Few things have as big an impact on your financial hopes and dreams for a good life as having a life-threatening illness like breast cancer. You may have heard one of your elder relatives say that if you don't have health, you have nothing. This statement never feels as true as when you are actively going through breast cancer treatment. The future is unknown, your prognosis is sketchy, and nothing you ever did in the past, like saving, or dreaming of retirement, makes sense to you right now. That job you may have been dissatisfied with looks good when you think you may not ever go back to it and your normal way of life. Your job is part of your everyday life and now that you need cancer treatment, your work seems to revolve around doctor's appointments. This seems to be the new job that you did not want to have.

This is when your financial assets and liabilities become part of your breast cancer experience. Once again, you have that overwhelming feeling and many questions bombard you: Will you be able to work? Can you make ends meet? What will your health insurance pay and what will you be responsible for? If you do not have health insurance, will you be able to get the necessary care?