Man Vs. Debt Press Kit

Baker’s Biography | Joan’s Biography | Photo Downloads | Previously Featured On | More Info

Baker’s Biography

In 2008, after the birth of daughter Milligan, Adam Baker and his wife, Courtney, decided to sell everything they owned, pay off their consumer debt and travel the world as a family. They began sharing their journey publicly in early 2009, when ManVsDebt.com was founded.

The Bakers paid off more than $18,000 in consumer debt, reduced their possessions to what fit in two backpacks, and spent more than a year traveling in Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.

After a brief return to Indiana, the family lived in an RV for more than six months in early 2011, traveling the United States. They then spent a year in Asheville, N.C., where their second daughter, Charlotte Rose “Charlie” Baker, was born.

During that period of extended travel, Baker co-founded Only72.com, which offers entrepreneurial product bundles twice a year for 72 hours apiece; and Crank Tank Studios, a film company which released a feature-length documentary, “I’m Fine, Thanks,” in October 2012.

The motto under which Baker runs Man Vs. Debt is simple: The first step to living a life of passion and purpose is to remove the barriers that hold you back. Or, even more simply? Sell your crap. Pay off your debt. Do what you love.

Baker’s first premium online course, Sell Your Crap, featuring several e-books, videos and more, has helped more than 2,000 people make money while getting rid of their clutter. His newest guide is called You Vs. Debt (www.youvsdebt.com), and this six-week course in debt elimination has helped participants in three separate classes pay off a combined total of more than $650,000 in debt.

Baker has appeared in USA Today, Fox Business, msn, CNN Money, The New York Times and popular online sites, including Zenhabits, Lifehacker and the Huffington Post. He is often asked to speak on personal finance, debt reduction, travel, lifestyle design, parenting and minimalism.

Joan’s Biography

Joan Concilio and her husband, Chris, and their 12-year-old daughter, Sarah, live in central Pennsylvania and share their home with Joan’s mom, five cats, a hundred-pound dog and a hamster.

They’re definitely not world travelers – but they have paid off more than $30,000 of non-mortgage debt in the past two years. At its worst, their debt total was almost $90,000, but the family is committed to paying off all of that by early 2015 – and then tackling their mortgage!

Joan is a writer at heart; she worked for more than 13 years as a newspaper editor and columnist before joining Man Vs. Debt in late 2011 as editor and writer. In addition to airing her dirty financial laundry on Man Vs. Debt, Joan writes about life in her hometown and unschooling on her personal blogs.

She also facilitates the You Vs. Debt course (www.youvsdebt.com) and oversees Man Vs. Debt’s Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest accounts.

Joan’s monthly transparency updates, including her exact debt balances, are designed to both motivate her family to keep going and, hopefully, to motivate other members of the community as well.

Joan has been featured as both an author and an interviewee in several major U.S. newspapers and websites. She’s not sure which side of the reporter’s notebook she prefers. She is often asked to speak on personal finance, homeschooling, parenting, debt reduction and work/life balance.

Previously Featured On

We’ve had the great fortune of being featured in and covered on:

  • Traditional Media and Books (Print): USA Today, Psychology Today, The $100 Startup
  • Traditional Media (Online): MSN.com, CNNMoney, Fox Business, Time, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, and The San Francisco Chronicle
  • New Media & Blogs: Zen Habits, The Art of Non-Conformity, ProBlogger, LifeHacker, Get Rich Slowly, The Simple Dollar, WiseBread, and Digg.com

More Info

Scroll to Top