I’m a writer at Money magazine, and I’m working on a story about the personal finances of auto-industry families. I’m looking around for families who might be interested in participating in the story. I’d be grateful if I could speak with you and describe my story in detail and see if you had any suggestions about finding families for the story.
I did receive a phone number too, but I left it out of the quote above for privacy. If your interested in contributing to the article, please feel free to contact him at the email listed above.
Last edited by BrianLaws on Mon Aug 10, 2009 5:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
I am a writer at Money magazine, the monthly personal-finance magazine published by Time Inc. I am looking for an extended family who might want to be the subject of an article in the magazine’s "One Family's Money" series, which covers the personal finances of families facing unique, interesting and challenging situations. These stories typically run around six pages in the magazine, feature high-quality photography and are extremely popular with our readers.
In this particular story, I would like to focus on a multi-generational Detroit-area family in the automobile business. In the story, I hope to illustrate how an individual family’s finances over many years can be intertwined with that of this quintessential American industry, and how the relationship between the family and industry may have changed over time.
Specifically, I’m looking for a three-generation family (in their 70s, 50s and 30s, say, or in their 60s, 40s and 20s) in which at least the older two generations have worked in the auto manufacturing industry. One possibility could be that someone in the eldest generation is a retired hourly employee and a second-generation family member is a salaried employee, but that particular scenario isn’t absolutely necessary.
The key criteria for the family I’m looking for:
- Living in the Detroit metropolitan area
- Involvement in the auto industry for 2 or 3 generations
- Minimum household income (for the middle generation, at least) around $75,000.
- Willingness to share details of their personal lives and personal finances in the magazine, and willingness to be photographed for the story
As part of the story, we provide to the family a free, in-depth consultation with a personal financial planner who can study the family's finances and give advice relevant to the family's financial goals. Participants also have the opportunity to help publicize challenges faced by other people in similar circumstances; in my experience, virtually all the families volunteering to be in a “One Family’s Money” article do so partly to raise awareness of a particular cause or group of people.
To give you an idea of our magazine's approach (and of the amount of financial disclosure that the story will entail), here’s a link to a "One Family's Money" story that I wrote for our April 2008 issue, about the financial challenges faced by a couple after the husband, a soldier, was blinded in combat in Iraq: http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/11/pf/ivan_castro.moneymag/index.htm?postversion=2008032017 . I’ve also attached a copy of that story as it appeared in the magazine.
Please let me know if you have any questions about this story, and please feel free to pass this along to anyone you see fit. If a family is interested in participating, you can send their contact information to me (obviously, w/their permission), or they can contact me directly at 212-522-5923, or at george_mannes@moneymail.com. My deadline for finding a family willing to participate is the end of August.
Thanks,
George
--
George Mannes
Senior Writer
Money
1271 Avenue of the Americas, Room 17-210
New York, NY 10020
george_mannes@moneymail.com
Here are some examples of his work to give you an idea of how the story outline is setup:
I sent him a e-mail to see if he wanted a view of a ETE's time there as far as how it affected our money in both a positive and negative way. I have yet to hear back from him.
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