<prompt> Human: Long story short, Im in an ugly place thats becoming unsafe for me. Ive been a stay-home mother for nearly a decade and am currently unemployed. Ive recently taken steps towards becoming employable again, but it will be awhile before I have a steady income and can be financially independent from my husband. Ive been stashing cash into an account when I can and have accumulated around 1,020 to date. I want to make that money work for me as hard as possible, but I have no clue what Im doing. I will be adding to it as often as I can, but 20 here and there is slow going. I have next to no family and certainly no family I can go to with my children, so I need to be able to do this on my own. Theres tons more to this, but Im trying to keep it simple and to the point. I apologize if this isnt the right subreddit but Im desperate to get some insight into what I can do with this money and theres not really anyone I can go to about it. Leaving my marriage is going to take longer than Id like but certainly enough time to do SOMETHING helpful with what money I can save. I just dont know what that something is. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated SO much. Assistant: Thank you all so much for your suggestions! I was feeling overwhelmed and like I NEEDED to do something with the money I have so far, but clearly my lack of knowledge about finances was steering that ship. I will keep it where it is and continue adding to it like I have been.Youre right, I really need to talk to an attorney. Even if theres nothing to do right this minute, an attorney can give me advice on how to proceed, protect myself and my kids, and make educated decisions rather than winging it like I have been. I havent talked to one yet because I felt like I should have more things in place, but DUH, an attorney will probably be better at helping me through this than what Im doing now which is guessing. I thought I should be closer to my goal before I did that, but Im going to talk to one ASAP.Without going into details, Im not necessarily in immediate physical danger and I feel that my children are definitely safe, but there have been some very ugly things done to me and towards me that make me feel like Im not as safe as I used to be. I dont think I need to take my kids immediately or go to a shelter, but I cant say that its not crossed my mind as things have gone on. Being vague is annoying, I know that, but Im trying to be cautious. Im trying to weed my way through the immediate situation while also protecting my children. Theres a hundred reasons why women or men - it happens stay or dont immediately get out, and unfortunately, a lack of support andor options is a big one. Without turning this into something other than a personal finance issue, my biggest fear after keeping my kids and I safe is the weight of being burdened with judgement for not leaving immediately and all that comes with it. Many well-intention people would probably say that the best thing I could do for them would be to leave and figure it out from there. I get it and I agree with their reasoning, I just also happen to live in the real world where my husband has a great job and I have nothing. Im still in a place where staying and biding my time while I get things in place makes more sense for their well-being than uprooting them with no way of feeding them. Im walking a tight-rope some days, balancing whats best for them, but right now things are still good for them and I just cant take the security they really do have before Im either ready to provide it myself or the burden of what things are like for me starts trickling down onto them. Im not stupid, I know that theyre aware things arent necessarily OK, but Im trying my best to do whats best. Thats all I can really do.I value what each of you have had to say and will absolutely take all of it into consideration. Thank you so much :  <response>: Uh ok urgh I hate to say this but people in similar situations as yours have a tendency of downplaying the danger and being too optimistic. They severely underestimate the timeline and time they have whereas a 3rd party would go HOLY FUCK WTF?! You need a third party consult please please please contact a hotline for advice at the very least because you say ugly things have happened to you which makes me think that it has hit a pretty dark point. 