American dream lost: In one year’s time, Brittany Cahill has gone from riches to rags

Source: Terre Haute Tribune-Star

A year ago, 32-year-old Brittany Cahill owned a $185,000 home, drove an Eclipse Spyder and operated her own business.

Today, she is homeless, and she and her two children, Krystian and Cheyenne Mason, live in the Bethany House emergency shelter. “If you would have told me a year ago that I would be in a homeless shelter, I would have laughed in your face,” she said in a recent interview in the Bethany House resident kitchen.

... Reflecting on the life she left behind in Kentucky, Cahill said she had a water and fire restoration cleaning business for several years before increased competition and the poor economy took a toll and she went out of business.

“The mistakes I made both in my personal life and my business life was just a lack of savings,” she said.

“I was sold into a mortgage beyond what I should have been. I had picked out a much lower-cost home” but a mortgage broker convinced her to buy a new home that she really couldn’t afford. “I was in over my head with my mortgage,” she said.

She bought nice things “and gave my kids everything they wanted — you know, kind of the American dream thing. You want to give your kids what they want: Nikes and Xboxes, trampolines and go-carts, the whole nine yards.”

But when she went out of business and couldn’t make payments on her home, she lost it. She looked for other work, but the jobs just weren’t there.

... While embarrassed at being homeless, she wants to share her story and to let people know it can happen to anyone. “You’re only one paycheck away, most of us,” she said. “The way that society in general in America has lived, that’s the reality.”

Her advice now is to “save every penny you have extra. That should be the new American dream. Save. Build that savings account so that when the economy or your situation changes, you have something to fall back on.”

Read more: http://www.tribstar.com/local/local_story_023214443.html

except who has money to save? Not me. Even my 401K gone!

I'm one paycheck away right now.

on them. Might make people want to put their extra money in one.

Say she makes $30,000 a year and saves 10% a year = $3,000.

$3,000 contributed to a savings account in monthly installments will be worth at the end of the year:
0% - $3,000
1% - $3,015
5% - $3,075

$60 (1% vs 5%) wasn't going to make a difference but $3,000 might.

Low interest rates is simply an excuse to not save. Unless you have years worth of accumulated savings the difference between 1% and 5% is not materially important.

She works as a full time waitress in Denny's and goes to school full time to become a nurse. It's not a cry-baby story.

I was lucky, my parents were Depression kids. I grew up allergic to debt.

There was a very hard sell by the mortgage company to buy more house than I could reasonably afford on an ARM. Since I'd been brought up by Depression kids, I knew to scoop up my paperwork and head for the door to get them to stop talking tommyrot and write a conventional mortgage. I also got a lot less house than I qualified for in order to keep the monthly bite a small one. They don't teach this stuff in school, so a lot of good people got taken, Ms. Cahill among them.

I have great respect for people like Ms. Cahill who learned that hard lesson, grit their teeth, and went to work doing it the hard way. I wish her all the success in the world. She's earned it this time.

Those depression kids were thought freaks. And antiamerican. And with the terrorists.

others not do the same. i hate to tell (no, i don't), "my grandfather" stories. he lived through the great depression. he was a very giving, but frugal and disciplined man. he told me to start investing EVERY month from the age of 21 on. even if i could only put away a small amount, to take responsibility for my own destiny and forego luxuries for security.

best advice i ever got.

he did the same, and as a minority son of immigrants, did very well for himself.

It's not "stuff."

and i always can tell the ones who were affected by the depression. the older 'houses' show they saved + didn't over buy. less clothes. less CRAP. and buy quality. i am a shabby shopaholic. and i do not mind 2nd hand heirlooms. and i still do ok with ebay with leftovers from sales. and old stuff is MADE better. my 20's copper dish heater is so much better that a new one.
my grandma added crap rat to the depression, but heck, there is still some life to the wood handled scrubber she hoarded.

and soap slivers.. My grandmother put them in a jar with water, and when there was enough, she used her own homemade liquid soap :)