With MJ's parting this week - it reminded me of a book on my shelf...

 THEY WENT BROKE?! by Roland Gary Jones

MC Hammer, born Stanley Kirk Burrell, sold some 18 million copies of his album, Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em.  Even though he won Grammy's and earned over $50 million in the 1990's - he filed Bankruptcy.  "It's time to stop the bleeding and get on with my life," he told one reporter when he filed.

John Wayne, Sam Walton and Donald Trump all sufferd financial hardships too! John Wayne at one time invested millions into get rich schemes from, "Hair Trigger Formula" that was suppose to end baldness, to a company that was going to extract methane gas from cow manure, to the development of "Product 76" which was "a substance that supposedly could both cure skin ailments and insulate buildings."  WOW! (I feel better already!)

Heck, even DANIEL BOONE had trouble!  He borrowed money to finance his fur-trading expeditions, and then came back empty-handed... sometimes, in an effort to save his own hide, he gave up horses and guns to the unfriendly Indians!  Because of this, the local bankers didn't like him too much...

"In fact, according to at least one account, Boone's motivation for exploring and settling wild Kentucky was to escape CREDITORS back East!  Eventually a Virginia judge issued a judgment and warrant for Boone's arrest on a debt.  On the back of the judgment a clerk later scribbled, "Gone to Kentucky."

So cheer up!  History is littered with stories of people like Harry Truman, Abraham Lincoln and Walt Disney who had tough financial times, and are still remembered for remarkable ACHIEVEMENTS!  The story of our life is part of the continuum, and it's what we LEARN from these times, and how we WORK THROUGH them that will determine what folks remember about us!

If you have questions about how you might be able to turn your credit scores around, click here.