In case you haven't taken the time to stop and look around things have been changing in your world. The America that you are living in is no longer that of big investment bankers and Wall Street big winners. Although they are still around it's not as widespread as it use to be.

Nope, the times they are a changing.

If you want to survive you had better adjust. So here I have suggested somethings to consider when making those adjustments to surviving today's world, call it "A Road Map to Prosperity" OK, maybe not but they are things to contemplate.

America is starting to live on very extreme budgets. That's nothing new to Annette and Steve Economides. Some people my find their way of living a little extreme, but you could really learn something from this family.

They started of life together vowing to always live within their means.

The Arizona family said that careful planning helped them make their way to paying off their first house in only 9 years, even though their families income came to a grand total of only $33,000 a year. They also have a second home that is nearly payed off.

The family spends only about $350 dollars a month on food and cleaning products. Oh yeah did I mention there are seven of them?

A trip to the grocery store means attention to all sorts of detail. They stroll the aisles coupons in one hand and walkie-talkie in the other. Their mission is to never pay full price for anything. While looking through the aisles the couple uses walkie-talkies to communicate what great deals the other has found.

No Plastic. In 22 years of marriage the couple has never used a credit card.

To top it all off they pay cash to purchase CARS. How many of you can say the same? I don't know about you, but I think this family has it all figured out.

Another thing that has shifted because of the economy is real estate. Everywhere you look today depending upon where you live you can find homes left and right that have been on the market for who knows how long. These homes are eating up the banking system.

Here is where you find a catch-22. No one is buying and mortgages aren't being handed out; at least not like they use to be.

Remember the $7 billion bailout? Ponder this thought. That was enough money to buy up all those bad mortgages and guess what, there would have still been money left over to take care a few other things lingering over this economy.

We couldn't have done that though, we wouldn't have been able to give all those CEO's Christmas bonuses. Oh, and paid for the fuel in the private jets that they flew to meet with congress. Nor would we have been able to pay for the country club trips for AIG employees. No no we couldn't have done that

What we really should have done is handed them a kleenex and said, man up. Wait, they could have used $100 bills to wipe the tears away. I mean why waste the kleenex this is a recession.

Don't get me wrong on this point though. There were people out there buying homes that they knew where outside of their means. To these people I say tough, but to the man out there making $25,000/yr that bought a home valued at a modest $110,000 who is now facing foreclosure my heart goes out to you.

How can you talk about the economy without talking about Dave Ramsey? This man is helping people across this nation become debt free. I myself try to catch his show on the Fox Business Network every chance I get.

The man is a genius when it comes to money and personal finance. I would suggest if you don't know him that you get to know him.

He understands the American people's struggles and trys in every way to formulate a plan for people to live by. He takes calls on his show from people just like you and me who struggle with debt, and does it in a way that is not condescending. He doesn't talk down to you, but instead talks to you and trys to get down to the root of your problem.

One thing he tells all his viewers is trash your credit cards. Cut them up, grind them down, however you can rid yourself of them just do it.

He even runs a segment that he likes to call "Plasectomies" where he urges his viewers to destroy their credit cards and send him a video of it. I have seen some of these and believe me people can get pretty creative and excited about putting an end to the life of their credit cards.

I think those that watch his show will agree with me Dave Ramsey is a great man and a great American.

God bless you Dave for all the life's you have changed and the many other life's that you will continue to change.

You really think that your money is safe in the banking system? Well some people think otherwise and have good reason to be skeptical. If you should believe in a bank account and want to trust your money is safe in a bank you really should read in close detail your banks fee schedule.

It is something that is to often over looked.

When you put your money in a bank do you keep more than $500 in your account? If not you maybe charged a monthly maintenance fee. Does your bank post your check that same day or do cash a check on Friday and not have funds from that check available until Tuesday? If not careful you may be charged a fee for insufficient funds.

There are people who instead of trusting a banking system choose to hold on to there money and pay there bills with money orders.

There is a fine writer Pgrundy here on hub pages that I frequently read that has a few articles that are definitely worth your time to read. She goes into more detail on this subject. If you take your money seriously and hope to hold on to as much of it as possible I think you should read a few of her articles.

I hope that most of this has left you with the belief that you can make it, even with the economy in the shape that it's in today. We can survive. We are Americans. This country will make it on it's feet again. We may not all agree on when this will take place, but we all know it will. I just pray that we come out of it smarter, stronger and more prosperous people than we were before this happened.