My Story

My name is Mike Owens.

Until May 2008, I worked at the headquarters of a large American corporation. I didn’t love the job, but it paid the bills… and even left a little over for road trips and other niceties.

During my 10-year stay in Corporate America, my wife and I bought a house in the suburbs, had a child, leased and bought moderate cars, and generally lived a comfortable life.

About two years ago, the bottom fell out.

I came back from a two-week vacation to find my personal belongings in a box on my desk. From that point on, my presence was less than welcome there. They even stopped depositing money into my bank account.

I had done some freelancing and even published a couple of books, so I figured it wouldn’t be hard to land on my feet. I took the money out of my 401(k) as a buffer, and set out to take on the world.

Building a stable client base proved a slower process than I imagined.

Within six months, every single account I had open was past due. Our savings was gone, and I spent long evenings trying to guess whether the electric company or the water company was more likely to shut off service. I couldn’t even deal with the credit card companies that called every day – when you’re worried about having your car repossessed and your home sent to foreclosure, you have to establish priorities.

Business continued to pick up as I learned more efficient strategies for attracting and retaining clients. Within a year after my departure from Corporate America, I was making as much money freelancing as i did at my old job… but now I had a backlog of debt and a crappy credit score. So, metaphorically, water was still coming into the boat as fast as I could bail it out.

I continued my entrepreneurial endeavors, and learned a lot about how to make money without a job. I also continued searching for resources to help me do things like buy a car, stay in my house and get a checking account. Slowly, the light of day emerged.

Today, I make about twice my old salary. I’ve been able to catch up the mortgage, the car payments, and some of the unsecured debt. Life is a lot less stressful now… but my credit score still requires some innovative thinking. And I’m putting that innovation to work here, so hopefully you can use it to life a happier, less stressful life much more quickly than I did.

As always, if you have specific questions, go to the Contact page and drop me a line.