SPENT / LOOKING FOR CHANGE

It's a big honor for me today to be able to bring a little attention to a wonderful film about a social issue that, to one degree or another, will likely affect all of us over the course of our lives. 

"Spent: Looking For Change" is a film, sponsored by American Express and produced by An Inconvenient Truth's Davis Guggenheim, that tells the stories of four financially under-served families here in the United States, depicting respectfully and truthfully what it's like to make your way through a financial system that excludes you entirely.

These stories are important to me, on a personal level. When Brandon and I were first married, things were tight. I was in my last semester of college, Brandon had just graduated with a Bachelors of Accounting, the economy was in a hole and falling deeper by the day (it was just after 9-11), and the only work Brandon could get was a night shift at the Costco, restocking ham from 2am until 10. Our first year of marriage was hard. It was really hard. We lived on opposite schedules. we hardly saw each other awake. We flat out didn't have enough money to make ends meet and often resorted to paying for the things we needed on credit. I remember going to the grocery store the week before Brandon's birthday--we'd been married about two months--and carefully selecting what would feed us for two weeks plus ingredients for a really nice birthday dinner, and then panicking at the register when the total came to fifty dollars. Fifty dollars! Did i have fifty dollars? I felt so guilty, it was way too much money to be spending on food considering how tight things were. (Until that day i'd never spent more than $20 at the grocery store.) I called Brandon in tears on the way home, apologizing profusely but refusing to leave any food behind, because damn it, he was going to have a nice birthday dinner. 

These days we're doing pretty all right. We're doing better than all right, we're doing great. But the road we took to get here was bumpy. In a rough economy, the only way Brandon could land the type of job that would provide for a family the way he wanted was through education. And more education. Two post-graduate degrees, each one making him a more desirable employee but also taking us further into debt. I was lucky to find a good job while he was in school that made it possible for me to get a loan and buy a house. We were hoping to break even (or even profit!) once Brandon graduated and we sold the house.... but then the housing bubble burst, and our house didn't sell, and there weren't any jobs, and the only thing to do was to get a third post-graduate degree, a degree that essentially doubled our student loan debt in just one year, oh and I was seven months pregnant at the time.

Through all this we were lucky. And that's the word for it: lucky. We were lucky to have family that could help us when things got tight. We were lucky that the house did eventually sell. (We only barely broke even.) We were lucky that Brandon got accepted to the number one program in his field, and we were lucky to find a free clinic in New York that would take me despite my lack of health insurance and my advanced stage of pregnancy. (Most OB/GYN in NYC won't take you unless they've had you from day one.) We were lucky to qualify for government assistance so that we could buy groceries, and we were lucky that Henry was born healthy, without any exorbitant medical costs, and that Brandon was able to get a job, a good job, immediately after he graduated (... for the fourth time). Since then we've been able to make our bills and pay our rent, and even have a little fun in this crazy city, and that's amazing. I'll never take it for granted, nor the help we had in getting here. We should all be so lucky.

We're in the minority. Looking around New York City, you're aware of just how high the highs can be, but you're also aware of just how low the lows can get when bad luck strikes. We are lucky. Many of our friends seem luckier; they grew up with the kinds of opportunities that we never had--parents who could pay their tuitions outright, connections to influential people, incomes that are never hampered by student loans--but many more of our friends are not. They're freelancers, doing things in untraditional ways or in creative fields, making ends meet just barely one month and then very easily the next. And we know just how quickly our fortunes can change, from first-hand experience and from second-hand experience. Many, many of us will find ourselves in the position where we have to scramble, so it's important that we educate ourselves now, and band together to support those who need that support now, so that there's a system in place should we ever need that support ourselves. There's a lot we can do, and I'm honored today to help spread the word so we all can start. 

If you have a spare half hour, watch this film. You'll be glad you did. (It's only 40 minutes, and so well made--these stories are told so earnestly and honorably). Then check out spentmovie.com to find out what you can do to get involved. Think of it as an investment in your own future, should your luck take a temporary leave of absence.

This post was sponsored by American Express. @amexserve