Mark Zimmerman Research Paper

Have you ever wished that you planned better for something? Maybe you could’ve prevented future problems by having a plan? Mark Zimmerman has been living with this regret for a good part of his adult life. This is his story of how he got out of debt. Mr. Zimmerman said that when he got out of high school, his parents gave him a credit card. Not knowing how to use one, he accepted it. They told him that it was for emergencies only. Mark went on to college. Taking out student loans and having major book fees. He always had that thought in his head that he will be able to pay everything in the future.

Mark graduated college and went on to pursue a successful career in construction work.Zimmerman worked for his local union for a good six, nearly seven years before his accident.Zimmerman had fallen off a ladder at work and hurt his back severely.Mark was out of work for almost 3 months and then got laid off.He didn’t know what he was going to do, he still had student loans to pay off.
It looked as if his luck was changing though.His back had healed up for the most part.When he was 26, he began working at cranemaster making good money.
He had his own house and a girlfriend. He loved this girl so they decided to take a big step and have a child.Mark and his girlfriend Tanya saved up some money but as soon as the child came the money was already gone. Mark and Tanya had developed a gambling problem.Him and Tanya decided to get married, another huge commitment. Unfortunately Tanya just wasn’t the one for Mark so they ended up getting a divorce. Of course they went through the court battles over who would get what.Tanya took the house they were living in and Mark kept their child Junior. With the stress of the divorce, Junior, and financial worry Mark began drinking.His drinking had gotten so bad he was fired from being a cranemaster.He was back at square
one. Luckily Mark had seemed to catch some sort of break and had gotten another job at Finch’s Services driving trucks and running machines.Zimmerman was making decent money. But with his gambling and drinking problems money was still kind of tight. Through all the crap Mark thought he had found love again.This time was a small town girl named Louis. Unfortunately Louis didn’t really help Marks financial situations she helped with his son Junior a lot but if anything she made their money problems worse.Louis encouraged Mark to drink and gamble and she ended up developing an addiction with Vicodin. After a couple years Mark believed she was the one for him and married her on October 14th of 1998. With them both being drinkers and gamblers, Louis convinced Mark it would be a good idea to refinance their house.What this means is have the bank buy your house back that you have already paid for.

Things seemed like they were looking up for a while despite the drinking and gambling problems. But after a while Mark discovered Louis’s pill addiction was getting worse and she was spending money they didn’t have. They constantly fought over it and the drinking just made the arguments worse.Mark decided that this wasn’t healthy for Junior and he needed to get his life together.Him and Louis had gotten divorced only three years after being married.

Mark had gotten help with his drinking and gambling problems. He had a good support system and was determined to do right by Junior. A couple years down the road Mark was still struggling but not nearly as bad as before.He had finally met a woman that would be good for him.Jamie was great with budgeting and financial planning. She helped Mark set up a savings account.

Now he is 55 doing decently good. He only has about 3-4 more bills that need to be completely paid up. Then he co-signed on a 10,000 dollar car for Junior. This messed him up financially once again.Junior was driving without insurance on the car and wrecked it so now he has to pay for it and since Junior doesn’t have a job.He had almost everything done and paid for and then this happened Mark felt horrible.This is still pending on what is going to happen with the whole car situation.

The point of this story is to help people understand the earlier you start to save, the better. Also that you definitely need to watch who has control of your money. Watch how much trust you give to people you are in love with.Stay in school and get as much education as possible so you do not have to rely on other people to pay your bills and stuff like like that. It is something you need to know in life. If you’re lucky enough to get a good education they should teach you financing in High School.Mark thought if he just made enough money then he would be ok. He blew a lot of money gambling and on alcohol. If he would have just saved up like he should have in the first place he would have money in the bank. He has to wait until he is 68 to retire now.Hes only 55 now and he can barely stand up straight the accident had a huge impact on his back years later.. I hope this story helps you understand that yes it is ok to have fun but you just need to know the right and wrong times to do things. Now Marks new motto is “First you work then you play.” I guess you could say thats the whole moral of life and the story first you have to get your work done then you get time to play. But last but not least Mark and Jamie are also married and are living a pretty comfortable life.