Scratch Beginnings by Mark Shepard

Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream

In this first-person experiment, a man moves to an unfamiliar city with almost no money and no contacts to prove an ordinary person can rebuild a stable life from scratch; over the following year he chronicles taking low-wage work, finding housing, establishing credit and savings, and distills practical habits, budgeting tactics, networking strategies and a disciplined mindset into a readable mix of memoir and actionable advice for self-reliance and upward mobility.