Rebecca HollandSun, Jun 1, 2025, 2:07 PM 5 min readThe death of a spouse is devastating under any circumstances. But, what happens if your spouse who passed away was also the breadwinner for your family of seven, including five children?When this type of tragic incident occurs, survivors left behind can find their whole life changed.Now, imagine that you are the surviving spouse. You have a disability, with a $1,500 monthly benefit and you own a home that you owe $220,000 on. And, your basic monthly bills (not including expenses like food, transportation and health care) are $3,320.Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now become a landlord for as little as $100 — and no, you don't have to deal with tenants or fix freezers. Here's howI'm 49 years old and have nothing saved for retirement — what should I do? Don't panic. Here are 5 of the easiest ways you can catch up (and fast)Nervous about the stock market in 2025? Find out how you can access this $1B private real estate fund (with as little as $10)You'd probably be panicking about your financial future in this situation, and rightly so. The big question is, what can you do to ensure that you and your children are provided for and the bills get paid?The first thing to do in this situation is to determine what your finances look like based on what your spouse left behind.Look to see if your husband has a will, and take account of any assets you may have, such as your spouse's workplace 401(k), life insurance policies, bank accounts and investment accounts.Hopefully, you and your spouse communicated about these issues, and you know where to look. If not, you may have to contact financial institutions, look at your spouse's computer history and email to see if you can find statements and use the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) life insurance policy locator.In most cases, the estate will need to go through probate to officially transfer certain property and assets. A legal aid attorney may be able to help you through this process if you can't afford a lawyer otherwise. If you were a joint owner on any assets, though, you should be able to access those right away.With luck, your spouse left something behind that can help you to make ends meet in this difficult situation. Depending on the equity in your home, you may also be able to downsize to something less expensive while freeing up cash you can invest to produce income to live on.Read more: Want an extra $1,300,000 when you retire? Dave Ramsey says this 7-step plan ‘works every single time’ to kill debt, get rich in America — and that ‘anyone’ can do itIf your spouse left behind limited resources, the next step is to try to claim any benefits that may be available to you.Terms and Privacy PolicyPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore InfoS&P 5005,930.86 +19.17 (+0.32%)Dow 3042,257.59 -12.48 (-0.03%)Nasdaq19,235.27 +121.50 (+0.64%)Russell 20002,067.04 +0.75 (+0.04%)VIX18.52 -0.05 (-0.27%)Gold3,404.50 +89.10 (+2.69%)PortfolioSign in to access your portfolioSign inTop gainersVERA Vera Therapeutics, Inc. 31.58 +12.63 (+66.65%)APLD Applied Digital Corporation 10.33 +3.50 (+51.28%)KYMR Kymera Therapeutics, Inc. 42.78 +13.14 (+44.33%)IQST iQSTEL Inc. 13.31 +3.48 (+35.70%)BPMC Blueprint Medicines Corporation 127.52 +26.17 (+25.82%)Top losersRGC Regencell Bioscience Holdings Limited 731.02 -145.98 (-16.65%)SAIC Science Applications International Corporation 99.43 -16.11 (-13.94%)PONY Pony AI Inc. 17.41 -1.85 (-9.63%)LYEL Lyell Immunopharma, Inc. 7.93 -0.80 (-9.21%)RH RH 167.91 -13.17 (-7.27%)Most activeAPLD Applied Digital Corporation 10.33 +3.50 (+51.28%)LCID Lucid Group, Inc. 2.1700 -0.0600 (-2.69%)NVDA NVIDIA Corporation 137.89 +2.76 (+2.04%)F Ford Motor Company 9.97 -0.41 (-3.95%)CLF Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. 7.08 +1.25 (+21.46%)Earnings eventsTrending tickersAPLD Applied Digital Corporation 10.36 +3.53 (+51.65%)LYRA Lyra Therapeutics, Inc. 22.53 +17.60 (+356.94%)META Meta Platforms, Inc. 671.66 +24.17 (+3.73%)TEM Tempus AI, Inc. 63.73 +8.55 (+15.49%)CLF Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. 7.12 +1.28 (+22.04%)Top economic eventsPowered by Money.com - Yahoo may earn commission from the links above.