Thanks Leah for your post.  Your honesty is awesome and also brave.  I'm glad you are sharing all of this with us. It is really important for us all to listen to what we don't always like to hear.

It really is a tough thing to figure out how you can pay for all these "extras".  I guess if we look at it differently we should consider life insurance an essential.  Thanks for helping set us on the right course.

All the best, sue

Read another one of Leah;s post about not waiting until it is too late: 

Living Wills: Make Them Early, While You Still Can 

Thank you so much.  You're right, with regards to live don't know what's waiting around the corner.  Having learned this lesson myself a few months ago with the experience of having to make the difficult choice of having to place my mom in a skilled nursing facility. Partly because of finanical issues. Thank God, at the moment I'm in good health. However, having recently celebrated a milestone birthday and advised by many, it is time to get life insurance. A sacry thought as one who is self-employed, to not have. Thanks again for the valuable information you have shared with us.