Tuesday, December 25, 2012

How I got here

In the "About this Blog" section to the right, I tried to give a quick glimpse of how I arrived in this horrible position. But I feel like it is important to give more details to dispel any knee jerk reactions. I'm certainly not blameless in this situation but I am also not a deadbeat.


  • At the end of 2008 I lost a job and to survive I created my own business in haste. 
Admittedly I was not in the position to carefully devise the best business model.  I do blame myself for not correcting that issue long before now.  I put all of my eggs in my political research basket even though that can be a very seasonal enterprise.  If you have a decent year, it can make up for that fact but if you have a disappointing one, it can put everything else in jeopardy.

Thankfully I've recently started getting some outstanding criminal defense related work. I can only hope that part of my business grows and quickly.  It could end up being a lifesaver in many ways.  I can only hope that I didn't wait too long to start diversifying my services.


  • My home is a duplex and right after losing my job I lost an outstanding tenant.  If I could rent the upper unit out again it would solve my mortgage issues longer term.  But then there is the furnace...
Unfortunately I also lost the furnace for that unit so I can't rent it and I've been unable to make enough to fund the cost of replacing it.


  • The bank induced Great Recession has been murder for home values and mine has certainly not been immune. 
Had my home value not fallen so dramatically I would have had an early option to possibly refinance at historically low interest rates. Perhaps I could have used some cash from the refinance to replace the furnace and rent out the upper unit. Perhaps I could have at least used the savings from a lower payment to eventually fund the installation of a new furnace.


  • After my mortgage was bought and sold many times it unfortunately ended up at the Bank of America.    They have been a bad actor long before they ever bought my loan from the string of defunct banks before them.  



Well you get the point...they are threatening to drag me into a Milwaukee County courtroom and God knows that they have more than enough experience being in one of those (often as a defendant). 

Again, I've not been perfect in my choices during some challenging times but there have also been a number of things that were beyond my control and for which I will accept no ownership.  There you have it, that is a bit more detailed explanation of how I got here.

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