In 2009, Delora Beal faced a seemingly impossible careerchallenge.

She had recently improved her life by finding stable housing atManasseh House, a non-profit apartment complex for homeless womenin Dubuque, Iowa. And, she had been hired as a cashier at a nearbyHartig Drug store.

But her path forward at the local company, which had a historyof promoting women, was blocked by one simple fact: she lacked acar.

“To be an assistant store manager, you have to have a car,” Bealsaid. “You need to be able to drive deposits to the bank and to usethe car on the job during the day. You just have to have one.”

Beal, her son and friend had driven to Dubuque from Arizona in2008 in search of work, but work was much harder to find than theyexpected, particularly after the first car broke down.

Beal had maintained her cashier's position by walking to work orriding a cantankerous bicycle that was on its last legs, but sheknew she was eligible and qualified for the assistant store managerposition – and even manager – if she could just find reliabletransportation.

Then, one day in early 2010, she saw a notice on her apartmentbuilding's message board promoting the $1.1 billion DupacoCommunity Credit Union and its individual development accountprogram.

Individual development accounts are sponsored savings vehiclesin which the supporting organization matches a consumer's savingsdeposits, and applies the funds toward a defined savings goal.Often, that goal is saving for education, but capital for abusiness or a down payment on a house or vehicle is alsopopular.

In Beal's case, a Dupaco IDA could help her save money for acar, with the help of matching donations from the Iowa Credit UnionFoundation.

“I can't remember if the paper was from the credit union or fromthe apartment building, but the branch wasn't too far from where Ilived, so I went in to check it out,” Beal said.

After becoming a Dupaco member, another requirement for openingan IDA account was using direct deposit, a change Beal said she hadno trouble making.

“I had had a checking account at Liberty Bank,” she said, “butit never really did anything for me, so I didn't have any problemswitching.”

Using direct deposit allowed Beal to allot $50 from eachpaycheck toward the car. Roughly one year later, she was delightedto find she had saved $1,900.

Combined with the foundation match, her total savings was$3,800.

Read more: Credit union repo stretched her budget…

Of course, $3,800 is not a lot of money, for even a used car inthe competitive used car market, but Beal said she was finally ableto purchase one of the credit union's repossessed autos.

“I found two other cars I had lined up first,” Beal recalled.“But when I took those cars by a mechanic, he advised me not to buythem because they would be too much trouble.”

It also worked out well to buy one of Dupaco's repossessed cars,because the credit union was able to roll additional money for newtires and the first six months of auto insurance into the carloan.

Finally having a car again helped Beal obtain the assistantstore manager position at work. That, in turn, boosted her incomesufficiently to enable her to move out of Manasseh House.

She now lives with an elderly friend, whom she helps withhousehold chores and other tasks, in exchange for a discount onrent.

The car also enabled her to help some other friends care fortheir horses, an activity she said she does for free because sheloves horses so much.

“I have just always loved horses,” Beal said, her voicesoftening with the memory. “When I was a little girl, up until whenmy parents divorced, we always had horses and I used to love beingaround them so much. A job working with horses would be adream for me.”

Thanks to her experience with the IDA, Beal has continued savingusing direct deposit. That habit proved fruitful recently when anaccident totaled her car.

“I was picking up another employee for work and making a leftinto a driveway when the driver behind me decided he was going topass me on the left,” Beal explained.

“He caught me at the left wheel and the front of the car, andbecause the car was as old as it was, the insurance company totaledit,” she added.

Beal said thanks to the insurance settlement and a small GAPinsurance policy, she was able to pay off the loan with $300 shehad in savings.

And then, she discovered she qualified for a $10,000 loan fromDupaco to replace the first car.

“I got a 2009 Toyota Corolla,” Beal said. “It has 90,000 mileson it, but it's in very good shape, and that's not such highmileage for a Toyota that's been treated well.”

She added that she looked forward to the better mileage andpossibly lower gasoline costs.

“I really can't thank this credit union enough,” she said, hervoice choking slightly. “I would tell more of my friendsabout it, but many of them are already members. They have helped mesee how changing small habits and building small habits can changeyour life, and anyone who says they can't save probably justdoesn't know how.”

“Everyone should know about what credit union can do for them,”she added.