One piece of advice that I received that has helped me enormously is to "Pay Yourself First". That means before anything else happens, put 10% of your paycheck into an account, piggybank, old sock ,etc. Trust me that it really helped me because I never had any extra at the end but if I put it away first, I alway had it.

It is VERY difficult for me to feel sorry for these people. I understand that they, like the rest of us, become use to their surroundings. Unfortunately, i feel that most of the reason for this economic downturn has to do with THEIR GREED and MISAPPROPRIATION OF FUNDS. Anyway, I'm sure they will do fine in the end. As they say : the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

I was so glad to see this topic because I had to leave one on my best friends due to addition issues and it felt just as hard as when I have broken up with a boyfriend. Especially since we had shared so many of our thoughts and emotions about life that it was difficult.