Monica Tibbits: Struggling on $40K
Urban planner, 25, Boston, Mass.

I went to school and worked very, very hard to get to where I am now. I make about $40,000 a year and have no children. That should be enough money for someone my age to live on, but the problem is that I owe student loans. My parents could not afford to pay for school so I took out loans for undergraduate and graduate school.

My monthly student loan payments are $1,630 a month. I bring home roughly $2,200 a month from my job. That leaves me $5 short of paying for my incredibly cheap rent of $575 a month. That does not leave any money for food or utilities.

The saddest part is that I have it good compared to many of my fellow Americans. At least I have a roof over my head and food to eat. If I had not saved money over the years I would be starving. With all the talk of further economic slowdown it scares me to death to think that my life or anyone else's could actually get worse.