Where Everything Started

Back in the mid-1980s, I was a young kid who had an obsession with music, speakers, windshield wipers, streetlights, and making steering wheels out of paper plates so I could pretend I was driving along with my dad in the car.

This all probably sounds pretty strange and random, but my parents told me that those things were all I talked about, and looking back I still remember sitting in the car with my paper plate steering wheel and used windshield wiper blades pretending I was driving in the rain while simultaneously pointing out every streetlight that we passed by from the passenger seat.

As I got older, my interests in music and anything involving stereo equipment and driving cars amplified.

I couldn’t wait to get my driver’s license and would spend afternoons dreaming of getting to drive my hypothetical car all by myself with my music blasting out of my hypothetical kickass car stereo system.

Anytime I would fantasize about this moment, the car was always a classic muscle car (of course) and I was the coolest kid in school (of course).

Well, reality set in and there were a lot of things I had to accomplish before getting my driver’s license and my own set of wheels.

First of all, my parents told me I would need to get a real part-time job, so I could afford the insurance premium when they added me to their policy. I was mowing lawns at the time and wasn’t making very much money.

I wasn’t the best student and was told that before I could even get a job or even start applying for one, I had to get my grades up to at least a B in each class.

Once I did that then I could get my license and THEN maybe get my own car.

Man, what a laundry list!

First of all, I couldn’t just bring my grades up overnight, so I had to work at it for a few months until the next report cards came out.

My passion for wanting to drive gave me the motivation to buckle down and by my next report card, I had achieved my goal and got my grades up.

I immediately started applying for local retail jobs for part-time work and landed one at the second place I applied to.

Sweet! I now had employment and was ready to get my license!

Within a couple of weeks after starting my first job, I FINALLY got my driver’s license! WOOHOO!

It was a dream come true for me as I had thought of this moment since I was a small child…literally.

Throughout the summer of 1995, I endlessly flipped through the Auto Trader magazines as soon as they were released looking for my dream vehicle.

I found a 1982 Honda Civic hatchback that in my opinion seemed like a good middle-of-the-road option for me. Definitely not my dream car, but it was the type of car young people like me would drive. It was also affordable and dependable.

I was ready to buy it, but my dad seemed hesitant. After all, he was going to pay for it and have me make payments to him from my paychecks, so he would be the ultimate decider on what I got.

One day he told me about a “nice looking car” parked on the street outside my work that was for sale.

It was a 1985 Audi 4000s sedan. My dad seemed hooked on this car and said that it seemed like a good safe choice considering the condition and price.

I looked at it and was not impressed. Audis weren’t as cool and slick as they are today and I saw nothing but a boring generic-looking sedan. This was an old people’s car!

I decided to get it anyway since I wanted my own vehicle and the only other vehicle we had at home was the car my dad drove.

To my shock, the kids at school seemed to think that this Audi was one of the coolest cars at the school. Apparently, German sports sedans were rare in our age group and some of my peers seemed a bit jealous!

Needless to say, I ended up loving this car and found it incredibly fun to drive. It was sporty as all get out and it broke my heart when I eventually had to get rid of it 8 years later.

As I became more seasoned as a driver over the next few years I became interested in taking road trips with friends as a way to get out of my small town and see what other places were like.

My first solo road trip was in early 1998 when I was 19 years old and it was terrifying.

Not the drive itself, but before I even got started on the trip I got horrible anxiety and postponed the trip an extra day to get myself together.

I eventually took the trip and after successfully making it to my destination and back, I was hooked.

Over the next two and a half decades I traveled up and down the entire west coast multiple times, made 5 cross-country road trips and in some cases, I would just drive to the closest neighboring state and back again for the heck of it.

I’ve broken down in the mountains of Northern California, the desert of Southern California, and the middle of Northern Louisiana, and each time I was ridiculously unprepared.

I got so comfortable with just hopping in my truck and taking off on a whim that in those situations where I was left stranded I realized that I needed to prepare better for the unexpected.

I’ve learned a lot over the years from these little mistakes and became interested in sharing my experiences of being on the open road, especially when taking a solo road trip.

My ultimate goal is to be able to travel this great country for weeks or even months at a time while sharing my experiences, good and bad, to help folks who have that same road warrior bug.

I realized that this accomplishment can get costly and needed to find a way to get financially savvy so I could eventually have the freedom to reach my ultimate goal.

In the last several years I have spent countless hours studying how to budget, save and invest funds to not only afford my addiction to traveling the open road but hopefully find a way to become more financially secure overall.

I have managed to boost my credit score by 200 points within a couple of years, put away a nest egg with several months of living expenses, and contribute to three separate investing accounts.

My goal for this website is to share the path to reaching my goal of financial freedom and traveling the open road, so hopefully my like-minded readers will be able to live a more secure and adventurous lifestyle themselves.

From “how to” information based on my many years of successes and failures to essential products and services that have been lifesavers during long road trips, this site should help feed your knowledge gap and empower you to seek out your next great adventure as well!

Congratulations on making it through this incredibly long-winded page of words.

I hope you find endless value as you read through the content here on The Willis Factor.

I appreciate you all,

Mike Willis