How a recession can affect you.

I thought this was a good story about how identity theft , credit scores, and a recession can affect anyone. Its does not matter whether you are poor or rich, your life can change in a instant.

It's an economic downturn when others suffer financial reversals, but it's a recession when it hits your home. In my case, it was a full-blown depression.

Although I knew what it was to experience lean times, it never seemed possible that I could become destitute. My first challenge was to recognize that was exactly what was happening. My next challenge, other than to cope, was to find a way to re-emerge.

Think it could never happen to you? So did I.

My hardships started in the mid-1990s, when I became an early victim of ID theft. Sorting out the charges took years, but I eventually negotiated with creditors to accept payment for only the charges that were legitimately mine. And then I closed the accounts.

With that behind me, I left a comfortable executive's life to become an independent consultant. Corporate chiefs paid me handsomely – so much so that I paid off my mortgage. I was debt free, and times were good.

But the Prime Time of Life celebration was short-lived. In rapid succession, my top two accounts stopped operating in the U.S., leaving me with unreimbursed expenses and collapsed receivables. I cannibalized my savings and made ends meet – until 9/11.

Still, I managed – by selling personal items on eBay and working toward a business rebound. I started building a warehouse to hold supplies – and then the unthinkable happened. My hand was caught in a table saw, and I went from bleeding in an ambulance to hemorrhaging financially.

I, who had never taken unemployment checks, was unable to access any so-called safety nets such as Medicaid.

Then, in gilded-lily lunacy, the IRS seized my income for "unpaid back taxes," citing credit card charge-offs that were in fact the result of identity theft.

Using what capital possible to pay the immediate – utilities, insurance, food – I began defaulting on bills, including property taxes. My once golden credit was ruined.

Welcome to the Under World, where Washington-approved institutions legally hang anyone who's on the ropes.

• I was rejected for work because of "low credit scores," a nonstarter under many companies' HR rules.
• My car insurance increased $100 a month, although I had filed no claims.
• Home insurance rates shot through the roof with high-risk underwriter policies.
• My credit card limits fell from $5,000 to $300. Securing even that privilege cost me a $100 deposit – on a card averaging 20 percent interest rates.
• Utilities began demanding deposits, despite my model customer history.
• In a final irony, despite outright owning my house I was denied any form of home equity loan – even with willing co-signers. Banks cited my poor credit ratings.

Broke but still unbroken, I got by. So recently flush and proud, I found myself pulling weeds on an East Texas estate for $10 an hour and working part time in a flea market. I drove for two years without valid auto registration; I was unable to get a current inspection sticker without maintenance on my car that I simply couldn't afford. I relearned how to save, shopping at Sam's, Fiesta and Big Lots. I bought and cooked in bulk and froze my food.

But the paramount key to my rebuilding was a reaffirming personal commitment, believing as I do that condescending arrogance when you're on top is a far greater failure than being broke.

It took me four years to piece my financial life back together. I won my case with IRS. My business flourished. I outlived the negatives on my credit report. Finally, I attacked those delinquent property taxes – now tripled with accrued interest, court costs and attorney fees – just before the city poised to seize my home.

By 2006, I was experiencing periodic flashbacks of what I later recognized as happiness.

I learned so much throughout this ordeal, foremost that when the chips are stacked against you, our system encourages the piranha-like free-market capitalists to pile on those who are down for the financial count.

Yes, my retirement funds are gone. But there is always abundant reason to celebrate life with caution and reverence. And share with stunned skeptics how my case is institutionally endemic rather than an anecdotal anomaly.

If this could happen to a well-connected, solvent homeowner, what does that say about those renting, leveraged, alone? Or about a Fair Credit law passed in this decade making it harder to file for bankruptcy than a divorce?

Still feel immune? All it takes is the perfect storm. And you know Texas weather.

Dallas Morning, News.

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