As a graduate of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, I worked for a short time in the mortgage industry and then owned a business for over 16 years.

While working as a loan officer I learned a great deal about fluctuating interest rates, qualifying for loans, a wide variety of loan types alongside their advantages and disadvantages, credit scores and interest rates, including how to get a better one.

I went on to purchase a small black car transportation company with 30 employees and worked there for over 16 years through both the 9/11 crisis and the Great Recession of 2007, each time learning more and more about financing and creative ways to keep the company afloat.

During 9/11, when every airport in the United States closed for a time, it was a learning time of negotiating loans and debt and making ends meet in a time of lean money.

The same was true of the recession of 2007 as that crisis affected the world in a different way. Different reactions to the crisis throughout the world had different effects on available options.

In this series of books I draw on my experiences from these two jobs where I learned most of the lessons that I share here.

Today I spend my time in semi-retirement traveling and learning, walking my two rescue dogs on the beach, helping friends and family navigate money matters, and enjoying my granddaughter.

I continue to apply everything I write in my books to my every day life, but have diversified my portfolio of knowledge to coordinating my money in this retired lifestyle.

I spent most of my life in Santa Cruz, California and currently divide my time between my home in Las Vegas, Nevada and another on the coast of Baja, Mexico.