Column by Michelle Singletary: President Trump’s promise of a $5,000 “dividend” if Republicans retain control of Congress may sound appealing. This money could offer some benefits, but Trump’s temporary cash infusion can't replace real economic stability.

"I wasn't about to be caught dead in a singlet." @BlessedMMA joins @MeganOlivi on Becoming A Fighter, premiering this Wednesday July 1st. Watch all UFC Podcasts on Youtube:

In February 1998, nearly twenty years after Lawrence Singleton attacked her, severed both her arms, and left her in a California ravine, Mary Vincent boarded a plane to Florida. No one required her to go. Singleton was being tried for another crime, in another state, against another woman. Mary volunteered. The woman’s name was Roxanne Hayes. She was thirty-one years old, a mother of three, living in Tampa. In February 1997, Singleton attacked and killed her inside his home. Neighbors heard her screaming and called police. Officers arrived while he was still there. The evidence was overwhelming. But Mary understood something the jury needed to know. This was not the first time. In 1978, Mary had been a fifteen-year-old hitchhiker when Singleton picked her up. He assaulted her, cut off both her arms with a hatchet, and threw her down a thirty-foot ravine, believing she would die. She did not. Mary packed mud around her wounds, climbed the ravine using her shoulders, and walked miles along a highway until someone found her. She gave police a description detailed enough to identify Singleton. He was convicted and received the maximum sentence allowed at the time. Fourteen years. He served fewer than nine. Psychiatric evaluations warned that he remained dangerous. He had even sent threatening letters while imprisoned. Still, the system released him. Years later, Roxanne Hayes was dead. By then, Mary was thirty-five and raising two sons. She had survived poverty, disability, and years of rebuilding a life around injuries that would have destroyed many people. She had also discovered art. Using prosthetic grips, she created bright portraits and sculptures, especially images of strong women. She was moving forward. Then she read about Roxanne. And she returned to the man she had every reason never to see again. Mary entered the Florida courtroom with prosthetic arms she had spent half her life learning to use. She pointed toward Singleton. Then she told the jury what he had done. Her testimony was brief. Precise. “He left me to die.” Those words carried nearly twenty years of survival. Mary was not there to relive her own suffering for attention. She was there to make sure Roxanne’s death was not treated as an isolated act committed by a man who had changed. She gave the jury the history the courtroom needed. Singleton was convicted in February 1998. Two months later, he was sentenced to death. He died of cancer on death row in 2001 before the sentence was carried out. Mary later said she had wanted one final chance to look him in the eyes. She never received it. But she accomplished what she had gone to Florida to do. She ensured that the man who had taken her arms and later taken another woman’s life would never walk free again. Mary Vincent’s story is usually told as a story of physical survival. The ravine. The impossible climb. The miles she walked while bleeding. But her courage did not end there. Twenty years later, she chose to walk back into the presence of the man who had tried to erase her. Not for revenge. For another woman. Mary later created a foundation to help survivors of violent crime. She became an artist, a speaker, and a mother. As a child, she once said she wanted to become a mother to the world. In that Florida courtroom, she showed exactly what that meant.

When life and money collide, making sense of either can feel overwhelming. That’s where Michelle Singletary (@SingletaryM) comes in. In her new video podcast, “Dollars & Sense with Michelle Singletary,” the Washington Post personal finance columnist will help real people navigate the financial questions that keep them up at night. Follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts and catch the series premiere on October 13. Learn more: