Being poor! But mostly being poor because of health related issues or illness. I'm watching my parents take care of my grandparents, who are out of money. I've seen how my parents have spent so much of their own money supporting my grandparents, how heartbreaking it is to have to put them on medicaid, how stressful it is to put your own family and finances first.

My greatest financial fear is getting in a car accident, injuring the other party, and not having enough money to pay for the damages. Getting sick and not being able to pay for medical expenses rank up there as well..

I'm terrified of becoming disabled in some long-term way. I don't have disability insurance (I'm a contractor) and make more then half the money we take in, so if we lost my income for a long period of time it could be huge. The medical costs can be enough to bankrupt someone but when there is no such thing as sick time or income coverage it could really put is in a hole, eat through our savings and leave us with nothing. I've read that most americans are just one serious injury away from the poor house, and no amount of insurance can take that away.

I don't think I fear getting fired or having an inadequate emergency fund any more. I already derive a significant income from non-job activity and I'm sure I can live on that if that's what I had to do. As for the emergency fund, two years' worth of expenses is just the tip of that iceberg. What I fear most now is not being able to keep up with inflation. Estimated M3 has been growing at 14% year-over-year even while real economic growth seems to have gotten very low, if not negative already. That and also the Federal Reserve's recent actions seeking to sacrifice the US Dollar in order to protect large investment banks and hedge funds give me serious cause for concern.

I have no children, and my parents have passed. I think my biggest fear is how could I take care of my cats if we were homeless. I know I could take care of myself. Compared to the other fears, this is rather trivial. But I've been rich, and I've been poor, and I manage to get through either way.

My greatest financial fear is losing my apartment. I'm twenty-years-old and for the past two and a half years I've supported myself. However, because I'm young and thus poor, all three of my first apartments have required cosigners. So, if I ran out of money, I would not only lose my apartment, but likely extend the length of time during which property management companies require that someone else agree to cover my rent should I default. A fact I find that is more humiliating to me than the accusation that I'm as of yet not mature enough to consume alcoholic beverages. So even though I feel like two and a half years' of responsible living and a small but adequate emergency fund ought to be enough to prove that I'm a mature and responsible adult, I fear that some catastrophic event will eat my emergency fund and force me to live on the streets wherein I would not only have lost my shelter, but the dignity that has come of living the life of an adult in a world where so many people call me a kid.

My biggest financial fear is being without a job for longer than my emergency reserve is planned for. The irony is that I've been in the workforce for 20 years now and never been completely unable to find work, not even for a week. But I guess I've dated guys who were chronically unemployed (including my first husband), and heard the usual sob stories from the dot.com bust, so it seems like a "real" possibility even though it's never happened to me. I'm scared I couldn't find work in my field at my level of experience and would get turned down for things I'm overqualified for.

First of all, I'd be the first guy in line to rescue Andrea from old maid status!

My biggest fear is becoming stuck on the two-income treadmill. I know so many people who drive well over an hour to jobs they don't like to pay for big houses and karate lessons for their kids, one job interruption away from oblivion. If I get married my financial plan will include a lifestyle that can be sustained on one paycheck, with the second paycheck earmarked for the financial freedom fund - aka the FU fund!

A close second is a fear that I could live beneath my means, save my pennies, clip coupons, drive my car into the ground, subsist on ramen, and still get financially wrecked by a lengthy period of unemployment thanks to layoffs or illness. It almost makes me want to run out and lease a BMW 5-Series, stop making 401k contributions, vacation in Tahiti, and buy a house using an interest-only jumbo ARM.

Like one other commenter, I fear losing everything I have and being forced to live under a bridge with my husband and cats. It's not likely to happen, as we have relatively stable jobs, an emergency fund, and lots of resources we could tap if we really had to do so. I also know that others have it far worse than I. Nevertheless, despite the fact that we have a positive net worth that is steadily growing, I just can't get past the fear that it could all be gone in the blink of an eye.

I realize catastrophic events could occur but those aren't my greatest fears, mostly because it's not like I could control something like a volcano erupting in my backyard and burying my house.

My biggest concern is that I won't ever find a job that I can support myself and my husband and potential future children on. Right now my husband makes roughly three times what I do, and is likely to continue on that path since I chose to pursue earning an advanced degree in an area that doesn't pay well. In fact, according to some article on MSN money people with my degree earn 2% less than people with just a BA. (And people wonder why I'm taking so long to finish my thesis...) I tried this "do what you love" path and I ended up burned out and not so much in love.

Anyways, it would be nice to have a job that paid well enough that I felt like I was making a more significant (financial) contribution to our household.

I also worry about not paying my student loans off fast enough, and getting a large enough savings reserve before having kids...oh this could on forever.

My biggest fear is that I won't leave the country. Since age 18, my plan has been to leave the country when I finish schooling. It's an intriscal part of who I am. There is a need to help people less fortunate in developing countries.

I'm worried that when the time comes, I'll be stupid enough to stay for a man that I'm involved with. I'll never forgive myself for not going after my dreams of living abroad in South America while working on my doctoral dissertation.

I think my greatest fear is that my husband and I would die and, despite thorough planning and preparation, our estate plan would fail to function as we had envisioned and our children would be left destitute and alone. (Think Sara Rue in A Little Princess...gggoosseebbbuummppss.)

I've had a long term medical condition for over 20 years that has involved ongoing pain. I worry that I may not be able to work and need to go on disability. There is no way disability would pay for at the rate of my current salary - and as a result, I would not be able to afford my home, my auto, my medical insurance, or reach my retirement goals.

My biggest financial fear is getting seriously hurt or hurting someone else and not being able to support myself or pay for the other person.

I had to quit work and take care of my mom, as her illness lasted about 10 years from diagnosis to death (in hindsight, it's clear she was ill for at least 5 years prior to disgnosis)

I was not even 30 years old when she was diagnosed.

Within a couple of years, I had to leave my Fortune 500 career to take care of her (she was getting tossed out of faciities due to the psych complications of her dementia)

I was very fortunate to be able to go to work for a family member and have the flexibility to take care of mom, but as I approach 40 years of age I'm not sure how to get back to a career track position that would enable me to take better care of my own spouse and kids.

I focus on taking care of my spouse and myself so hopefully my kids won't have to take care of one of their parents when they are as young as I was.

We are in quite the spot with the IL's parents renting a house we are paying mortgage on. Each month they live in it, the value of the house is going to go down. (His mother thinks she can paint, refinish things, etc and she's really no good at it.)

So my fear is that we're going to end up spending everything to bail them out and be poor forever, no matter what we do to better our own situation.

My own parents have nil in the way of savings, so that's also a concern. We are apparently the only financially stable people on either side of the family, and we're still $30000 in credit card debt! While that should be gone in two years, it is still quite the spot for us to be in should anything happen.

My biggest fear (for now, anyway) related to health insurance. My husband doesn't have health insurance (for multiple reasons) and I always have that "what if" scenario in the back of my mind. What if he's in an accident or ends up with some huge health issue? How would we pay all the medical bills?

Whenever I help my children, I want it to strengthen them into patriarchs or matriarchs. My biggest fear was weakening them. Fortunately they all developed a full toolbox of life skills during their early twenties.

My biggest money fear is being uninsured and unable to afford the asthma and allergy meds my kids need to stay healthy. I could wing just about everything else in life in an extreme situation.

That I'll be retired and still won't own my own house and land.