Los Angeles , California ( CNN ) -- `` So when I was driving down this hilly , windy road in Malibu , I really went to a dark place and thought , 'You know , I could turn right [ over the side of the canyon ] and no one would know . It would look like an accident , ' `` remembers Jim Moret , the chief correspondent for `` Inside Edition '' and a former CNN anchor . `` My wife would get $ 3 million of insurance . It would solve all of our problems . Of course the big problem would n't be solved because I would be dead . '' Ironically , after 2½ years without a full-time job , the veteran newsman had finally found work with `` Inside Edition , '' but an upside-down mortgage and a mountain of debt fueled by subprime loans had brought him to a financial meltdown . It had him literally staring into the abyss of suicide . `` Whether your home is worth $ 150,000 or $ 5 million , '' he writes , `` the real prospect of losing everything you have worked your entire life to achieve is devastating and utterly demoralizing . '' Like George Bailey in the movie `` It 's a Wonderful Life , '' it had occurred to him that financially , he was worth more dead than alive . But when he thought about his family , he pulled back from the precipice and got to thinking , `` What if I had one day left , how would I view life ? What 's important ? What would I value ? How do I look at friendship and love and gratitude and laughter and music and forgiveness and adventure ? And none of those things had anything to do with money . Money was the root of my desperation . '' Moret did n't seek professional help . Writing was his therapy , he says , so with his wife 's encouragement , he wrote about the experience and the life-changing insights it gave him . But as he got further into it , it dawned on him : `` Wow . I just might have a book here . '' The final result is `` The Last Day of My Life , '' which Moret calls an `` inspirational memoir . '' `` In the 20 or so chapters , if you can find one or two or three that you can relate to , then I feel wonderful , because the idea is that you can see yourself through my story . I 'm telling you what my choices were and what I choose to feel is important and then I ask you a question at the end of many chapters . Who would you apologize to if this were your last day ? Who would you forgive ? Those two things there are really powerful and heavy statements and questions and it 's difficult to forgive somebody who 's wronged you . '' Moret deals with the issue of forgiveness in the chapter on his troubled relationship with his biological father , `` Gidget '' star James Darren , who legally renounced his parental rights when Moret was 13 . Moret writes candidly about the feelings of abandonment it caused and his quest to forgive his dad . `` If you 're not completely honest in a book like this , then the book is devalued considerably . It 's worthless . I 've put everything out there . '' Moret says he and his family are still hanging on and have n't lost their home yet , but moving `` is not as big a deal to me anymore . '' `` If you look at every day as if it 's your last , and treat every day as if it 's your last , you can kind of reset your clock every day . ' I 've got 24 hours left , how do I proceed ? What do I approach first ? ' And what 's good about that mindset is the little things do n't bother you as much . There 's certain things we just ca n't control . You 're not going to read this book and go , 'everything will be great . ' This is not 'The Secret . ' `` `` The Secret '' is a self-help book that talks about using positive visualization to attract the things in life you want. `` 'The Secret ' really focused on material things , '' Moret said . `` My book really focuses on the nonmaterial things , the things you 're ultimately remembered for and that you want to be remembered for , and that make every day really meaningful . '' How would Moret like to be remembered ? `` As a good dad , husband , son , brother and friend . Maybe as a decent musician , too . I hope I am regarded as someone who touched a few lives in my time here . What more could I ask for ? ''
Newsman Jim Moret got hit hard and depressed by the recession . After pondering suicide , he wrote about why he chose to stay alive . Says he learned to `` treat every day as if it 's your last '' `` I hope I am regarded as someone who touched a few lives in my time here ''