Broke? 5 ways to turn your finances around

A recent study painted a dismal portrait of America's working poor, estimating that some 41 million people cannot afford to make ends meet, despite being employed.These hardworking Americans earn low wages, have few benefits and often can't qualify for government help -- and many of the Women in Red are in a similar quandary.But the Women in Red are discovering a way out.Not poor, but struggling to get by "Bridging the Gaps: A Picture of How Work Supports Work in 10 States" was issued in October by the progressive Center for Economic Policy Research in Washington, D.C., and the Center for Social Policy at the University of Massachusetts, focusing on families in 10 states with incomes far above the official poverty threshold.The median monthly incomes studied in the report ranged from a low of $2,293 in Iowa to $4,515 in Washington, D.C. Despite not being officially "poor," these families are struggling to get by in a variety of ways:• More than one in five workers (22.1%) are in jobs with low pay and no benefits (no health insurance or retirement plan).• The median monthly "hardship gap" between families' expenses and their earnings was about $1,500.• Those who got "work supports," or aid from the government, still faced an $855 median monthly shortfall.The circumstances of poverty Although the report outlines the broad financial circumstances of the working poor, it attributes them to "bad jobs" and a failure of government programs. What the report misses is the other side of being broke, as many in the Women in Red can testify. That's when your economic stress is partly, if not primarily, of your own making. I'm not referring to those who are impoverished due to a snowballing of circumstances beyond their control. There are countless Americans who live on the financial edge through no fault of their own. • Talk back: What tactics work when you're really broke?But many of the Women in Red are finding that, even amid tough economic straits, it is possible to turn things around. Here's how:1. Get to know your money Being good with money doesn't require a Ph.D. in physics. But you do have to get a certain amount of good, basic personal finance knowledge under your belt to recover from past mistakes, ditch bad money habits and make real financial progress.Tricia, 42, became an avid personal finance reader. As a single mom with three kids and an income of about $1,700 a month -- not the poverty line, but close -- she banked on the fact that knowledge was power. A good book makes abstract money ideas doable, she says. "Someone is always telling you, 'Get a budget, get a budget -- all financially successful people have a budget' -- but you tend to shrug it off," she says."It's when you read about it and see how they work, that's when you can begin to do it yourself."While Tricia says she learned a lot of money basics from personal finance expert Suze Orman, the book that really changed her life, "hands down," was "The Millionaire Next Door" by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko. 2. Get to know your financial self One of the hardest tasks in taking financial control has nothing to do with money but with getting to know yourself financially.This is one of the primary goals for women who join the ranks of the Women in Red. You can't fix those numbers until you have some idea of where your weak spots lurk, what your financial demons look like, and how and why they manage to trip you up.The idea of working at home certainly sounds appealing: save gas, choose your hours and wear whatever you want. But are these jobs real, and how do you find one? Kimber, 28, took a classic head-in-the-sand approach to her money for a long time, taking on close to $18,000 in debt even before she'd graduated from college. A serious illness and the birth of her son, all in the last couple of years, helped her face the mess. A single mom living on a modest income of about $2,200 a month, Kimber isn't poor, but her past financial habits had made life unmanageable."I had to change my whole attitude toward money. I had to drop that I'll-pay-for-it-later fantasy," she says. "Now I buy everything with cash. I don't even have a credit card. That's how I keep myself in check."