on to your children. This could include retirement plans, other savings and Social Security. Doing these things could provide you with peace of mind should something unfortunate happen.

If you pass away before your kids are 19, they may be eligible to receive your Social Security benefit. Disabled children and elderly parents who depend on you for at least half their income may also receive “survivor benefits.” Questions on how much you can expect to receive on your Social Security benefit can be answered by visiting the Social Security Administration’s website.

Make a Plan for Your Children’s Future

Financial planning can be a difficult exercise for most people to wrap their minds around, but for the single parent it’s important to consider. It might be a good idea to visit with a financial planner if you aren’t confident about what type of savings plan you should have in place for your children. But as you have been able to provide for your children on your own in the past, protecting their future is just one more thing you can do as a strong single parent.

Have a Good Single Parent Plan

03/20/2021 Donna Comments 0 Comment

Becoming a Single Mom or Dad

You may not have started with the plan of being a single mom, but the statistics don’t lie. Becoming a single parent is inevitable for many parents.

Ideally, raising a child involves a full time mother and father, since each bring different strengths and therefore a broader way of attending to the different needs of the child. But when it is no longer possible to keep the nuclear family intact, then it’s better to become a single parent than to sacrifice your emotional and/or physical health; and that of your child’s as well.

If you’re thinking about separating from your child’s other parent, now is the time to start planning for life as a single parent. Making such monumental decisions without a plan can be a disaster. Planning for your future as a single parent helps to ensure that your child will grow up to be an independent and responsible human being despite having only one full time parent.

Where to start

Make a commitment to be an effective single parent. Realize up front that there will be pressures with work and financial responsibilities that will seem overwhelming at the time. However, outside pressure is not an excuse to water down your commitment to raising your child in the healthiest, most loving way possible.

Make your Emotional Needs a High Priority

Experts agree, the best single parents are the ones who make their own emotional needs a high priority. This means maintaining a life that doesn’t completely revolve around your child and being a single mom or dad. Children thrive in an environment where they feel safe, loved, and cared for. If you haven’t taken responsibility and dealt with your own issues, you’ll be stuck in victim mode. To develop a healthy way of relating to the world, your Children need the strength and guidance that only a healthy parent can give them. Since there is a need for you to be strong and healthy for your child, dealing with your own issues first is a must. You don’t necessarily need to go to counseling, but it could definitely help. Be sure that you have a group of friends or family to provide emotional support so that you don’t lean on your child for support. Also know that many parents have been right where you are, and they’ve adjusted to their new life just fine. And in time you will too.

Find your Inner Motivation

It is a must for single parents to find a way to motivate themselves to keep moving forward. Some days will be tougher than others. Finding your reason for getting up when you don’t want to; or plowing through a difficult situation will make all the difference. Many adults become responsible single parents because they have motivated themselves to look for positive things that the situations brought them. Successful, effective single parenting typically follows once the single mom or dad is able to find his or her source of motivation in achieving goals that they’ve set not only for themselves but for the children as well.

Assess your Strengths and Weaknesses

For you to become an effective single parent, you really want to undergo lots of reflection and self-assessment to know what are your strengths and your weaknesses. If you know your strengths as a parent, your child will see that in you and they will believe that you can take care of them even if you are the only parent. It’s also important to address your weaknesses so you know areas in parenting that you should improve on. By know your own weaknesses as a parent, you can turn these into opportunities that will make single parenting more successful for you and for your child.

Choose to be a Single Parent Success

You may not have chosen this journey for yourself and your child, but here you are. And you can choose to be a great success at being a single parent. Just set your mind to it and let nothing stop you from being the best single mom or dad. Many single parents have gone down this path before you and succeeded in raising wonderfully adjusted kids. Set you mind in the right place and let nothing stop you, and you too will be a very successful single parent.

Single Parent Tips for a Smooth Running House

03/14/2021 Donna Comments 0 Comment

As a single parent, it’s often difficult keeping everything in your household running smoothly. Taking care of the kids, the house, the bills, while trying to have a tiny bit of a life of your own can be hard. And it’s not easy finding help as a single parent without spending large amounts of money. One of the greatest challenges of being a single parent is: how do you fit it all in? For the single parent time management is an essential tool. It takes planning, dedication and commitment to take control of your time and resources so that you can get everything done when it has to be done. If takes some effort but it is well worth it, and it teaches your kids important life skills.

Being a single parent doesn’t mean you are at a disadvantage. It’s only a disadvantage if you think of it as one. In fact, some single parent households are more effective at child rearing and running a smooth house than some two-parent households. Think of how many families you know where the mom and dad cancel each other out because of their opposite parenting styles. Their kids end up running the show, and running amok. However, when it comes to things such as running errands, transporting the kids and such you need to understand your time constraints and make adjustments. Now that you’re a single parent you’re the one responsible for all of it; but you can do it!

Here are some tips for making your single parent household run smoother:

Discipline

Teach your children boundaries and discipline from the time they are old enough to understand. This does not mean being overly strict; it means a lovingly structured environment. Teaching your children rules, responsibility and respect when they are young will make a big difference the older they get. Many newly single parents become very lax about rules, responsibility and respect because they feel overwhelmed. Or they don’t want to be ‘the bad guy’. Being a single parent is no excuse for failing to instill discipline in your children. Children thrive in a structured environment and discipline will help them become well adjusted, productive adults.

Communicate

Talk to your children about rules and boundaries, and why they are important. Let your kids know that you love them and that you discipline out of love for them. Be positive. Communicating a feeling of being overwhelmed or fearful of the future is damaging to children. Use an adult friend to unload your concerns; and remember to keep communication with your children on age appropriate levels. Keep the lines of communication open with your children. This can be hard as your kids become teens, but keep letting them know that you’re there for them. And keep giving them opportunities to talk and confide in you.

Be Diligent

Once you develop your ‘smooth running house’ plan, stick with it. If the children are responsible for chores, or checking in with you when they get home from school make sure they are given a consequence if they break a rule. If you are diligent about maintaining the rules and boundaries of the house, the children will soon master the skill of discipline and you will be on your way to a smooth running single parent household. The REAL ACCOMPLISHMENT is that you will have well adjusted children who grow into adults that have some great life skills; that you instilled in them.

There are many successful single parent families out there; and your family can be one of them.

Fighting for Child Support When Parents Are Unmarried

06/27/2018 Hope Comments 0 Comment

Disclaimer: Laws may vary from state to state. I advise you to do your own research.

Before You Can Request Child Support

Before we talk about support for the child born to unmarried couples, let’s look at child custody first.

Child custody cases for unmarried parents are quite different from those that involve divorced parents. Divorced fathers generally tend to find themselves in family court fighting for their right to retain contact or periodically visit their children after the separation. While divorced mothers generally are in the courtroom to fight for child support from the fathers. This dynamic is changing as more and more fathers get primary custody, and more mothers become the parent who earns the higher income.

For single parents who’ve never been married however, paternty must be established before the single father can fight for the right to have any type of visitation or joint custoday. And paternity must be established before the single mother can take up the issue of child support the court.

After Paternity is Established

A number of important issues arise for both the single mother and single father when child custody is taken up in court. When the parents of a child are not married to each other, sole physical custody of the children is often awarded to the mother. Unless a father establishes paternity though court approved procedures and takes a strong action to be awarded custody of his children, he is usually left with very little chances of gaining access to them.

If the single mother denies the single father access to the children, he has to seek action in a family court to establish paternity and wait for the judge’s final decision. Full custody of the children are usually only be granted to unwed fathers if the mother is found unfit to raise them. For younger children, the chances of an unwed father being awarded custody have always remained slim, and a lot of time and money is involved in these procedures.

Asking a Court to Grant Financial Support

When it comes to financial support for the child from an unwed couple, there is an increasing number of single mothers going to court to obtain some form of support from the single father. In these cases, the mothers have to first establish paternity so she can request financial support for the children under her custody. Without seeking the help of the court, it is often impossible for mothers to get the fathers to pay for their fair share in raising the children. When support is delivered voluntarily, single mothers face the threat of losing this anytime a single father decides to stop these contributions. But with a court decision after paternity is established, garnishments against the salaries or any form of income the father makes can be arranged, and the children are assured of continuing financial support until they are of age.

If you find yourself in this situation the best thing to do is stay focused on what is best for the child. Making sure that everyone’s legal rights are protected before problems arise is the smart thing to do.

POSP – Better Opportunities for Single Parents

03/28/2013 Donna Comments 0 Comment

This from the Fort Bliss Monitor

Single parents attend the Better Opportunities for Single Parents monthly meeting March 12 at the Combat Aviation Brigade Dining Facility. Photo by Sgt. Ida Irby, 24th Press Camp Headquarters.

Sgt. Ida Irby, 24th Press Camp Headquarters:

Better Opportunities for Single Parents is a fresh organization created to give a voice to single parents in the Army. The Fort Bliss BOSP group hopes to also reach out to DoD civilians, National Guard, reservists, retirees, and veterans of all branches who are in a single-parent situation due to temporary duty, overseas deployment or separate duty stations.

Since November 2011, the BOSP program is growing daily as a result of up-to-date commander’s briefings, newcomers briefings and family readiness group trainings.

“Bring your voice, your issues and your concerns,” said Sgt. Richard Carreon, vice president of the BOSP. “‘Total Army Family’ sums up what it takes for single parents to be successful. Without the chain of command, chain of concern, FRG, family care plans and the arsenal of Army programs; it would be virtually impossible to raise a child as a single or dual military parent.”

Getting a Home Loan as a Single Parent

08/02/2012 Donna Comments 0 Comment

In these times of economic uncertainties, financial support can be hard to find. Loans and grants always have conditions attached and a person’s financial status affects how easy it is to get approval.

When someone seeking finance for a home loan is a single parent this can complicate the process of finding support even more.

Three things are important in these circumstances: knowing where you can get advice and help, finding out what is needed to qualify for a loan, and choosing the best option to suit the circumstances.

Help and support

A home loan or mortgage might be required for a number of different reasons, such as setting up a new home for the children or funding for a single parent to purchase a property. There may be a need to refinance so that an existing mortgage can be paid off, or sometimes it makes sense to borrow against the equity in a property in order to undertake home improvements to add value to the property and to increase amenities.

In some cases government schemes, such as assistance from the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), are available to help single parents. Occasionally state Housing Authorities can help too, so it is worth checking these out at the earliest opportunity.

Banks and other lenders often have specialist advisors, or home loan consultants, who can help single parents to make decisions about their financial options. When parents know what they need, a quick phone call or fast-track mortgage application can often be the key to getting a dialogue started with a potential lender.

Qualifying for a loan

Several factors determine eligibility for finance, such as the level of investment the borrower will have in the property and the size of the down payment. The latter can be a gift from a relative or family friend, and some single parents may be eligible for help with a down payment from the HOME Investment Partnerships Program.

The applicant’s credit score will also be a consideration, plus their work record and income level. Those who are part-time workers are not necessarily excluded – they may just have to shop around a little more.

Sometimes single parents are able to buy a property jointly with another person. It may be necessary for the co-borrower to actually live on the premises, so this may not suit everyone.

Single parents can apply for FHA assistance, the approval of which means that the government is acting as a guarantor. Although this does not mean that they will automatically get a loan, it definitely increases their chances. This program has resulted in an increased rate of home loans for single parents.

Making the right choice

FHA assistance can really make a difference, as can HOME Investment Partnerships finance and Housing Vouchers programs. Single parents should take full advantage of any of these if they qualify. When a bank or other lender offers a home loan to a single parent, check that the repayments are affordable.

There is no point in being overstretched financially or reducing the quality of life for the children if an alternative, cheaper arrangement is also available.

Make sure insurance will cover eventualities such as a job loss or reduction in income for another reason, and remember, always read the small print.

Source

Single Parent Wealth

A Wealth of Information for the Single Parent

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