I went thru a horrible recession in the early '90's and my husband kept losing jobs as tge companies he went to work for kept closing down, we went thru CCCS and they got the creditors to lower the interest, but still couldnt keep up with the payments and filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy, that cut out more interest and we paid all creditors off in 3 years, rebuilt our credit and got into controllable debt but didnt have much of an emergency fund, took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, paid off all debt including house and cars 3 years ago and now have emergency fund, vacation, Christmas savings. After struggling for 20 years I wish I had taken FP in the beginning! Now I understand how to budget and save and my kids are pretty smart a out managing tbeir money. I was laid off for 5 months 2 years ago and DH has been laid off 2 1/4 years, went back to school and just graduated. We have managed to stay out of debt while adding to our savings and I have Dave Ramsey to thank!