The Credit Professional Winter 2018 Dec_2018_magazine | Page 13

Losing a Spouse
By Darla Dernovsek
Losing a spouse disrupts your
world in every way. At first,
your deep sense of emotional
loss may eclipse your physical
and financial needs. Yet taking
care of yourself at every level
will be essential to maintain
your health and safeguard
your financial future.
Preparing to survive and even
thrive on your own begins
with asking yourself tough
questions about how to handle
short-term demands and plan
for long-term financial
stability. Tackling these
challenges in the midst of your
grief can be grueling, but it will
help you to rebuild your life.
Are you taking care
of yourself?
medications and vitamins to
getting enough exercise.
At the same time, pay attention
to mundane tasks. While you
Losing a spouse can be
may be able to slow down some
emotionally devastating. That
emotional devastation can head elements of your life, the world
to physical issues, especially if will continue to rotate at the
same rate. That means you
you neglect basic needs such
must continue to fetch the mail,
as nutrition and exercise. The
read correspondence, pay bills,
combined impact of emotional
and fill the car with gasoline.
distress, difficulty sleeping
and physical problems can
Accepting offers of help from
lead you to neglect obligations
friends can give you valuable
in other parts of your life,
time to regroup and ponder
such as financial affairs or
your next steps. Look for other
workplace duties.
sources of help as well. Talk to
your doctor or health-care
The process of rebuilding your
providers about physical and
life after the loss of a spouse
emotional issues. Check with
begins with taking care of
local social service agencies
yourself. Create routines for
for support groups aimed at
your health and welfare, from
coping with grief. Make a
maintaining your schedule for
telephone call to friends who
have experienced the death
of a spouse.
Feeling better will take time,
but financial decisions you
make now can have a lasting
impact. Avoid allowing your
long-term future to be held
hostage by shortsighted
decisions made while
you’re grieving.
Are you organized?
Grieving is stressful. Stress
affects your ability to think
quickly, remember clearly, and
maintain a record of your
actions. Being organized will
help protect you from some
stress by making it easy to
track the actions you’ve
Continued on page 13
The Credit Professional
12
December 2018