Hello my friends I'm Laura Adams and this is the Money Girl Podcast. I've been hosting

the show since 2008 and my mission is to help you live rich and love the journey.

Before we get started, I want to thank a couple of listeners, Maureen C and Stephen V, who emailed me with a clarification for last week's show, which was How to

Use a 529 plan to Manage Education Expenses.

I mentioned that you couldn't use 529 funds to pay expenses related to living off campus.

What I should have said is that amounts that exceed a school's allowance for room and board are not qualified.

So be sure to contact your school for the qualified room and board amount, so you'll know

how much you can attribute to a student over a given academic period

so you can pay at least that much using your 529. So thanks so much for sending in

those clarifications.

All right, on to today's topic.

I think surviving financial hardship is on everyone's mind right now.

While so many people are struggling due to the pandemic

crisis and a big part of quote-unquote living rich it's not necessarily having a

huge income although that's fantastic.

But what it's really about is security and having a sense of peace that comes when you know

that you can survive a financial hardship or anything that comes your way.

Most people experience an unexpected crisis that shakes their financial world, you know, at least

once in their life.

Many people are dealing with us on a monthly basis

or even more frequently.

It could be losing a job, receiving a huge medical bill,

...