I've been exactly where you are.
I spent 7 years in high-tech corporate finance across Silicon Valley. I understood the financial system from the inside. Then in 2005, I partnered into a business purchase and inherited a commercial lease. I thought I knew what I was doing. What I didn't do was read every line of that lease carefully enough. The details buried in the fine print created a liability I couldn't escape. In 2007, that liability forced me into Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It was the most expensive lesson I've ever paid for — and the most valuable one I've ever learned.
"Read the fine print. Every word. I have a finance degree and I didn't — and it cost me everything. That's the lesson."
In 2008, I lost my home — not in a panic, but through a deliberate, calculated decision called a strategic default. I looked at the math. My home was deeply underwater. Continuing to pay served no rational purpose. So I stopped, stayed in the home for approximately twelve months while the foreclosure process ran its course, saved my money, and began planning what came next.
In 2009, with the recession in full force, I ran up approximately $40,000 in credit card debt just to cover living expenses. What I knew — and most people don't — is that a four-year statute of limitations clock was running on every one of those accounts. I tracked the date of my last payment on each account. I didn't panic when collectors called. I didn't accidentally restart the clock. I let the law do what it was designed to do.
While navigating my own recovery, I founded Avidaire in 2008 — a consulting practice that helped homeowners across the country navigate the mortgage crisis. Over 7 years I guided clients through loan modifications, principal reductions, and strategic defaults — keeping families in their homes, often payment-free, for a year or more while the foreclosure process ran its course. I approached every client situation the same way I approached my own: methodically, strategically, and with a plan. Avidaire operated through 2015.
Since 2016 I've been an active securities trader with institutional-level training in macro fundamentals and options strategy. Understanding how capital markets move informs how I think about debt, credit cycles, and lender behavior — context most debt coaches simply don't have.
Today, my FICO score is back above 800. And I built Wayfinder Credit to apply that same analytical approach to the debt crisis of today — credit cards, personal loans, and credit rebuilding — for people who need a clear path forward.