Jennifer McKinney, that’s who!

Years ago I delighted in writing about mommy bloggers who earned gobs of money at the expense of their readers (and the advertisers who wanted to get in front of them), but were dishonest in one way or another. I’ve written about the shenanigans of Dooce, but we spent a lot of time on Jennifer McKinney, known as MckMama. She frauded her way through bankruptcy court and went on to shill for MLM company Xyngular.

McKinney is currently one of the top producers for Xyngular, and has been recognized as a “million dollar earner.” She started with Xyngular in 2012, and by mid-2014 she made $500,000. (Made… means commissions paid to her plus the value of trips and prizes given to her.) In late 2015 she was up to $1 million cumulative. Then $2 million cumulative by the middle of 2017. It was $3 million cumulative by mid-2018. She has likely surpassed $4 million cumulative by now… which is an average of $500,000 per year for the last 8 years.

And yet Jennifer Howe Sauls McKinney is a financial trainwreck. Following the dismissal of her bankruptcy case (i.e. she tried to defraud the bankruptcy court so her case was kicked out and she had to pay all her creditors) in 2013, she continued to have all sorts of financial problems. A 2014 state tax income tax warrant wasn’t paid until 2017. A 2016 state income tax warrant of almost $24,000 wasn’t paid until 2018. MckMama has recently had cars repossessed after failing to pay one of her creditors, yet can afford to rent this Maui house for $8,900 per month, and at the same time rent an apartment on Oahu for another couple of thousand of dollars a month.

They McKinney home in Wisconsin is in foreclosure for the second time, making this the FIFTH foreclosure action against Jennifer and Israel McKinney. You can read about the first 4 foreclosures here.

1. 316 W. 2nd Street, Chaska, MN – Purchased 8/30/04 for $210,000; Notice of Foreclosure 12/2/08
2. 6016 Beachwood Road, Mound, MN – Purchased 6/30/07 for $465,000; Notice of Foreclosure 2/5/09
3. 14464 98th Street, Becker, MN – Purchased 8/28/09 for $485,000; Taken by bank 4/19/11
4. W5441 Innsbruck Road, West Salem, WI – Purchased under a land contract on 7/27/12 for $282,500. Then there was a suspicious fire in March 2013. Huge renovations were done and $318,750 was borrowed against the house on 11/23/13. The foreclosure action was filed 12/22/14.
5. W5441 Innsbruck Road, West Salem, WI – Action filed on 1/17/20 to proceed with the foreclosure due to non-compliance.

The McKinneys have apparently been paying as agreed on the mortgage for the last several years. But in fall the family decided to move to Hawaii. They first moved to Oahu, signing a six month lease for an apartment, intending to be there for winter. Then in December they rented this house on Maui, calling it “permanent” and saying they didn’t know what they were going to do with their “other houses.”

It would appear that their solution was to stop paying the mortgage on their Wisconsin house and let the bank take it. They’ve spent a ton on renovations that have made it an awkward house. Odds are they owe more on it than they could get if they sold it.

Jennifer is regularly on Instagram, bragging about her material goods. That’s how you “sell the dream” in MLM anyway. Show what a big shot you are, talk about al the money you make, and people will sign up under you. It’s a clever scam. And yet, with all the money made through this grand scheme, Jennifer and Israel McKinney still can’t seem to pay their creditors.