By Jay Blackman
NBC News producer

In a nondescript office park in Rockland, Mass., the unemployed can find an oasis. It’s the home of a nonprofit called One Life at a Time, an organization that helps those looking for jobs, but in a different way than the state office of unemployment.  

"We basically do one-on-one, and what that means is that everybody is an individual," said founder Christine Driscoll O’Neill. "Whatever their needs are… whatever they need to get to that place to be able to be employable again – we do."

Driscoll O’Neill believes the one-on-one attention that she and her staff are able to provide free of charge is what makes the difference for her clients.  

O'Neill, who started the organization with the proceeds from a whistleblower lawsuit and hopes to continue supporting it through grants, understands her clients’ pain firsthand.

"I know what it's like to feel unemployed, I didn't like it," she said. "There wasn't anybody there for me, so I want to be there for all the underemployed and unemployed." The organization has two offices in Massachusetts, but it has helped many people who live out of state, too, by phone and by Skype.

With a staff of 12, One Life at a Time offers many regular career services, such as resume polishing and help with cover letters, but it doesn’t stop there. In a conference room with a wall of windows, a makeup artist offers advice on what colors to wear to interviews while applying eye liner on Diane, who is out of work for the first time in her career.

"It's about feeling good about yourself," the makeup artist tells Diane. "Just be yourself. Obviously you want to show some confidence. You know that you're able to do the job, and I think that will go a long way."

Surrounded by an unemployed teacher, a laid-off senior accountant and a nurse struggling to find work, Driscoll O’Neill holds a group discussion about the importance of self-esteem.

In another office, career specialist Russell Abbatiello sets up a small video camera in preparation for a mock interview, which puts clients through the process before they have to do it for real. The interviews are recorded to show people how they performed and what they need to work on.  

Abbatiello is now working with a chemist who has been out of work for more than a year. Not only is he testing her interview skills, but he is also drilling her on everything from how she would deal with an ethical issue to what her advanced degrees would mean to an employer. When the interview is over, they watch the video together, analyzing her performance.

"It's not always the answers that you give," Abbatiello tells the chemist, "it's how you give the answers."

For Ted Burns, 53, and a 20-year veteran in the telecommunications industry, the past year has been challenging. With one child in college and another in high school, he is looking for any edge that will get him back into the workforce.

"I'm  trying to stay as positive as I can, put a smile on and, I know eventually something will come," Burns said. "It's tough, it's a battle, it's a struggle and you just try to stay as positive as you can."

Burns taps on a keyboard in the organization’s computer lab, where classes are offered to help clients leverage the networking power of social media sites such as Twitter and LinkedIn. Burns already has used LinkedIn to make several connections. (UPDATE: Just this week, with One Life's help, Burns started a new job in his field.)

Driscoll ONeill says the organization has helped 5,000 people find work, including people such as Jen Guisti, who was laid off from her job as a television producer. Guisti was surprised at how hard it was to find another job.  

"I  heard it was hard but I didn't think it was going to be like this," she said. "I didn't think I was going to be out of work for so long."

Guisti says she struggled going the traditional route through the state offices, and found she needed the one-on-one attention that One Life at a Time provides.

"They were able to help me see things in a different light, and have me go down different paths, and kind of test my skills and test myself," she said. Guisti is now back at work at MK3 Creative, working on corporate videos.

Even with success stories such as Guisti’s, Driscoll O’Neill knows there is more work to do. To her, the country’s 8.6 percent unemployment rate isn't just a number; it represents millions and millions of people.

It's that time of year. No, not the holidays. It's open-enrollment season, the time of year when most workers update their health insurance plans.

A recent study by The Kaiser Family Foundation found that annual premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance plans jumped by 9 percent from 2010 to 2011 to $4,129 for families and $921 for individuals.

Here are some tips to help you keep costs down:

Earn a tax break 
If you are considering any big-ticket, out-of-pocket elective operations or medical procedures (such as LASIK surgery), you may want to do it before the end of the year in order to qualify for the medical tax deduction. Basically, if your out-of-pocket health and medical and dental related expenses (including insurance premiums) add up to more than 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income, you may qualify for a tax deduction in the amount you spent above that 7.5 percent.

Visit an in-store retail clinic
Pharmacies and grocery stores – from CVS to Target to Walmart – are increasingly offering clinics to treat customers with minor ailments such as earaches and sinus infections. Many also offer flu shots, some common vaccinations and allergy care. The savings can be significant. A walk-in appointment at retail clinic runs anywhere from $25 to $100 for treating minor ailments, or about 25 percent less than in a doctor's office, according to HealthPartners. (Note: only 40 percent accept insurance, so you may have to pay full price rather than just a co-pay.)  And, a new study by RAND estimates that 17 percent of all ER visits could be handled at retail clinics …saving consumers more than $4 billion a year.   

Consider opening a Health Savings Account, or HSA
If you have a high-deductible health plan (which means you pay more out-of-pocket for medical expenses in exchange for a lower monthly premium) you may be eligible to open a health savings account (HSA) to pay medical expenses. Contributions to an HSA are tax-deductible. The maximum HSA contribution this year is $3,050 for an individual and $6,150 for families. 

Check into local universities
Dentistry schools and colleges of optometry need to let their students work on patients and will often provide services you'd get a private medical office for a fraction of the price. Care is provided by pre-doctoral students or residents under the close supervision of faculty members. I used to go to the State University of New York (SUNY) school of optometry for eye exams when I was in my early 20s and money was tight. 

Keep an eye out for mistakes
You may remember just getting one X-ray, but your bill mysteriously has five line items. As many as eight out of 10 hospital bills contain errors, increasing the tab by 25 percent on average, according to the Medical Billing Advocates of America. To avoid getting overcharged, track every test and medication you get, and verify it with your medical file, which you can request from the hospital's billing department. If you see an error, send a certified letter requesting a corrected bill, and a copy of all related paperwork to your health insurance company.  

Here are more money-saving tips for health expenses.

For more from Farnoosh Torabi, visit Financially Fit.

A story last week reported that residents of Nome, Alaska, could be looking at a costly winter: $9-a-gallon gasoline. The news, rightfully, has some of the 3,500 residents in the coastal town freaked out.

"It is going to kill us," said Sunny Song, owner of Mr. Cab, which ferries children to school, nurses to their patients' homes and women to hospitals to give birth.

According to the Associated Press report, a winter storm prevented a barge that usually carries fuel from getting to shore. The most likely plan is to fly it in, but it would be costly and could be a logistical nightmare.

A gallon of gas was selling for $5.98 a gallon last week. The next barge delivery wouldn't be until next June. In the meantime, flying fuel to the city could increase the cost per gallon by $3 to $4, officials said.

To put that in context, the average price for a gallon of gas in New York is roughly $3.60. In Missouri, it's only $3.017.

To see what the price at the pump is in your neck of the woods, see AAA's updated chart .

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Eric Kayne for msnbc.com

Nathan Palmer, left, and Brett Jones at their home in Victoria, Texas.

Does $50,000 a year seem like plenty to live on, or not nearly enough?

If you said somewhere in between, that makes sense because $49,445 is the national household median income, meaning about half of all households live on more than that and half on less. The figure, based on 2010 calculations, was reported in September by the Census Bureau as part of an extensive report on income and poverty.

In some places and circumstances, $50,000 is enough for a large family to live comfortably. In others, it’s not even enough for a single person to afford rent, utilities and other expenses.

Four years into the deepest economic downturn in a generation, some Americans, especially those who have experienced bouts with unemployment, are overjoyed to be earning $50,000 a year. Others are devastated to have seen their incomes fall so far.

For some, it’s a mixture of both.

We recently asked the readers of TODAY.com's Life Inc. blog to let us know what it's like to live on about $50,000 a year, and we got hundreds of responses.

“While unemployed I would have been thrilled to make $50,000,” said Dawn Mogan, 55.

Now that she actually makes that salary after two years of unemployment, the single mom in Texas still worries constantly about money.

U.S. Census Bureau

Adjusted for inflation, median household income has fallen over the past few years.

Many of the readers who wrote to us say that on $50,000 a year they can put food on the table, pay for necessities and even splurge occasionally on a dinner out or a game for the family.

But others told us they have to watch their budgets closely and occasionally make sacrifices to get the bills paid.

“It's not poverty. We don't miss meals and we make MOST of our bills. However, we live paycheck to paycheck, and we carry debt,” wrote Brett Jones, 37, who lives with his partner in Texas.

Many feel like they are treading water — and for good reason. After adjusting for inflation, the nation's median income has fallen about 7 percent from its peak in 1999, reversing a fairly steady increase that lasted for five decades from 1950, according to Census Bureau figures.

The troubles started when the nation last fell into recession in 2001. From 2000 to 2007, household income was virtually stagnant, said economist Heidi Shierholz with the Economic Policy Institute.

“Even that was dramatic,” she said.

Then came the Great Recession of 2007-09 and its ugly aftermath.

From 2007 to 2010, the Census Bureau estimates that median household income fell by 6.4 percent, to $49,445, as unemployment soared to a peak of over 10 percent. (The jobless rate dropped last month to 8.6 percent — still high by historical standards although the best level in more than two years.)

Of course, median income varies a lot depending on what kind of household you live in. For families, defined as two or more related people living together, median household income was $61,544 last year. For single people, it was $29,730.

Gordon Green, a former Census official who is now a partner in Sentier Research, has been using government data to track monthly changes in American income levels.

He wasn’t too surprised to find that median income fell during the recession. After all, a deep recession combined with sharp job losses can be expected to have that effect.

But he was surprised to find that incomes have fallen even more sharply in the weak recovery period that followed the recession, even as the massive job cuts slowed.

He suspects that’s because some people held onto their jobs but saw their hours or wages cut, while others, after long periods of unemployment, were forced to take jobs that paid less than their previous positions.

Taken together, he said the median income decline from December 2007 to June 2011 "represents a significant reduction in the American standard of living.”

Even the relatively low rate of inflation that has characterized the past few years can start to add up if your income is not rising.

"Even if there’s 2 percent inflation, if they don’t get any raise that’s a 2 percent real wage drop,” Shierholz said. “That happens for a couple years, and that starts adding up to a serious decline of what you can buy with your paycheck.”

The outlook for the future remains uncertain. Diane Swonk, chief economist with Mesirow Financial, said one major problem is that even as companies start hiring again, there aren’t good systems in place to train people for work that requires skills but not a college degree. Those skilled labor jobs traditionally have represented a strong path to get into — or stay in — the middle class.

And even a college degree isn’t necessarily the guarantee of a comfortable salary that it once was.

And despite the November surprise of a sharp drop in unemployment, it could be years before enough jobs are added to bring the rate down to historical norms of 4 to 6 percent.

“Unfortunately, if there was a silver bullet to be shot it would have already been shot,” Swonk said. “We’re going to have to struggle through this time and adjust, and it’s a painful adjustment.”

Green saw a glimmer of hope in recent data that showed a slight increase in household median income to $50,257 as of September. But he said it’s too early to tell whether that’s a sign of better times, or just a fluke in the data.

To see what it’s like to literally be in the middle of the nation’s income spectrum, Life Inc. is hitting the road this week to profile Americans from all walks of life whose household income is around $50,000 a year.

We’ll be posting their profiles here and sharing our thoughts — and yours — on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus. We also invite you to comment on our posts — but keep it civil and on topic, please!

Finally, please share your story of what it’s like to be living on about $50,000 a year here. We’ll feature some of your stories in future Life Inc. posts.

Related:

Poverty rate hits 18-year high as median income falls   
Employment growth picked up speed in November   
Check out our Facebook page!

What did we learn this week in Life Inc.? Americans love french fries. They love simpler holidays. And they love getting money back from Uncle Sam. 

A post this week about Burger King revamping its recipe for french fries generated quite the debate among our readers. Their reviews were not all positive. “Sorry, BK, but my affair with you has to end. I cannot support the new fry. I prefer the skinnier, crunchier, tastier version,” Meghan Herr wrote. 

My favorite comment was from FreedomRingsLoud, who wrote: “The great French Fry debate has, is and will rage on until the end of times. Perhaps we should try a new recipe for our Congress and get the fat (pork), salt (corruption) and high calories (spending) out of it to fix our nation’s economy.” This reviewer may not make it as a restaurant critic, but shows promise as a political pundit. 

Tax stories are always popular and this week’s revelation that Uncle Sam owes about 100,000 Americans a refund generated a lot of interest. The IRS is hoping to pay out a total of $153.3 million in refund checks that couldn’t be delivered because of mailing address problems. Are you among the lucky taxpayers who will get a little holiday bonus? Check here.  

Our two most popular stories dealt with the stress and over-commercialization of the holiday season. Allison Linn’s excellent story about Americans’ efforts to focus on the true meaning of the holidays received more than 3,500 votes. A whopping 84.5 percent of you said you will simplify things this season. My favorite comment from a reader: “Unfortunately, every year I say I'm going to rein in my spending and every year I either spend the same or more. Oh well, at least I try.” Sounds familiar to me. 

What are you dreading most about the holidays? Fighting the mall crowds? Gaining weight? Going in debt? Dealing with your sister’s creepy fiancé? This season can bring out the best in all of us – and often times it brings out the worst in us. We love the holidays at the same time we dread it. A survey conducted by Consumer Reports found that 23 percent of us can’t stand the incessant, inescapable Christmas music. And, believe it or not, 15 percent just dread the very notion that they “have to be nice.”

Coal in the stockings for you!

Credit Karma

The average credit score of people using various e-mail services, based on Credit Karma's database of users.

The next time a friend of yours e-mails you to ask to borrow some money, take a closer look at that e-mail address.

It turns out, the e-mail service your friend uses may tell you a lot about whether you’re likely to get paid back.

The website Credit Karma recently took a look at its database of around 100,000 users to figure out the average credit score of people who use various e-mail services. Credit Karma provides people with free credit scores subsidized by advertising, and offers people deals based on their credit scores.

Based on Credit Karma’s number crunching, your buddy with the Gmail address could be a better bet to lend that money to than your pal who uses Yahoo.

A credit score can range from 501 to 900. A higher score is considered better, as the person is expected to be most likely to pay off their debts on time.

The results were surprisingly similar to what Credit Karma found about three years ago when it ran the same experiment with just 20,000 users. The company provided more recent data at Life Inc.'s request.

Does it surprise you that there seems to be a link?

Related: Midwest is best when it comes to credit scores

Personal finance expert David Bach explains the importance of putting your extra cash to good use by having an emergency account and continuing to pay off your mortgage.

As the GOP presidential candidates rally around the battle cry of the need to cut Americans' taxes, there's fresh evidence of just how heavy that tax burden is. Compared to the rest of the developed world, though, U.S. taxpayers have it pretty easy. 

Of the 34 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, only Chile and Mexico impose a lower tax burden than Uncle Sam, according to the latest report from the Paris-based grouping of advanced economies.

As politicians from Washington to Athens spar over how to balance federal budgets, the OECD found that the U.S. collects 24.1 cents in taxes for every dollar of gross domestic product.  Mexico's collects just 17.4 percent of its total economic output in taxes; Chile collects 18.4 percent. The average ratio inched up to 33.8 percent in 2009, the latest year available.

The latest data show that Denmark and Sweden continue to hold the top two spots as most heavily taxed.

Since 1995, the U.S. has also been cutting taxes faster than all but five of the 30 countries tracked by the OECD. As a percentage of GDP, U.S. tax revenues fell 3.7 percent from 1995 to 2009. About half of the OECD countries raised taxes during that period. Poland, Ireland, New Zealand, Israel and the Slovak Republic cut taxes more deeply than the U.S.

Overall, tax burdens as a percentage of GDP have stabilized, after falling since the recession of 2007 and the financial Panic of 2008 cut into government revenues. The average tax burden hit 35.2 percent in 2007; the record was set in 2000, when the average burden in the 30 countries surveyed was 35.3 percent of GDP.