Success In Detroit

My family and I saw you on the Dr. Phil show in March of 2009. Your book, HomeEconomiser Newsletter articles and advice have done nothing but prepare my wife and me for what is happening right now. We took what you said seriously over the past three years and then all of a sudden, the economic downturn hit us — but we felt prepared.

We live in Detroit so the problems of the Big 3 Auto Makers combined with the overall economy, make things really tough here. Property values are at historic lows, and our state has the highest unemployment rate in the nation — right now it’s at 12.9%. We have been in a one-state recession for years and when the housing bubble burst, the rest of the country caught up with us.

I work at the largest community college in the state of Michigan and my wife works for the global trade division of a large Wall Street firm. So while we are effected by the auto industry as a community, personally I am on the opposite end of the crisis — seeing more and more people come back to school to improve their skills. In spite of the economy we’re doing fine, we’ve paid off debt (just have our mortgage & student loans to go), and by living within our means we have nearly built up a six-month Emergency Fund. We are now starting to bulk-cook once a week and have shopping down to once every two weeks (maybe some day we’ll get it down to once-a-month).

Your advice NEVER gets old and its needed now more than ever.

Jay — Detroit, MI