Good morning! Today I am having Ben Edgson, the owner of workfromhomeblog.net who wanted to share how he got a fresh start from nothing. Ben is a born and bred Londoner. However he gained most of his life experience over the last 4 years in America. Coming back to England broke, he’s on a mission to change his life and create passive income online! Follow him on Twitter or find him on Facebook.

Let me know if you would like to guest post on MMYW.

Hello Readers of MakeMoneyYourWay, Pauline, first of all, fantastic site! Thank you or letting me be a guest on your blog.

I wanted to share my story and hopefully inspire others that may be a little behind credit wise or financially. Maybe life has thrown some obstacles at you? Having spent the last 4 years in America and having loads of adversity thrown at me I needed to hit the reset button on life and make some changes! During the last 4 years I have: Had my dream car repossessed, been fined $15,000, been to jail twice, been homeless and gone through a divorce. All of it, in fact happened during my last year in America.

I made the decision to start afresh, I had enough money for a plane ticket back to England and I already had a suit due to me being a banker. When I landed I checked my account to see what I had to play with for the next few weeks, £12! Oh well, a coffee and a bag of chips it is!

My very dream is to be able to work from home blogging and create passive income. It’s an absolute dream to do what you love and get paid for it. I hope to do just that, but for now, having just £12, I need a job!

The week before my flight I had arranged five interviews for when I was back in England, the very first interview was the very next day after I had landed. I had set it in my mind that I WAS going to get this job, nothing else in life mattered at that point, I had no money, no job but I was certain and determined to get this one job out of the five possible jobs I was going for. I borrowed £100 from my brother to get up to London for these interviews, I had been well prepared for the interviews as I knew the job inside out, I was going for a Sales manager position at a health club. After the five first interviews and a round of second interviews I was offered 4 positions. The one job I wanted was included in that so I took it in a heartbeat, I started the very next day after being offered the job.

It took me two weeks to get a job and start it after landing. After building my team and implementing a high positive energy in the office we hit budget for the next consecutive 3 months meaning I would receive a bonus for each of the months! Phew, what a relief, after the second pay check now had a £1,000 in savings. I felt like the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders.

So what do the next few months have in store for me? Well October and Novembers pay checks are going to be tasty, this should give me the money I need for a deposit on a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment somewhere outside of London. This will mean I am commuting to work each day but being able to own a property and pay less on a mortgage compared to rent makes it all worth it to me. I aim to have this done by December 2013, this will mean that after having landed in England with £12 and a suit, 6 months later I can potentially be a property owner!

I do however need to improve my credit so I am writing a lot about improving my credit score over on my blog. This should be done over the next couple of months, and coupled with a deposit and pay slips should ensure I get the flat I want!

Morale of the story, no matter what life throws at you, with a positive mindset and hard work you can make a choice to change your situation. As Zig ziglar said “Positive thinking won’t let you do anything, but it will let you do everything, better than negative thinking will”.

This post was featured on the Financial Planning, Aspiring Blogger, Financial Nerd, Festival of Frugality, Carnival of Personal Finance, thank you!