It is one of those questions most of us avoid. Not because we do not care about the answer, but because asking it means sitting with the possibility of something we would rather not imagine.

What happens to my family if I am no longer here?

I get asked this constantly, in different forms, by women in completely different circumstances: widows figuring out an income after everything changed overnight, mothers building something flexible around school pick-up, women who left a marriage and need to stand on their own financially. The question underneath is always the same: where do I even start?