55, underemployed, and faking normal: your guide to a better life

Elizabeth White has an impressive resume, which includes advanced degrees from Harvard and Johns Hopkins and a distinguished employment history.

She started a business that failed and then tried to re-enter the work force in her 50s, only to learn that there is little demand for workers her age, even with her outstanding resume.

Her retirement savings account was largely depleted by her business.

For a while Elizabeth lived in denial, but then had to begin to adjust to her new reality, shedding the gym membership, getting a roommate, forgoing restaurant meals, and so on.

She soon learned she wasn't alone: there are millions of Americans in her predicaments and worse, exhausted trying to survive and overcome every day.

Elizabeth invites you to join her in looking beyond your immediate surroundings and circumstances to what is possible in the new normal of financial insecurity.