Blog

Keith Spencer Keith Spencer

Intimate Partner Violence

“If she’s being abused by her partner, why doesn’t she just leave?”

This is a common question about survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV).

In this guest blog post, Kimberly Klein outlines some basics about IPV and economic abuse, and discusses a few connections to financial planning and long-term economic stability in the lives of IPV survivors.

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Melissa Spencer Melissa Spencer

Emergency Kits (Part 5): Cost + Top 10 Checklist

How much did we spend on our Emergency Planning supplies?

This post also has a downloadable copy of the Emergency Planning Top 10 Checklist, which is a one-page summary that consolidates much of what we covered in this blog series.

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Melissa Spencer Melissa Spencer

Emergency Kits (Part 4): Creating an Emergency Plan

Figuring out your emergency supplies is important. But this post is about something that is just as – if not even more – important: having an emergency PLAN.

The emergency plan we came up with is a compilation of the best ideas and suggestions we found in our research. We felt like it was much more approachable for us as a family than many plans or forms we found online, and we hope you find it helpful.

And the best part? The only cost to put it together is our time.

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Melissa Spencer Melissa Spencer

Emergency Kits (Part 3): How to Organize Everything?

So, we had gathered all our emergency supplies! It was both exciting and overwhelming when we actually laid them all out.

Wow! Look at all this great stuff! Um…what in the world are we going to do with all of it?

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Melissa Spencer Melissa Spencer

Emergency Kits (Part 2): Car Emergency Kit

Emergencies happen. Including while in a car.

Having a Car Emergency Kit helps us prepare for a wide variety of unexpected events that could happen on the road or away from home.

We can’t know when we might be stuck somewhere for an extended period of time, or when our car might break down, or when another kind of emergency might delay our plans, but a good car emergency kit can help us stay safe while we get where we need to go. With the right tools and supplies, it could even save our lives (or maybe our sanity?).

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Melissa Spencer Melissa Spencer

Emergency Kits (Part 1): What Do We Need?

“We should have an emergency kit.”

We’ve been married for 20 years now and we’ve been saying that for…about 20 years now.

Natural disasters seem to be happening more and more often. A cyberattack causing a disruption to the power grid and/or other essential systems is more likely than ever. Even a nuclear attack doesn’t seem so far-fetched anymore. Any of these happening is out of our control.

But what IS in our control is putting together an emergency kit and plan so we aren’t completely unprepared if/when an emergency happens.

This is Part 1, which deals with how we decided what to include in our kit.

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