Today we’d like to introduce you to Eugene Newcombe.
Hi Eugene, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
It seems like the driving force in my life from my earliest age has been to earn money. Coming from a poor family, I learned early that if I wanted anything for myself that I’d have to find ways to make money. By 10 years old, I was earning cash mowing lawns, raking leaves, and shoveling snow. I also opened a savings account and banked any money I did not spend. I always had my eye on a stable financial future. At 12, I was working for cash as a busboy and dishwasher at a local restaurant. I also started a paper route. By this time, I was also hanging out with a pretty rough group of kids and I ended up being expelled from junior high school. Me and my friends weren’t exactly law abiding and I ended up on the wrong side of the law; luckily, being only 13, I was only sentenced to probation. I never went back to formal K-12 schooling. At 14, I was working at a Dairy Queen as a cook. At 15, I was working full time at a local factory. At this time, I began to wonder “is working for survival wages all there is to life?” One day I found myself entering an army recruiting office where I learned that after 20 years in the army I could retire on half pay. That sounded like a plan to me. Just a few days after my 17th birthday I shipped out to army basic training.
I retired from the army at 37, exactly 20 years after I joined. Not long before I retired, I suffered significant injuries on my last deployment. My wife of 10 years divorced me at that time leaving me and our daughter to fend for ourselves. I entered civilian life as a single parent of a 9 year old. Due to my injuries, I entered the veteran administration’s (VA) rehabilitation program. While on the rehab program, money was tight. My daughter and I barely scraped by. After finishing rehab, I landed a good job. This was 4 years after retirement. While in service I did manage to educate myself earning a GED, associate, and bachelor’s degrees. This education helped me advance in position in the civilian workplace. While at this job, I entered and completed a Masters degree which enabled me to move to senior positions at several companies. Unfortunately my service injuries slowly but surely worsened to a point where employment was no longer an option.
During my working years after service I was actively investing in stocks. Now unemployed, I filed for disability with the VA and social security. Both were initially disapproved, so all I had was my retirement and investment income; thus, I was back to the basics of survival (food, shelter, and clothing). Even though I was drawing income to live on from my stock investments, my principal was growing. After years of appeals, both VA and social security disability were approved. This allowed me to stop drawing from my investments for living expenses. After having to fight with the VA to get my disability approved, I started a YouTube channel (2014) and website to help disabled veterans with their VA related problems. Both were called VA Madness. I stopped actively helping veterans after a decade and closed the website in 2025. I am simply too old now (69) to spend 12 hours a day 7 days a week helping veterans. It really was time to retire for real. The YouTube channel is still active. My investments have vaulted me into the upper tiers of wealth. For fun I started a new YouTube channel (April 2026) called Ideal Ideation where I speak about investing and issues of the day.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My injuries suffered during service were my only real obstacles. There is no overcoming permanent physical injuries. You only learn to cope. Often I can’t walk or use my left hand or see out of my right eye. I live with pain, it never ends. I’ve built up a high tolerance for pain, so I only need to use pain pills occasionally. In any event, life moves on and I’ve learned to live a good life.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Being denied VA disability when I suffered from service-incurred permanent injuries puzzled me, so I sought help from various free services called veteran service organizations (VSOs). Even with their help, I was still denied disability. They eventually told me to give up. I turned to lawyers who told me the same thing. My service records were clear about my injuries so I really couldn’t understand why I was being denied. Finally, I was left with no choice but to learn the laws surrounding VA disability. Learning the law, it became clear that every one of my denied disabilities had been unjustly denied. I filed again, constructing valid legal arguments based on the evidence in my military records. I ended up winning every single one of my claims (over 30). I began to wonder how many other veterans did not receive quality help from VSOs or lawyers; thus, VA Madness was born. During the 10 years of actively running the VA Madness website, I guided over 6,000 veterans to overcome unjust denials of their claims for disability. I provided my advice at no charge. Other than my military service, I am most proud of helping veterans that had nowhere else to turn.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
I want people to know that many veterans are struggling. It’s really hard to describe all the problems veterans encounter in a short article. Those of you that want to understand what veterans are going through, go to my YouTube channel VA Madness. I am posting my book as read by my avatar. There is an introduction and 12 chapters in the book that explains the challenges veterans face and proposes fixes to each. Currently the intro is posted, to be followed by the remaining chapters. It’s free, so learn and enjoy.
Contact Info:
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/VAMADNESS
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOznjezaQnrasvrf_blFaCA
