Hindsight is a wonderful thing, when it is too late, all we can do is learn from it!

Hi Steamit community,

Three years ago today I found out some news that would change my life, and to this day I have not recovered. So today is the perfect opportunity to introduce myself, as what I am about to do in the next 7 blogs, is to give myself closure on what happened, and allow myself to focus on a new chapter and future.

My name is Mike and I joined Steamit in August, which it has taken all of this time to eventually introduce myself, as I have a lot to say and was not sure where to begin.

As I have a lot to say and this is all new to me, my very first time blogging, I hope that what I do have to say will be of interest, as most of what I would like to blog I want to be educating, from 'Life's wisdom' as I have learned so much throughout my career.

For those who may be wondering, the ifp stands for 'International Financial Partners', not that I will be blogging as a Company, I will not, the ifp is only to represent partners that I speak with internationally, and continue to be partnered with to discuss financial strategies, which I will share when given permission to.

As you may have already gathered, finance is my background, everything from raising finance to wealth management, which it has been for almost 30 years now, and when I say I want my blogging to be financially related, after being in it for so long, I have experienced the good, the bad and the ugly, and want to share this with you.

As I do not know the backgrounds of our Steamit community, I can only assume that some of you manage your own finances, some not, and some will either have or want to sit down with a wealth manager/financial advisor at some point in the future, and maybe you will want to understand more about finance and wealth management in a more layman's language, instead of the usual jargon.

Over the years, this is what I have been told I am good at, that I can explain finance in an understandable layman language, though this has been face to face with client's, so it is going to be interesting to see if I can do the same in blogging. Especially since I am from the NorthEast of England, a 'Beautiful small City' call Newcastle upon Tyne (Photo's courtesy of my friend's on FaceBook)...............

So I am considered a Geordie, and though I try not to, I sometimes write the way I speak, which is not the Queens English, so please excuse this when you are reading, and don't hesitate to point out anything that I may have placed in error, so I can correct myself in the future.

What I want to do when blogging, is to share my experiences which have helped me to understand what may benefit you and what may not, and for those who are interested in learning more, to enable you to educate yourself so you don't make the many mistakes that I have very often listened to when hearing the many stories I have heard over the years, or what I have personally experienced, I want to give you a different perspective that you can benefit and grow from.

As already mentioned, some of what I will blog will come from the people that I talk with regularly, who will make suggestions from their knowledge of what may be worth considering after their own extensive research and experience, and their choices in the past have always paid them dividends.

Taking this into account, I would want any suggestions to be taken as something to monitor, so as the months and years go by if you feel what I am blogging is useful, you can then consider a more serious approach.

What I would not want, is any of you to jump in feet first, I want us to get to know each other and build confidence in any ideas that I share.

To start with though, I want to share experiences that I have personally been through, the ugly side of finance, that resulted in horrendous consequences to my clients and my own life, so much so, that I want to educate you as a warning to protect you, so the same does not happen to you or your loved ones.

Before I share these experiences, you need to know a little more about me, which below are recent photos of me and you can see I am just a normal person, though once you get to know me, you will realise I get a lot of satisfaction from helping others and hopefully making a difference in peoples lives.

Sadly and being honest with you, though 'making a difference in people lives' is my goal, this has not worked out well these past few years, this is where 'Life's wisdom' comes in.

Just to give you a very brief background before I start regular blogs, I first entered financial services in 1988 and enjoyed a very successful career in England until 2009, where my final 12 years was running my own business. I have never been rich, though I have enjoyed a comfortable life, and I have lost everything, built it back up, and now lost it again! It is this journey I also want to share with Steemit, to be sharing my life while I rebuild everything back to where I was and want to be, while also sharing my new aspirations and placing pressure on myself to achieve them!

My last home in England was one I was proud of, with two car's on the drive (The photo below is of my old home, the cars are what the family had, though I have no actual photos so what you see are the same and the courtesy of Google).......................

What I achieved was lost in 2009 after the global crash, which left me in a position that I could no longer assist my clients due to the Banks shutting their books down to new business, and consequently my business collapsed!

Moving to Asia in 2009, I rebuilt my life back up again by going International as a 'Wealth manager', then in 2014 I was catapulted into a nightmare, which I will be sharing next, and lost everything again, to now be living a near-destitute life in a rented bungalow that I can barely afford and my wheels have become a scooter, which you can see below and are the actual photos that I have taken....................

What I will be sharing is not to complain about my life, or to have pity! Though my life is a struggle, it is by far a better life than many, and I've been lucky enough to meet my rock 'Aivie' who I share my life with, and her wonderful family, who make every day a pleasure while we rebuild a new life together..............................

The worst, which you will read about soon, is not seeing my son back in England for over 4 years, we have had 4 years of our lives stolen from each other, and I have not been able to see him grow into the young man he is today. The reason for this, I have not been able to afford a visit to England or to pay for him to visit me, and these are some of the last photos I have of him before I lost everything..........................

The last time a spent quality time with my son was the summer of 2013, when he was to my shoulder in height, he now tells me he's over 6 ft tall, so I will be looking up at him the next time I see him.

So this is why I need to rebuild my life, I crave to see my son, catch up and make up for the missing years, also to become comfortable again, as at 51 I have only 10 to 15 years before retirement and want to comfortably spend it with family and friends, while continuing to still work a little to make a difference in peoples lives.

While I am writing this, I am not expecting to do this through Steamit, I have many contacts and irons in the fire, which something sometime has to come off, and though I am not sure how much you can earn blogging, Steamit will be my hobby to help others, while hopefully bringing in some bread and butter money for the table.

To conclude this introduction, my experiences, like many of you reading this, gives you 'Hindsight is a wonderful thing when it is too late!' as I am sure many of you have said one time in your life, which brings me to my next blog, or blogs, which will introduce 7 short videos to read, yes you have read correctly, the videos are to read.

These videos give you the story of what happened 3 years ago to not only me but many of my clients who were either very close friends or my closest clients! What happened to us, could very easily happen to you, which you will understand when you read, and what you will read, includes actual copies of indisputable evidence that gives my clients and me the right to say the people and Companies I will expose, are liars, cheats and crooks!

After my 7 short chapters, I want to pass on the rest of the good, the bad and the ugly of financial services and my life, to hopefully guide you on your way, with some educational and informative blogs. I will also share any unrelated stories that you may find interesting or funny, to hopefully entertain between the serious topics.

As most of what I will write will be of a financial nature and will be my own personal experience and knowledge, if there are any topics that you would like to read about, kindly message me and I will be happy to include in my blogs as the weeks and months go by.

Thank you for taking the time to read this introduction and Aivie and I look forward to getting to know you all...............