In a world were unemployment has risen .3 percentage points to 9.7 unemployed, and where roughly 14.9 million Americans are without jobs; this era of decline is the stuff of nightmares.  We are plagued by an over-abundance of personal debt coupled with a continually decreasing income.  Our homes are in foreclosure or undervalued; our jobs are tittering on elimination; and our money self-combusts through the onslaught of interest rates and declining value. 

As a single mother, this is a living nightmare, a frightening situation to which there is no escape from.  Some of us are in denial.  Stuck in our predictable routines of spending; then borrowing;  and spending.  Some of us have turned into economic magicians, honing skills of borrowing from Peter to Pay Paul routines; compounding debt on top of debt.  Most of us are in serious financial trouble, where one miss step could mean the difference between homeowner and homeless.

You’ve heard or read about the corporate bailouts; the stimulus plans; the make your home affordable plans; the new administration’s economic plans, and these all seem like boulders on a muddy hillside, where one more financial catastrophe could bring all of them come tumbling down upon us.  To acerbate the problem, there is so much red tape and bureaucracy and plain corporate greed, that one begins to wonder if all these attempts to resuscitate the economy comes a little too late.  Should we be in fact bracing ourselves for an economic downturn to rival that of The Great Depression?  If you read or watch the news, most people, experts and non-experts alike, seem to think so. 

So what are we to do?  As a single Mom, I take unemployment very seriously.  As a home owner, I take the current financial mortgage mess very seriously.  Even as an educated professional woman working 7 days a week, I find myself struggling against the onslaught of this financial hurricane which threatens my home, my job, and most importantly, the well being of my family.  Even with careful planning, working 2 jobs, and reducing expenses, the risk of losing everything feels like a dark hooded specter waiting to pounce.   The answers, it seems, are unattainable.  And the road to hope seems so far away from home.