But what happens when hard-earned money gets stolen?
For one New York contractor, that meant a backlog of corporate investigations, and something he just couldn't fix on his own.
Luckily, he had 7 On Your Side in his tool kit.
"This is a dream I've always had and I've always wanted to pursue ownership of some type of business," said Vincent Castellano, contractor.
Castellano is living the dream as he's the boss of his own business
"We do plumbing, fire suppression and mechanical work in the five boroughs," he said. "Started the business about 18 months ago is a fairly new business."
It's his good old fashioned elbow grease, blood, sweat and tears that keeps V Prime Mechanical afloat and provides for his family
"I don't think I'm ever going to be a rich man doing this business," Castellano said. "Obviously, something that I always wanted to do, but to show my kids, my family, you know, that if you set your mind to do something, you can do it."
Then there was a big setback. His wife, Gillian, who balances the book for their business discovered a check written for a major job they did back in December was missing.
"It was approximately $29,000. We followed up with them at two or three months. They said they were looking into it. Finally, I found up a week later, after they were looking into it, they told me the check was cashed," Castellano said.
$30,000 down the plumbers drain! Turns out the check was mailed to his old business address.
"So now this person went into the mailbox, grabbed a check, signed a check, pretended he was the owner of the check," he said.
The check stealer fessed up to the crime, but Castellano still couldn't unclog his cash from the bank for the fraud.
"They put a freeze on that money in January. We've been fighting since then to try to get that money returned back," he said. "The way they, they responded was like, if this is the first experience dealing with something like this, they were walking with two left feet."
7 On Your Side got in touch with both banks and streamlined the needed documentation.
"I mean, I would say 24 hours after that initial call from you guys, we received the call from the executive's office for both banks," Castellano said.
After six months of waiting, Castellano finally got his $29,000 payment and was able to keep living his dream.
That began with taking a delayed vacation. The family went camping in their RV.
"Thank you, 7 On Your Side!" Castellano said.
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