Hello Agnut !,

WOW !! lots of information in your post.
I have been working outside all weekend and missed your post.
I used the extra time opportunity to do some sheet metal work on the 1987 Jeep I acquired from a neighbor.
I thought the carpet was really disgusting, but the floor underneath was even more suprising !!
Hah
After I got the interior out and vacuumed ( yes the rust was needing a vacuum ) the surface rust and roughed it with a wire brush I had a flashback to when I was 5 or 6 or so years old and grandpa would take me up to the store to buy a soda....
He had this old Buick with a flame painted down the side and I could sit and watch the gravel road go by if I moved the floor mat over to one side.
Anyways,
I have been cutting sheet metal and tacking it in.
The damage was mostly in the back.
No worries, I have had vehicles MUCH worse than this...
I need to learn to weld though.
That is the way to go, and I was not expecting such a project.
It does look good ( better ) now.
I have owned 3 diesel VW's in the last 10 years.
I loved each of them.
The Jetta I had was a 52 MPG car, it was awesome...
But you hit the magic word...
Turbo.
Uggghhh....very expensive to replace...
Anyways,
I have some more to say but I will get back in a day or so and comment on the fine amount of information you have shared.
Regards,
Haystackneedle

Hi angryhippy. Thanks for the info. I appreciate it if readers would post any other bargains they see.

I heard from another member that the prices of ammo will be going up as much as 20% soon. Brass and copper prices have gone through the roof, at least that is the explanation.

Ponce says to keep your fuel tanks full. I am thinking of filling my boat’s 40 gallon tank as a reservoir. Also extra propane tanks should be checked. While weather is warm it may be a good idea for those of you who have wood burning stoves to accumulate some heating material. It could be local fallen trees or as I have done with free wooden pallets. Some are even made of oak and other hardwood. They are all over my area and two stores have told me that they are only too happy to get them out of their back delivery areas. Besides, I could probably sell them to businesses that need them for shipping. I can’t believe that they are just laying around in stacks. Doesn’t anybody know that after the fall there is winter ? And winter has traditionally been cold ? And when wood burns it makes heat ? Am I missing something here ? It will be interesting to see if the stacks of pallets behind the stores start disappearing this winter. You should see some of the beautiful pallets I have stacked up so far. It is almost a shame to use them for firewood.

Funny that most folks say that everything is going up in price rather than the value of the dollar is going down. Assbackwards. That’s the kind of thinking that only understands (if ever) after it is too late.

Knowledge is an extremely powerful tool if we will only put it to use.

I haven’t seen anyone make the connection between the economy and volcanoes. Although there have been fiat collapses in Argentina, Zimbabwe, and other countries’ currencies, they are like local volcanoes going off and the damage is also localized. However the dollar is the reserve currency for the world and therefore like a super volcano. There are only a few of these super volcano around the world. But when one of them goes off, the whole world is affected dramatically. Almost an extinction event.

And likewise, a collapse of the dollar would cause an extinction of wealth throughout the world. See, most everybody dies in a geologic super volcano event but in a reserve currency super volcano event their wealth dies. And many of them may wish they were dead. To fall from wealth to poverty in short order is a shock to the psyche from which many will never recover. With so many Americans on mood enhancing drugs, they will miss the impact of the event. Maybe that will be best for them since they are not prepared anyway. Sometimes I wonder if that is part of the plan. To medicate a large part of a population into inattentiveness (or obliviousness if you prefer) of their responsibilities to not only their personal lives but also their responsibilities as patriotic citizens. In Depression 1 there was no medication for those in mental distress like we have today. And as I read, there were many suicides then.

I don’t mean it to be depressing to you who read this but rather to make you aware of the fact that there will be much distracting news, most of it tragic. We must remain focused on our goals of security for ourselves and our loved ones. Our preparations must be both physical and mental. Facing imminent catastrophic events and preparing is sadly rare in our society. We as a people have had it so good for so long that we have little experience with an overwhelming struggle to survive. As we all know, most of the world’s people do struggle to survive on a daily basis.

Several weeks ago I cautioned readers to hold cash rather than bartering and horse trading. Also it may be a good idea to sell any unwanted items for cash. My favorite cash in hand is bricks of nickels. Gotta get more. Ebay may be good for some items you have. Local garage sales have been slow for several months and this tells me that people don’t have discretionary money. If this trend continues, there would be lots of sellers and darn few buyers. Like what is happening in real estate, which by the way will only be getting worse since we won’t reach the peak of the variable mortgage refis for several more months. And foreclosures take months after that. So the time line extends through the end of next year. Ugh !

My last post was about high MPG cars and we will go into that more as readers post their opinions. As I said, cars and transportation has been the second largest expense for the average citizen. That may change in the future but it will still be a considerable source of wisely conserving one’s wealth.

“A penny saved was two pennies earned.” No apologies to old Ben Franklin who didn’t have the government we have. I’m sure he would understand although be appalled at our current situation.

That’s right, the govt takes half of what we earn. That is, IF WE LET THEM !

There are legal ways to avoid much of this. My focus is on stretching the buck as far as possible. If the average income is $50K per year and taxes take half, that leaves only $25K to pay the bills. About $2K per month. Those who have high mortgage payments relative to their take home pay are between a rock and a hard place. In my opinion, houses are ridiculously overpriced. They need to drop to the previous relationship of a fourth of take home pay. That would be about $500 per month by the above example. From the landlord’s position, a house rented should be 1% per month of the value of the house. A $350,000 house should rent for $3,500 per month. But it isn’t happening, is it ? More like $1,400 per month. This is what I have been seeing in my area.

I have to wonder if house prices will fall back in line in the future. Recently it was predicted that houses will drop 50% from where they are now. That would make the $350,000 house drop to $175,000. But it is not that simple since at the same time there would be a liquidity crunch and high unemployment and rents may fall in accordance. It would be a case of a falling knife being passed by a falling rock. Cut by one and hit on the head by the other. Who knows how far it will fall but I think it will be worse that most imagine. For a long time I have believed that raw land will take the worse beating since it is undeveloped and not income producing except for possibly agricultural and has the burden of yearly taxes. A big negative to own raw land at that time but a possible opportunity for those with the cash in hand.

They say to buy land because they ain’t making any more of it. But I say that there ain’t gonna be buyers for that land at the bottom after a crash. Well, unless those buyers are foreigners who hold our trillions of dollars we traded for their trinkets. Are we starting to sound like the Indians who traded Manhattan for trinkets ? Is history beginning to rhyme ?

Don’t go by me that raw land will be dirt cheap and rebound to make you a fortune. Raw land could sit there useless longer than you may live.

All this is speculation founded on recovery after a crash. But Ponce and I have had many conversations about whether there will even be a recovery. We have exported our manufacturing plants and now export fiat dollars. Once they refuse further dollars, we are sunk. We have become an international debtor and what lies ahead is how we will satisfy this debt. And it is growing exponentially. The only way out seems to be reneging on this debt.

The best I have been able to do is to save what I can, spend as little as possible and invest in what I think will have a value in the future. And continue to pick up freebies like the wood pallets along the way. My intention is not to get rich but rather to avoid becoming poor. Heck, maybe that will be considered rich someday.

When things hit the bottom there will be opportunities for those who still have resources. However it will be a different world with different values. Luxuries like art and classic cars and collectables will not be in demand like they were before. I still have some art that I couldn’t sell for what I paid several years ago, even though it was a bargain then. What use does a person have for a painting when he doesn’t have the money for the house in which to hang the painting ? That is why I keep writing that we are moving from form to function. The emphasis in the future will be almost entirely on what provides a beneficial function. Cars that get 8 MPG won’t provide the function of cars that gets 50 MPG, no matter how sleek they are or how fast they accelerate from zero to sixty. They used to say that a car was so fast that it could pass up anything except a gas station.

Too bad that mainstream American didn’t put an emphasis on how we could get the highest mileage possible. It would have been a beautiful competition for the average American. Bragging rights about efficiency and economy rather than the opposite. Wow ! We really screwed up.

We here at GIM have the advantage of knowing what to do to protect ourselves. All the disagreements on precious metals are personal preference and fine tuning in my opinion. It is wonderful that we have many old hands who are willing to share their thoughts. Of course, nothing is certain and we must realistically know that we all can be blindsided. But by preparing, our odds are more in our favor than those who remain oblivious. With this in mind, our adaptability to change is an asset we must not neglect since I feel that we will be facing many changes in the future. Somewhere in the past we must have changed our minds about what is wealth and ACTED on what we learned. We adapted to protect ourselves. This is not a one shot deal but rather should become a lifelong characteristic that is a part of all our decision making.

Successful barterers and horse traders have several tools at their disposal. Like adaptability, positive attitude, sense of humor, money management, good judgment, motivation, open mindedness, studiousness, and honesty.

What’s in YOUR toolbox ?

I’ll get off my soapbox now. I was getting kind of dizzy up there anyway.

Best wishes,

Agnut

Tried a yard sale today not expecting to find anything.
Found a Singer treadle sewing machine in good condition and two kerosene lanterns (one an Aladdin No 23, both have fancy glass). Followed Agnut's advice and asked how much for all three items. They reduced the total price to $40. Figure about $35 for the Singer and $5 for the two lanterns. I have been thinking of getting items like these for preps to put back and feel I can sell them if I want to later for a profit. May have to look at more yard sales.

Hello Agnut,

I am mucho tardy in my reply to your informative above post about diesels and such.
My apologies.
Might I answer now and just ramble awhile ???...
I first became interested in high( er ) mileage autos mostly from necessity.
(wasn't it Franklin, who said..." Necessity is the mother of all invention " ?)
During my college days it was necessary for me to sqqqueeeze the most
mileage out of all of my supplies just to make a life and get through it.
Y'know what I mean don't ya' ?....squeezing the tomato paste from McD's into some warm water along with those borrowed crackers from the 7-11 salad bar was a fine meal....:D
Some of my friends in those days were driving some real doosey mileage beasts that got 9, 10, 13 miles to the gallon and the commute to school and work was destroying them budget wise.
Now fuel wasn't as cheap as some of you fellows remember it but when I first starting being a consumer so to speak it was less than .50 a gallon.
And I was making less than 4 dollars an hour trying to get through college.
My late father was interested in autos as well and he purchased, for my sister, a early 80's diesel Rabbit.
It got nearly DOUBLE the mileage I got with my Datsun 210, and I was getting DOUBLE what my friends were....Imports were just getting kinda popular, but I was still an "odd duck" for driving one I remember...
Now, 55 miles to the gallon for that Rabbit really got my attention.
With that kinda saving, I could maybe quit scamming the tomato packets and maybe eat a little better, but alas, the costs of a diesel were out of reach in the early '80's for me as many were into diesel models and i could not afford much more than a Flintstone mobile...
( Note: it was kinda ironic though that on the expressway on ramp a tractor trailer could out accelerate something named a ' Rabbit" ...heh heh )
For 25 years I have been interested in vehicles that " beat the system " in whatever way they could.
As I became more involved in the corporate world, I received first a gas card, then a car allowance, and then even both together or finally and / or an auto or truck to drive to and from work...."hey...auto costs...it don't matter anymore...!"
Boy did I have a lot to learn...
I became complacent until I noticed how much the company fuel bills were at times and how rising prices affected the bottom line.
It also seemed to me that the " system" was a circular reference of sorts as the fact that we were all driving around gas hogs seemed to really bother no one as long as the price was stable and we passed the costs along to the customer....intetesting 'system" we have I have often thought...we all pay for each others life style do we not ?...
What a scam many things are huh ?
On the gas card system, I drove a Jeep Compact Wagoneer I bought from an attorney friend of mine who took it in exchange for his fee.
I cleaned it up, got it running and drove it for app. 200K miles and kept all of the receipts.
Even with the below diesel rambles I will get to, it has been my best deal, as it was used, and even though I spent a LOT of time over the 4 years repairing this and that and maintaining it, I drove it like crazy and the receipts showed me that my cost per mile were less than .10 each...not bad transportation costs IMO
Unfortunately this vehicle was stolen, ( another discussion ) and I was tired
of fixing stuff as I had been driving sometimes 1000 miles a week and I was beat when the weekends arrived...
10 years ago, in 1997, I changed jobs, and bought my first new car from a dealer.
I was not offered an auto with the new job package...no biggee I thought...they were paying the IRS rate for mileage.
THEN, we got a few projects out of town and I really began revisiting the subject......wow...I had to fill up pretty darn often....
It occured to me, that the only way to " beat " the parameters I was working under, was for me to get the most bang for the buck against that IRS rate per mile....higher MPG...
I traded out of my first new off the lot car ( over the hype I was ), and got into a used 1997 diesel Passat.
They are very sought after down here by salesman types.
I got 53 miles to the gallon at times...48 to 50 at a steady 80 on I -95.
It was awesome, had a longer wheel base than other VW models and was a
real highway machine.
I did good on the IRS / .425 or whatever it was per mile with the corporation, against the costs I was putting out.
Real good with that Passat.
I also bought had a 1998 Jetta diesel that my wife drove and it too was awesome.
THEN, I noticed that diesel , which used to be less $$ than unleaded,
began to creap up per gallon here in Florida and it sold at a premium to unleaded by as much as 10 per cent.
Now, this was interesting.
My spreadsheet changed.
So much so, that it appears to me,
that the cost differential for outlay on a newer diesel VW
are not overcome by the fuel / mileage costs and one
is actually better off with a Toyota getting a few less MPG.
One needs to work it out with todays prices in your area to see what I am talking about.
Furthermore, I might add Agnut, that even with the warranty
the VW NEEDS that Turbo to get out of its own way and it is +- 1600 to 2000 to replace it.
And guess when it goes out ???
Yup...right AFTER warranty expiration...
NOT to mention the computer !!.... again !!!
Same price to replace, same bat channel...
ugghh...
For this reason I sold the Passat for cash,
had TWO guys dickering with me with cash in my own driveway...
great resale they have...
and I figured my costs to drive it 100 K miles were +- .15 per mile.
Note...the ONLY way to keep the per mile costs down ( a newer one that is ) is to keep a vehicle for an extended period of time ...otherwise...you get caught up in losing money in depreciation and dealer fees etc etc etc...blh, blah, blah...
If you are driving it somewhat frequently that is too..otherwise the per mile calcs mean nothing.
I notice many people here have a vehicle to "look cool" and they do not analyze anything at all.
Last year, Oct 2006, I sold my latest diesel, a VW Jetta wagon, as I had left the 10 year duration job and I thought that keeping an auto around and making a payment and NOT getting a mileage expense check was a budget abomination...
That is another thing to consider when buying any new ( er ) car IMO.
Mileage payments / car allowance are good when they cover the payment, the insurance, and the fuel....but when something happens...YOU are stuck with it ALL.

Things have changed a little, I am not traveling as much as I used to,
and I am working on a few " paid up " transportation items.
I am thinking that paid up,
fairly mid level fuel economy, blue collar type vehicles are the way to save on transportation costs.
Currently I have a 1987 Jeep Cherokee.
They are in abundant supply...parts are too...
I call it my " Anti Hummer " or the " Git Er Done " vehicle.
I paid about 800 for it, from my neighbor,
and it had a new just rebuilt automatic transmission in it.
What a bonus.
Over a few years, I have replaced the engine and am now working on the interior etc etc.
I have about 3K all paid up in it, and it looks kinda like a mini land rover with the luggage rack on top...not a big deal, but most autos are the same to me and only the plastic they stick all over them make them different in appeal these days...
My wife drove it around this last week and I was suprised that she and the teenager actually thought it was "cool."
Eggggscellent.....I say...the teenager thinks it is 'cool" --that means she might be learning something --as a new Hummer or Land Rover are easily over 30, 40 or 50 K and she has even commented on it...
I think I even saw one of those Hummer thingees at Costco one time and the sticker said 75 K ...??!!!???
Who buys those things anyways ?
The way I see it, is I can build TEN perfectly reliable transport vehicles,
for the cost of ANY new mid size sedan ( not counting the financing costs ) and I can still get from "A" to "B" just like Mr. Harrison does...
Anyways....we also have a 1994 Taurus.
I paid 900 for it...went through some problems as expected,
and it was n-a-s-t-y- inside....
nasty auots can ALWAYS be bought at a discount.
Caveat Emptor y'know...but with +- 3 K total paid in full in it also
we have a low mileage , new transmission, very clean and super duper cold a/c 2nd vehicle that runs like a scalded cat.
Both above vehicles get +- 25 MPG currently.
Not bad....but like you Agnut, I am always interested in the future.

I think the time is NOW to think about ones transportation needs in 1 , 3 , 5 or even 10 years down the road.
Is "peak oil" a sham. ?
I dunno, it is hotly debated here.
But my thinking is that either or, current / tomorrow SUPPLY can be disrupted easily and put all of us in a jam any day.
I remember a few years ago, after the three hurricanes passed directly through central Florida, I traveled over to Tampa to visit a project.
Silly me, fuel was in short supply and I almost had to spend the night because I did not fill up before I left to go over there.
ALL sales in central Florida where I live were limited to 50 dollars also.
Learned a lot from that.

Now...with all of that carrying on....
I expect fuel to go up ( dollar value down )
and maintenance costs the same as well....
CHEAP transportation will be common talk IMO ...
I am currently looking for a NON turbo diesel VW.
I am going to find one ( or two and piece one together )
and store them here at the Haystack industrial complex and work on them little by little.
My reasoning is that diesel stores better than gas,
and that 55 MPG still cannot be beat considering the total costs involved.
( yeah, yeah I know about hybrids...but I wanna see verified maintenance reports first and they ain;t giving them things away)
ALSO, I am considering, am by far not totally informed, alternative fuels that can be used in this same model.
Furthermore, I might also suggest a manual Tercel as some of them,
I had an 1988, get in the 40's, which I consider to be excellent.
I do not know so much about Honda and other brands...maybe someone else does...
Here, the " Speed Racing " craze has held up the price for most used Honda vehicles and I have not been interested.
Note:
Halo used to comment a LOT about recumbent bicycles here.
IMO a bicycle(s) is a MUST have item in the " get through to the other side" arsenal.
Agnut has mentioned other diesels that will last forever like the 240D Mercedes, but I know little about them.
Perhaps he can expound more on them.
I will try and check back and post
some of my successes or failures at hunting for transport.
I am feeling pretty comfortable now with the " stable "
( I did not go into the others )
but times are changing and I think we all should be thinking alternatively.
In worst case scenario, I also have a few extra boots put away and a few backpacks as well....
Regards to all,
Haystackneedle

will see alot of ads like this one...link will obviously go away if they are sold...so I cut and paste entire ad (pictures do show up on cut and paste)....price is too high.....but there will be alot of these!

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/tls/417314195.html


COMPLETE SET CONSTRUCTION TOOLS - $15000

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to: sale-417314195@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-09-08, 12:48PM MST


MOST EVERYTHING NEEDED TO DO CARPENTRY, PLUMBING, DRYWALL, ELECTRICAL, WELDING(GAS & ELECTRIC), MASONRY, CONCRETE WORK, TILT WORK. ELECTRIC SAWS, DRILLS(110V & CORDLESS), SANDERS, ROTO HAMMER, COMPOUND MITER SAW, TABLE SAW, COMPRESSOR, AIR FRAMING NAILER, HEAT GUN, BISCUTT jOINER, EXTENSION CORDS, LEVELS, LADDERS, SMALL PART STORAGE,SHEET ROCK AND PLYWOOD STORAGE,HAND TOOLS, AND ON AND ON....ALL IS IN A 6' X 12' ENCLOSED TRAILER. SELLING COMPLETE SET. HOOK UP AND GO TO WORK. 480-899-9791




Location: CHANDLER
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 417314195

Hi Haystackneedle. I have been there with patching the old rust buckets. Even had a Studebaker that I had to keep my feet positioned so that I wouldn’t go through to the rapidly passing ground below.

Funny that so many folks will only buy a new or near new car when they can pick up reliable transportation for little more than what would be a few months payments for a new or late car. Somehow I can’t bring myself to allow the credit sharks to take their monthly bite. I don’t like anyone having a morbid interest in my financial freedom. Especially for 5-7 years’ payments. Additionally, they demand full insurance which ain’t cheap either.

Even if you don’t get a high mileage diesel car, at least find a good gas mileage one that you don’t have to make payments on for years. This is as foolish as running up your credit cards. By the way, I only have debit cards; if the money ain’t in the bank account, I won’t buy it.

The VW diesels are a great value as long as you don’t get a near new one; they can cost several times the price of a 1980 to 1990 vintage diesel. I have gone through the expensive car stage and have now settled down to practicality and value as the motivating force in my transportation needs.

The only reason I would buy a turbo diesel VW would be for a mile per gallon experiment. I will be looking into this when time permits. But you are right; the turbo unit is very expensive to replace. I know some fellow mechanics that rebuild turbos and trick them out for higher performance. They also have a flow bench and are interested in modifying the diesel head for better performance. But this is really a sideline in a shaky economy. I don’t know if I will ever have the time or extra cash to do it. Isn’t it a shame that inventing and bettering a product takes a back seat when the future is so uncertain ? Right now any extra money is going into preparations.

This expensive turbo could be rebuilt while a diesel motor was also being rebuilt and therefore the turbo’s life shouldn’t be a problem. As I understand, the only parts that wear out are the bearings and seals. So a running turbo is cheap to rebuild where a new turbo is waaaay expensive. It’s cost may even balance against increased fuel mileage. I had hopes of modifying the transmission’s gear ratios as well as the engine and turbo in order to get 70 miles per gallon. My three diesel VW cars are all non turbo and all need rebuilding; no good for this particular experiment. However it would be interesting to see what they are capable of without the turbo.

I have read your next post and will answer as soon as I can.

Best wishes,

agnut

Hi BW3. Good for you ! Getting out and rooting around is a big hurdle that readers need to overcome if they are ever to become sharp barterers and horse traders.

Pleasant surprises are a constant characteristic of this garage sale and estate sale “hobby”. I love it and feel a sense of lost opportunity when I don’t get out on Saturday with my younger son. I can’t do it lately with all that has to be done with the recent house and business move. Lots of boxes of stuff still unpacked and empty shelves waiting to organize. I just paid for a year’s subscription to the local paper that has the garage sales and other bargains. It comes out Wednesday and Saturday and I sometimes I search the Wednesday copy for Friday garage sales so that I can beat M-F 8-5 working stiffs to the deals. A little edge but it pays off big sometimes. In fact, the 10 acres I am living on was in a Saturday ad and we jumped on it immediately.

Hey ! I just realized that the 10 acres was the biggest benefit of looking for deals in the papers. No wonder I can’t get out to garage sales lately; I am still absorbing its enormity and work needed. Bit off more than I could chew, I did.

Your Singer sewing machine sounds like a great deal. Back in the 50s my aunt taught me how to sew on such a machine. Her Singer had an add on electric motor but could be used with the foot treadle if necessary.

And you reminded me to get more lanterns and oil. Thanks.

I hope your recent experience will encourage you to continue. It gets better and better the more we go out on the hunt. It has become a part of my sons’ and my lifestyle. And money saved is like extra money earned.

Best wishes,

agnut

Here's an article that should provide a banquet of food for thought. Let me know your thoughts. I have been self employed for many years and couldn't go back to working for someone else; I'm too spoiled now.

10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/200...ver-get-a-job/

Just for fun I recently asked Erin, “Now that the kids are in summer school, don’t you think it’s about time you went out and got yourself a job? I hate seeing you wallow in unemployment for so long.”

She smiled and said, “Wow. I have been unemployed a really long time. That’s weird… I like it!”

Neither of us have had jobs since the ’90s (my only job was in 1992), so we’ve been self-employed for quite a while. In our household it’s a running joke for one of us to say to the other, “Maybe you should get a job, derelict!”

It’s like the scene in The Three Stooges where Moe tells Curly to get a job, and Curly backs away, saying, “No, please… not that! Anything but that!”

It’s funny that when people reach a certain age, such as after graduating college, they assume it’s time to go out and get a job. But like many things the masses do, just because everyone does it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. In fact, if you’re reasonably intelligent, getting a job is one of the worst things you can do to support yourself. There are far better ways to make a living than selling yourself into indentured servitude.

Here are some reasons you should do everything in your power to avoid getting a job:

1. Income for dummies.

Getting a job and trading your time for money may seem like a good idea. There’s only one problem with it. It’s stupid! It’s the stupidest way you can possibly generate income! This is truly income for dummies.

Why is getting a job so dumb? Because you only get paid when you’re working. Don’t you see a problem with that, or have you been so thoroughly brainwashed into thinking it’s reasonable and intelligent to only earn income when you’re working? Have you never considered that it might be better to be paid even when you’re not working? Who taught you that you could only earn income while working? Some other brainwashed employee perhaps?

Don’t you think your life would be much easier if you got paid while you were eating, sleeping, and playing with the kids too? Why not get paid 24/7? Get paid whether you work or not. Don’t your plants grow even when you aren’t tending to them? Why not your bank account?

Who cares how many hours you work? Only a handful of people on this entire planet care how much time you spend at the office. Most of us won’t even notice whether you work 6 hours a week or 60. But if you have something of value to provide that matters to us, a number of us will be happy to pull out our wallets and pay you for it. We don’t care about your time — we only care enough to pay for the value we receive. Do you really care how long it took me to write this article? Would you pay me twice as much if it took me 6 hours vs. only 3?

Non-dummies often start out on the traditional income for dummies path. So don’t feel bad if you’re just now realizing you’ve been suckered. Non-dummies eventually realize that trading time for money is indeed extremely dumb and that there must be a better way. And of course there is a better way. The key is to de-couple your value from your time.

Smart people build systems that generate income 24/7, especially passive income. This can include starting a business, building a web site, becoming an investor, or generating royalty income from creative work. The system delivers the ongoing value to people and generates income from it, and once it’s in motion, it runs continuously whether you tend to it or not. From that moment on, the bulk of your time can be invested in increasing your income (by refining your system or spawning new ones) instead of merely maintaining your income.

This web site is an example of such a system. At the time of this writing, it generates about $9000 a month in income for me, and it isn’t my only income stream either. I write each article just once (fixed time investment), and people can extract value from them year after year. The web server delivers the value, and other systems (most of which I didn’t even build and don’t even understand) collect income and deposit it automatically into my bank account. It’s not perfectly passive, but I love writing and would do it for free anyway. But of course it cost me a lot of money to launch this business, right? Um, yeah, $9 is an awful lot these days (to register the domain name). Everything after that was profit.

Sure it takes some upfront time and effort to design and implement your own income-generating systems. But you don’t have to reinvent the wheel — feel free to use existing systems like ad networks and affiliate programs. Once you get going, you won’t have to work so many hours to support yourself. Wouldn’t it be nice to be out having dinner with your spouse, knowing that while you’re eating, you’re earning money? If you want to keep working long hours because you enjoy it, go right ahead. If you want to sit around doing nothing, feel free. As long as your system continues delivering value to others, you’ll keep getting paid whether you’re working or not.

Your local bookstore is filled with books containing workable systems others have already designed, tested, and debugged. Nobody is born knowing how to start a business or generate investment income, but you can easily learn it. How long it takes you to figure it out is irrelevant because the time is going to pass anyway. You might as well emerge at some future point as the owner of income-generating systems as opposed to a lifelong wage slave. This isn’t all or nothing. If your system only generates a few hundred dollars a month, that’s a significant step in the right direction.

2. Limited experience.

You might think it’s important to get a job to gain experience. But that’s like saying you should play golf to get experience playing golf. You gain experience from living, regardless of whether you have a job or not. A job only gives you experience at that job, but you gain ”experience” doing just about anything, so that’s no real benefit at all. Sit around doing nothing for a couple years, and you can call yourself an experienced meditator, philosopher, or politician.

The problem with getting experience from a job is that you usually just repeat the same limited experience over and over. You learn a lot in the beginning and then stagnate. This forces you to miss other experiences that would be much more valuable. And if your limited skill set ever becomes obsolete, then your experience won’t be worth squat. In fact, ask yourself what the experience you’re gaining right now will be worth in 20-30 years. Will your job even exist then?

Consider this. Which experience would you rather gain? The knowledge of how to do a specific job really well — one that you can only monetize by trading your time for money – or the knowledge of how to enjoy financial abundance for the rest of your life without ever needing a job again? Now I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have the latter experience. That seems a lot more useful in the real world, wouldn’t you say?

3. Lifelong domestication.

Getting a job is like enrolling in a human domestication program. You learn how to be a good pet.

Look around you. Really look. What do you see? Are these the surroundings of a free human being? Or are you living in a cage for unconscious animals? Have you fallen in love with the color beige?

How’s your obedience training coming along? Does your master reward your good behavior? Do you get disciplined if you fail to obey your master’s commands?

Is there any spark of free will left inside you? Or has your conditioning made you a pet for life?

Humans are not meant to be raised in cages. You poor thing…

4. Too many mouths to feed.

Employee income is the most heavily taxed there is. In the USA you can expect that about half your salary will go to taxes. The tax system is designed to disguise how much you’re really giving up because some of those taxes are paid by your employer, and some are deducted from your paycheck. But you can bet that from your employer’s perspective, all of those taxes are considered part of your pay, as well as any other compensation you receive such as benefits. Even the rent for the office space you consume is considered, so you must generate that much more value to cover it. You might feel supported by your corporate environment, but keep in mind that you’re the one paying for it.

Another chunk of your income goes to owners and investors. That’s a lot of mouths to feed.

It isn’t hard to understand why employees pay the most in taxes relative to their income. After all, who has more control over the tax system? Business owners and investors or employees?

You only get paid a fraction of the real value you generate. Your real salary may be more than triple what you’re paid, but most of that money you’ll never see. It goes straight into other people’s pockets.

What a generous person you are!

5. Way too risky.

Many employees believe getting a job is the safest and most secure way to support themselves.

Morons.

Social conditioning is amazing. It’s so good it can even make people believe the exact opposite of the truth.

Does putting yourself in a position where someone else can turn off all your income just by saying two words (”You’re fired”) sound like a safe and secure situation to you? Does having only one income stream honestly sound more secure than having 10?

The idea that a job is the most secure way to generate income is just silly. You can’t have security if you don’t have control, and employees have the least control of anyone. If you’re an employee, then your real job title should be professional gambler.

6. Having an evil bovine master.

When you run into an idiot in the entrepreneurial world, you can turn around and head the other way. When you run into an idiot in the corporate world, you have to turn around and say, “Sorry, boss.”

Did you know that the word boss comes from the Dutch word baas, which historically means master? Another meaning of the word boss is “a cow or bovine.” And in many video games, the boss is the evil dude that you have to kill at the end of a level.

So if your boss is really your evil bovine master, then what does that make you? Nothing but a turd in the herd.

Who’s your daddy?

7. Begging for money.

When you want to increase your income, do you have to sit up and beg your master for more money? Does it feel good to be thrown some extra Scooby Snacks now and then?

Or are you free to decide how much you get paid without needing anyone’s permission but your own?

If you have a business and one customer says “no” to you, you simply say “next.”

8. An inbred social life.

Many people treat their jobs as their primary social outlet. They hang out with the same people working in the same field. Such incestuous relations are social dead ends. An exciting day includes deep conversations about the company’s switch from Sparkletts to Arrowhead, the delay of Microsoft’s latest operating system, and the unexpected delivery of more Bic pens. Consider what it would be like to go outside and talk to strangers. Ooooh… scary! Better stay inside where it’s safe.

If one of your co-slaves gets sold to another master, do you lose a friend? If you work in a male-dominated field, does that mean you never get to talk to women above the rank of receptionist? Why not decide for yourself whom to socialize with instead of letting your master decide for you? Believe it or not, there are locations on this planet where free people congregate. Just be wary of those jobless folk — they’re a crazy bunch!

9. Loss of freedom.

It takes a lot of effort to tame a human being into an employee. The first thing you have to do is break the human’s independent will. A good way to do this is to give them a weighty policy manual filled with nonsensical rules and regulations. This leads the new employee to become more obedient, fearing that s/he could be disciplined at any minute for something incomprehensible. Thus, the employee will likely conclude it’s safest to simply obey the master’s commands without question. Stir in some office politics for good measure, and we’ve got a freshly minted mind slave.

As part of their obedience training, employees must be taught how to dress, talk, move, and so on. We can’t very well have employees thinking for themselves, now can we? That would ruin everything.

God forbid you should put a plant on your desk when it’s against the company policy. Oh no, it’s the end of the world! Cindy has a plant on her desk! Summon the enforcers! Send Cindy back for another round of sterility training!

Free human beings think such rules and regulations are silly of course. The only policy they need is: “Be smart. Be nice. Do what you love. Have fun.”

10. Becoming a coward.

Have you noticed that employed people have an almost endless capacity to whine about problems at their companies? But they don’t really want solutions – they just want to vent and make excuses why it’s all someone else’s fault. It’s as if getting a job somehow drains all the free will out of people and turns them into spineless cowards. If you can’t call your boss a jerk now and then without fear of getting fired, you’re no longer free. You’ve become your master’s property.

When you work around cowards all day long, don’t you think it’s going to rub off on you? Of course it will. It’s only a matter of time before you sacrifice the noblest parts of your humanity on the altar of fear: first courage… then honesty… then honor and integrity… and finally your independent will. You sold your humanity for nothing but an illusion. And now your greatest fear is discovering the truth of what you’ve become.

I don’t care how badly you’ve been beaten down. It is never too late to regain your courage. Never!

Still want a job?

If you’re currently a well-conditioned, well-behaved employee, your most likely reaction to the above will be defensiveness. It’s all part of the conditioning. But consider that if the above didn’t have a grain of truth to it, you wouldn’t have an emotional reaction at all. This is only a reminder of what you already know. You can deny your cage all you want, but the cage is still there. Perhaps this all happened so gradually that you never noticed it until now… like a lobster enjoying a nice warm bath.

If any of this makes you mad, that’s a step in the right direction. Anger is a higher level of consciousness than apathy, so it’s a lot better than being numb all the time. Any emotion — even confusion — is better than apathy. If you work through your feelings instead of repressing them, you’ll soon emerge on the doorstep of courage. And when that happens, you’ll have the will to actually do something about your situation and start living like the powerful human being you were meant to be instead of the domesticated pet you’ve been trained to be.

Happily jobless

What’s the alternative to getting a job? The alternative is to remain happily jobless for life and to generate income through other means. Realize that you earn income by providing value — not time – so find a way to provide your best value to others, and charge a fair price for it. One of the simplest and most accessible ways is to start your own business. Whatever work you’d otherwise do via employment, find a way to provide that same value directly to those who will benefit most from it. It takes a bit more time to get going, but your freedom is easily worth the initial investment of time and energy. Then you can buy your own Scooby Snacks for a change.

And of course everything you learn along the way, you can share with others to generate even more value. So even your mistakes can be monetized.

Here are some free resources to help you get started:

The Courage To Live Consciously (article on how to transition to more meaningful work)
Podcast #006 - How to Make Money Without a Job (audio)
Podcast #009 - Kick-start Your Own Business (audio)
Podcast #014 - Embracing Your Passion (audio)
10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed (article)
How to Build a High-Traffic Web Site (or Blog) (article)
How to Make Money From Your Blog (article)
One of the greatest fears you’ll confront is that you may not have any real value to offer others. Maybe being an employee and getting paid by the hour is the best you can do. Maybe you just aren’t worth that much. That line of thinking is all just part of your conditioning. It’s absolute nonsense. As you begin to dump such brainwashing, you’ll soon recognize that you have the ability to provide enormous value to others and that people will gladly pay you for it. There’s only one thing that prevents you from seeing this truth — fear.

All you really need is the courage to be yourself. Your real value is rooted in who you are, not what you do. The only thing you need actually do is express your real self to the world. You’ve been told all sort of lies as to why you can’t do that. But you’ll never know true happiness and fulfillment until you summon the courage to do it anyway.

The next time someone says to you, “Get a job,” I suggest you reply as Curly did: ”No, please… not that! Anything but that!” Then poke him right in the eyes.

You already know deep down that getting a job isn’t what you want. So don’t let anyone try to tell you otherwise. Learn to trust your inner wisdom, even if the whole world says you’re wrong and foolish for doing so. Years from now you’ll look back and realize it was one of the best decisions you ever made.

Whoops ! This website works. Have fun !

http://www.stevepavlina.com/

Best wishes,

agnut

Here’s an interesting article that describes a deflationary depression and what happens to all that accumulated crap ( crap when you are buying; gold when you are selling, that is). This is why I have been cautioning readers to have cash around in anticipation of future opportunities. Best to wait until the falling knife hits bottom.

Shock and Awe
by James Howard Kunstler


http://www.kunstler.com/mags_diary22.html

An excerpt :

…..”On the deflation side is what happens after this wave collapses, and that would be a national fire-sale of plain "stuff," as desperate families from Maine to Honolulu try to liquidate all the toys they purchased over the last twenty years in order to keep a roof over their heads and some food on the table -- cars, boats, snowmobiles, flat-screen TVs, leaf-blowers, iPods, you name it. A lot of that stuff will be either unsellable -- because there will be way more sellers for these things than buyers -- or they will be sold at extreme bargain-basement discounts. The net result is what they call a deflationary depression. Too few scraps of money seeking too many things for sale. Nobody doing any business. Jobs and incomes dissolving in the process.

All these things will be occurring against the background of an increasingly desperate energy predicament that will probably introduce many as-yet-unfactored problems into the equation -- such as, what happens as the oil export crisis gathers force and we begin to get supply-and-allocation disturbances. . . ?”

Best wishes,

agnut

And i totally agree with you, every one should have cash around in anticipation of future opportunities. I was reading that Bush virtually acknowledged that the USA was experiencing a serious economic crisis. Moreover, the US government was taking immense efforts to avoid a massive outbreak of social uneasiness, that is what the American president believes.
Thanks for posting that article agnut, thanks buddy.

__________________
Silver Gorilla
{Investing in Precious Metal Silver} "Within our lifetime, Nothing this good will ever stare you in the face again". Its all about Silver

Hi Haystackneedle. Boy, your # 276 was quite a post. I have read it several times. Thanks.

Right now things are crazy busy with getting things organized before the PNW GIM get together this Friday through Sunday. I know everybody will be looking around and thinking, “What a Hell of a mess”. No argument there. I own too much stuff but Ponce says that if you have the room and it is useable, save it for the future. I agree and am looking for making more storage spaces. I already found two that I could convert and store still more stuff.

I bought a 1982 Mercedes 240 diesel a couple of days ago. It has a 4 speed transmission and needs motor mounts but I drove it home which was two hours away and it ran great. I paid $1,000 for it; The only similar 240 diesels were $3,500 and $4,000 so I figure I have plenty of room to afford fixing it up if something goes wrong. There is no rust and the paint is presentable. Remember I said that I would take the three point star off the hood and let it become dirty and maybe look like a beater. After we are in an economic mess, of course. Gotta fit in with the other losers.

The other day I was looking for a pressure washer and found one on Craigslist for $400. The lady said she would take $300 for it. She said she paid over $800 for it new. Yeah, Right ! I checked out the model, a 3,000 PSI one, and it was $389 at Lowe’s. Just a heads up to research out the new price before buying an item that even may be near new. I bought the new one; warranty and all new parts in the box. It also has a high user rating. So check thoroughly before leaping. I could have goofed up if I believed the seller and hadn’t checked around first.

Best wishes,

Agnut

Agnut,
Thanks for the reply.
What a STEAL on the 240D !!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am remiss on the looking as I too have been preoccupied on the
(re)arrangment of " stuff "...
The ( now ) ex-wife used to say that I spent too much time just
" moving things to and fro "....HAH....
yah...I say she is GONE ...but not forgotten...
Nevertheless...she was probably a bit correct...
On storage:
I have taken to storing some items outside in plastic garbage cans...
I try and keep them out of the direct sun as much as I can,
and plan on using the garbage cans as a SHTF backup for water collection and storage if the items stored in them apparently will never make it onto the Ebay platform...

I have replaced the floor in the Jeep and gotten it back together as a go anywhere vehicle...
In the process I have found out some interesting items...
I will post about this soon.

Sure would be cool to come to the " Agnut " SPA !!!
What a good time to be had....and one could check out the neighbors Zebra while there..

In my last post I realized I should have in included an important
topic / statement....sometimes it is NOT miles per gallon that will win / get one ahead in the long run......it is dollars ( cents ) per mile that will do the trick...

Talk to you soon...and I look forward to continuing our discussions...

Regards,
Haystackneedle

Hi again Haystackneedle. My next door neighbor has two Zebras ! And two miniature horses. And several goats. And some Emus. And a Great, Great Dane. And two deer. And an 8” at the hump Camel. And Peacocks. And Guinea hens. And huge white geese. And Alpacas. And a lot of ducks and chickens. And a huge pot belly pig. All of her animals are tame and gentle as long as you are friendly and confident. The lady who owns this menagerie says that they can sense people who are fearful and the animals will become uncomfortable around them.

My son and I helped her a couple of hours today and she just called tonight to ask for help in setting up a fence for her Zebras who are attacking her newly acquired deer. One deer jumped the fence and was on our property this afternoon. Poor thing was hiding in the bushes. We have to go and set up the new fence compound tomorrow morning. Whew ! Seems there are never enough hours in the day any more.

The Zebra’s natural state is to attack and kill smaller animals if they get close. Not in all cases but in the wild a baby Zebra who loses its mother will in time be stomped to death by other Zebras in the herd. I was amazed how wild the Zebras got when chasing one of the deer. It was like being on the African plains. This lady really has a wild kingdom. She said everyone was welcome to visit this weekend.

By the way, the 240 diesel may need engine work. I bought it with this possibility in mind. If I can get it running to my satisfaction I won’t rebuild the engine since I don’t expect to put gobs of miles on it in the coming years. I need to check the valve clearances as I can hear noise; sounds like a loose valve and not a wrist pin. Hopefully it will turn out to be something simple. The oil pressure is high even when the motor is hot. And it has plenty of power for what it is. The car has about 185K miles on it. I have been looking for this model diesel for a long time and this was the first one that fitted all the qualifications. So what I am saying is that when looking for a good deal, don’t be in a position to be in any hurry. And keep a list posted for all of the things you are looking for. That way you can look for multiple items when looking at the classified ads or searching Craigslist or Ebay or any place where many items may be offered at the same place. To be the first there with the money in hand is most of the battle. The rest is evaluation and negotiation.

And as I said before, if the deal looks too good to be true, it may really turn out to be a great deal on further investigation. However, I do qualify sellers when talking to them on the phone. No sense driving two hours only to discover that the seller is in fantasyland with his opinions of what is like new or excellent or a “cream puff”. You can tell so much with just one phone call. Don’t just let your fingers do the walking; let your mind do the working.

This morning I found a White 18HP garden tractor with tiller and mower attachments. It runs well but needs only a simple gear in the steering linkage. Simple repair. He was asking $375 and since I am hours away, I was in no position to bargain. I told him that I would buy it and send a driver over to pick it up as soon as I could arrange it. He said that he would hold it for me. I have since been in communication and will continue to do so in this type of deal. I have learned that keeping in touch with a distant seller is a method of keeping the deal alive and healthy. Something to think about and learn. I have been using this for so many years that I don’t even have to think about it. Maybe it would be good to think of how the seller feels and would therefore appreciate buyers calling to let him know that the deal is still in the works.

I sometimes buy sight unseen and have someone drive over to pay for and pick up the item. I don’t have the time or extra energy to spend a day in going to and from a deal. If you are interested I can give details. Most times I want and need to meet face to face with a seller. Big ticket items are one example, though I have bought several cars and had them delivered. It usually works well. Maybe I have just been lucky for the last few decades. HaHa

When you are a buyer, think like your seller. When you are a seller, think like your buyer. And don’t be shy in telling the other parties what you are feeling, for feelings are at the heart of the communication in such matters. Deal making is fun when you look at like an adventurous party. And wherever you are, therein is the party.

Gotta go; so much to do.

Best wishes,

agnut

Quote :
And I totally agree with you, every one should have cash around in anticipation of future opportunities. I was reading that Bush virtually acknowledged that the USA was experiencing a serious economic crisis. Moreover, the US government was taking immense efforts to avoid a massive outbreak of social uneasiness, that is what the American president believes.
Thanks for posting that article agnut, thanks buddy
Silver Gorilla

Hi Silver Gorilla. It seems that every day brings more news of distress in the financial world. It wouldn’t take much to have a run on our banks. The authorities are trying to not spook the herd. Foreign news sources appear to be closer to the truth in reporting. The bank runs in England are hardly mentioned here with their ominous implications for our own banking system.

So having cash in hand is beginning to sound safer than in the bank. Not only is it wise to have cash in hand for weekend deals when the banks are closed. I ordered a couple more bricks of nickels from my bank. The only drawback is that they are beginning to look at me as a bit eccentric. I expect that we will soon see banks that will cease to acquire these nickel bricks. Watch for this as it is an indication that others are also accumulating and a shortage may be imminent.

When I buy anything I use the largest bills they will make change for. I collect $1s, $5s, $10s and $20s. Coin change goes in a bucket. I have mixed feelings about the dimes and quarters which are worth only a fraction of their metal content. If I could easily exchange the dimes and quarters for pennies and nickels I would. Sometimes I wonder if in a change of currency from the dollar to a new currency would favorably revalue the coinage we are using right now.

For instance, in a currency collapse, a $100 bill may someday be exchanged for a $1 Amero note. But what of the coinage ? Either it would be declared no longer acceptable or it would continue to be a fractional part of this new Amero. If it were unacceptable, the metal content of the pennies and nickels would retain their value while paper currency lost 99% of their price against the new Amero. And the dimes and quarters would follow the paper dollars’ value or maybe even hold some value due to their own metal content. But the Amero should be worth 100 times the old dollar in such an exchange so it would be an equal transfer. In theory anyhow. Would this be in a scenario in which the domestic currency would be converted while foreign held dollars were reneged on, thus canceling foreign debts ? Not likely but ya never know what evil lurks….

The overview of this dollar and coinage speculation is that we have fiat currency as our trading medium. And it is a defective medium. This ghostly quote comes to mind, from many years ago :

"In the absence of the gold standard, there is NO way to protect
savings from confiscation through inflation. ... This is the shabby
secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending
is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the
way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property
rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the
statists' antagonism toward the gold standard."
Alan Greenspan

Another confirms :

There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.
Lord Maynard Keynes





And another tells of why what we on GIM study is so vitally important :

"...When one gets a complete grasp of the picture, the tragic absurdity of our hopeless position is almost incredible, but there it is. It is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it becomes widely understood and the defect remedied very soon."
-Robert H. Hemphill, Once Credit Manager of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Georgia

Hope this wasn’t too off topic but it is a reminder of why we need to stay focused on the prize. Personal freedom as much as we can gather.


A further note on the recently bought Mercedes 240 diesel. I checked the valves and found 4 that needed adjustment. Still noisy so I called a Mercedes mechanic I know and told him of the symptoms and asked what could be the problem. He said that it could be the injection timing or a noisy injector. He told me what to do and I will check them out soon. The point here is to not assume that the motor needs a rebuild. I learned long ago that to assume the necessity of a major repair is a mistake. It could turn out to be the case but first it is important to ascertain the true cause. With all my years as a mechanic I am not hesitant to ask the opinion of a specialist. I am good at what I do but auto mechanics is a huge field and humility is learned through the years. I know what I don’t know and it is enormous !

For years I diagnosed customers’ cars and gave recommendations. Sometimes someone would come in and say that they needed an engine overhaul. I would check it out and find that the heads only needed tightening and the valves adjusted. An $800 rebuild job really only needed $40 of repairs. So why didn’t I do what the customer wanted ? Besides being dishonest, it was not in my own best interest. I had won the trust of a customer and others he later talked to. An honestly run business doesn’t need advertising; happy customers will do that.

I recommend that you find a good mechanic and stick with him. He could be a neighbor who hobbies and knows what he is doing or a professional mechanic taking jobs on the side. I feel that we will see a lot more of this as the economy worsens. So it is a good idea to either learn how to service your own cars or find someone who can. And I mean now before the playing field changes. To do so now will not only prepare you for the future but also immediately save you money. Lots of money. The difference between paying for a car part wholesale and retail can be 100%. And doing the labor yourself can save $60 or more per hour.

It may sound like heresy coming from a mechanic but repairing your own car or finding someone who is capable of servicing it reasonably carries enormous implications for your future financial management.

Readers who are interested in a side income may be wise to look at learning to repair their own cars. Repair manuals are available for most all cars and they aren’t too technical for the layman. Saving money is just another aspect of increasing income. And remember that this is a double whammy since it is your own after tax income that you would have had to spend on your car repair. Who knows, you may even find that you enjoy working on your own car.

I had a neighbor who did all of the repairs on his cars as well as everything around his property. He once told me that workers had been so expensive, careless and unreliable that he and his wife decided to do everything themselves.

Best wishes,

Agnut

agnut, wow your into nickel to, I got into the Metal over a year ago just before the lift of prices, I buy the 5 cent Nickel's from the bank's, bags and bags of them, only becous thay are 90% Nickel, Did you know that the metal value of 5-cent coins, made from a copper-nickel blend, is up to 8 cents. Adding in the costs of manufacturing means the Mint now spends 2.73 cents for every penny and 10.74 cents for every nickel it makes.
I Envy you, Becous you again prove the valubals in life.
Agnut yet again your thoughts of thinking are unmatchable.

__________________
Silver Gorilla
{Investing in Precious Metal Silver} "Within our lifetime, Nothing this good will ever stare you in the face again". Its all about Silver

Had a situation this week that ties into this statement. Got a 'free' riding mower from a friend who was honest about the issues it was having. It was actually in better shape but I took to long to get it and he screwed up the transaxle. Anyway, went looking for a mower repair person and hit 2 shops in a decent drive from my rural location. One is never there (closed 2 days I stopped by this last week when his posted hours are 9-5 M-F), another was grumpy and said he doesn't do transaxle work and when I asked who he might recommend and he said, "the phonebook." Too bad the transaxle is $350 online, guess I'll need to pull it apart and see what I can see.

Between these two and the few others I've met in other cities I've lived over the last decade I haven't seen one that is under 50 and in most cases they're into their 60s. Not saying the older guys aren't able to "get 'er done" but more that there aren't any new people I see that are opening shops and making a go of it, part of our disposable society I guess.

__________________
I was certified as a Forum Master by my score in the GIM Aptitude Test (Score: 72)
With one caveat, the score result stated: Other members immediately recognize your avatar and actually seek out your posts to see what your opinion is on any current subject.
I find that highly doubtful!

Hi Silver Gorilla. I have been thinking about nickels lately. When in rolls they are $2.00 face value. A brick of nickels is $100 face value.

Put five rolls of nickels in one hand and a ten dollar bill in the other and consider which you trust for the future. Like gold and silver, nickels internally contain their value. Pennies too. No promises to pay by unscrupulous fiat paper pushers. This is why I wrote that dimes and quarters may be best exchanged for nickels and pennies. By doing so you are beating them at their own game.

So what could they do if you had a large quantity of nickels ? Confiscate nickels ? Don’t make me laugh.

Make them null and void in financial deals ? Sorry, they have their value within and retain value in their metal content.

It has been said many times that with silver, you get too much for your money. However, with nickels, you are paying for something that contains 160% of face value in metal content. And with the fiat dollar in its death throes, it is a no brainer as to whether holding nickels and pennies as opposed to paper dollars. As I previously wrote, dimes, quarters, halves and dollar coins may someday be worth more in metal content than their face value. But I wouldn’t count on it. Why not trade out right now while you still can ?

Remember back in 1965 when the new sandwich dimes and quarters came out ? The first year of non 90% silver coins. Those who could see the writing on the wall began to collect all the silver coins they could get their hands on. The point is that they were getting 90% silver coins for face value. And now a $1,000 face bag of silver dimes or quarters sells for about $9,500 or 9.5 times face.

And today we are facing a similar situation with nickels and pennies. Even better when I think about it because the nickel is already 60% above its face value whereas in 1965, silver dimes and quarters were valued about the same price as their face value. So I see the nickel as screaming from the rooftops, “Hey, wake up sleepyheads !”

Imagine the future where a nickel is worth a quarter or more in its metal content. Do you think there will be any circulating ? Or will Gresham’s Law kick in as it always has ? Bad money drives good money out of circulation and into hiding.

Just remember that I told you this while nickels can still be had for face value. How long this lasts is anybody’s guess. As I have read, they are planning to replace the nickel. Will it be steel or aluminum or something else ? Compressed horse poop ? How appropriate.


Thanks for the compliment but it is Ponce’s thoughts of thinking that are really unmatchable. Ponce has 30 bricks (so far) of nickels and I am trying to play catch up. By the way, tomorrow Ponce is putting in an order for 10 more bricks of nickels. He is merely putting it in a form that will protect him in the future. A paper dollar is a PROMISE to pay whereas a nickel has its own value. Think about it. I hope I don’t cause a bank run on nickels !!! Not to worry; almost no one reads this thread any more.

“The prices of tomorrow will be the prices of yesterday if you hold physical silver”. Ponce said that. Ponce is trading silver for gasoline and his price per gallon is $1.03 right now and getting better as time passes. This is an example of his quote. Silver bought years ago for $5 buys the same quantity of gasoline today as it did back then because silver has gone up along with gas prices.

So get out there and get ye some nickels so that in the future you have two nickels to rub together (or better yet several bricks).

And for you nukular holocaust freaks, someone mentioned that a brick of nickels is equivalent to 6 feet of dirt in radiation protection. Just don’t put it in your attic. I would hate to see your demise as a result of your savings in a earthquake.

Reminds me of the story of the South seas king who was king only as long as he possessed the royal throne. One time he had to visit a nearby island and hid the throne in the attic of his grass shack. That night a storm arrived and the throne came crashing down into his bed and killed him. Moral of the story : Those who live in grass houses shouldn’t stow thrones.

Ponce said that he feels that GIM is still the best overall forum on the internet. I heartily agree.

Best wishes,

Agnut

What do you mean "almost no one reads this thread any more" ?? I check it for new posts every time I log into GIM. There's too much darn good advice in this thread to ignore it.
Keep up the good work Agnut.

bf

Er, 75% copper, 25% nickel

http://www.coinflation.com/coins/194...kel-Value.html

I'm with bf on that one, were you serious?

Just in case you are serious.
In my case I've subscribed using "Daily updates by email" with all information delivered to my inbox so the view count is not incremented at all. Plus would you rather have a large following that views and doesn't do anything (video aerobics anyone) or a small following that implements some of what they're reading...we could just be the Bartering and Trading Special Forces, BTSF for short.

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With one caveat, the score result stated: Other members immediately recognize your avatar and actually seek out your posts to see what your opinion is on any current subject.
I find that highly doubtful!

:D correction, :D next time ill try to be more clearer on what im saying. Unlike the U.S. coin of the same name, Canadian nickels were actually struck in 100% nickel originally (their American counterparts being 75% copper and only 25% nickel) Yes your right about the American 5 cent Nickels, originally 100% Canadian nickel, This changed in 1942, due to the need to use all available nickel for military purposes due to World War II.
but things change in time
History of Composition
Years Weight Diameter/Shape Composition

2000–present 3.95 g 21.2 mm, round 94.5% steel, 3.5% copper, 2% nickel plating

1982–2001 (4.6 g 21.2 mm, round 75% copper, 25% nickel

1963–1981 (4.54 g 21.21 mm, round 99.9% nickel

1955–1962 (4.54 g 21.21 mm, 12-sided 99.9% nickel

1951–1954 (4.54 g 21.21 mm, 12-sided chrome-plated steel

1946–1950 (4.54 g 21.21 mm, 12-sided 99.9% nickel

1944–1945 (4.54 g 21.21 mm, 12-sided chrome-plated steel

1942–1943 (4.54 g 21.21 mm, 12-sided 88% copper, 12% zinc ("tombac")

1922–1942 (4.54 g 21.21 mm, round 99.9% nickel

1920–1921 (1.167 g 14.494 mm, round 80% silver, 20% copper

1858–1919 (1.167 g 14.494 mm, round 92.5% silver, 7.5% copper


I do thank you for pointing out my mistake.

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Silver Gorilla
{Investing in Precious Metal Silver} "Within our lifetime, Nothing this good will ever stare you in the face again". Its all about Silver

agnut, this thread is number one and will stay number one, I read this thread almost every chance i get.
:D

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Silver Gorilla
{Investing in Precious Metal Silver} "Within our lifetime, Nothing this good will ever stare you in the face again". Its all about Silver

I still watch the thread too! I'll stop lurking for a moment and contribute.

Two weeks ago I bought at auction a brand new Lie Nielsen woodworkers bench, slightly damaged in shipping for $450, then sold it on Craigslist for $1000. The buyer is going to photograph a new project I am working on. He estimated his work at $150, so I came out pretty good on that one. The bench retails for $2k.

The salvage auction has had good results for me, but the last few weeks I haven't bought hardly anything as there are a lot more buyers, and prices have been much higher. On the other hand, I have had a bit more difficulty selling items, and have had to lower prices somewhat...

Hi bl96S5eu. You might try Google for your riding mower parts and repair manual. I did. Also check with your local mower repair shops. They may have your transmission sitting out back on some broken parts mower. Also look for another mower like yours that isn’t currently working. In the past I have often bought multiples of a particular type of car I was restoring. I got the parts I needed and sold the rest for more that I had paid for the parts cars. I have seen riding mowers that didn’t work that could be had for free. The thing is to be patient and not in a hurry to get the mower running. Winter is coming and grass doesn’t need mowing much now. So there are several months ahead to find what you are looking for.

Funny that I am writing this right now and one of my customers just called and he has a 18 HP Craftsman riding mower. The mower attachment doesn’t work and he said he may use it for racing. Huh ? I asked him if he had gotten a cart with it and he said no, but it never hurts to ask. So I am still looking for a pull cart; my single axle trailer is too big for the riding mower. I bought it for $300 by asking at a garage sale. People want to buy it for $600 but I need it too much myself. By the way it is a tilt trailer and I can drive the riding mower onto it with ease.

My riding mower is a 1994 White 18HP model LT-185. I got a tiller unit with the 46” mower attachment. All I need now is a wagon to carry things from the barn to the garage. My mower isn’t perfect; it needs inner tubes and the steering gear is worn out. These aren’t big problems and when we buy we need to look beyond them and actually can use them to our advantage in negotiations.

A used riding mower that is in pristine condition may cost $1,000 where one needing minor work could cost say, $375. In my case, the inner tubes and steering gear would cost less than $100. The difficulty is in estimating what is minor and what is major. So with a little work and an extra $100, I expect to have $475 in a riding mower with tiller attachment. This is a savings of $525 from what I may have paid otherwise. Also, the tiller is something I need for gardening and I don’t have any idea what it would have cost if I had to find one separately. From what I have seen, used attachments are very hard to find and expensive. Best to look for a piece of equipment with all the attachments you want and pay a bit more. I can’t estimate the time it would take to find these attachments but my time is valuable to me and now that I think about it, I have rarely seen a riding mower with tiller attachment included. Maybe that is what caught my eye and made me jump on the deal like a cat on a rat !

What is valuable to me may not be to you. If I had a large lawn and no plans or space for a large garden, I would care less about the tiller. We each need to think well in advance of our purchases. And even if I didn’t need the tiller, I knew beforehand that it would probably be easy to sell, thus decreasing my cost of the riding mower.

What I am trying to say is that when looking at a deal, your mind should be swirling with as many possibilities as, well, possible. And don’t forget to ask the seller what else he may have that he wants to sell. It may be a good time to pull out that want list I mentioned. It may sound a bit loony but you can’t believe what I have found merely by asking. Look at it this way; you are facing a seller and he has something you want. You are already there. What harm is there in asking if he also has any vinyl records or a car out back or a lathe or any number of things on your want list ? Even further, ask him if he knows anyone who may have such items. This is a form of networking and you may often find things that are as yet not advertised. Also, keep your eyes open to what else is laying around and ask questions, lots of questions. The mindset of the seller is often that he desperately needs money and guess what, you have that money. Again, think in terms of the seller and what he needs. It would be erroneous to assume that any seller would be offended by your asking what else he may want to sell. My experience is that the seller becomes excited at the prospect of getting more cash for his junk. You see, it is very unusual for any buyer to ask what else the seller may want to sell.

Before finalizing the deal you came for, check out anything else you may be interested in. That way, you may be able to get a considerable discount on a package deal. Of course, bring more cash than enough for the advertised item. You never know what you will end up with.

The overview is that time is money and in asking and getting additional items from a seller takes so little time in comparison to what you have invested in driving to and from the deal. Just a way of sweetening the deal and making it exciting. And believe me, these additionally found deals are most exciting. You never know what you will find by asking. It works for me and should work for you. Try it and let me know.

My son and I were garage sailing and were at one large sale with four ladies. I looked through their records and found a couple. I asked the ladies if they knew of any other records for sale; I was interested specifically in Jazz. One of the ladies piped in and said that she had several at home and asked if I would wait while she got them. No problem there as there was a lot of stuff to go through. She came back with a trunkload of records. I went through them and picked out several for $1 each. When I got home I looked them up and many were catalogued at $40. Some of them were selling on Ebay for $20 or more. My only regret is that I wish I had bought more.

If I hadn’t asked, I would have never known about these records. Starting to get the picture ?

Garage sales and estate sales sometimes have items that would be impossible to find anywhere else. And the prices are at a fraction of their new prices. It’s funny that a seller that has an item he paid $5 for twenty years ago and is willing to let it go for $1 while it would cost maybe $20 new today. You see, sellers rarely think of this and price accordingly. Besides, many items that were manufactured years ago are of better quality that what you may find in a store.

Everybody talks about buying American manufactured goods. But when in stores, most of what we see is Asian and often inferior quality. Chinese junk ain’t just a type of boat, ya know ?

Buy American ? Shop at garage and estate sales. With our manufacturing shipped overseas, many of the American goods are ones made in the past. And guess what ? They are used ! And often dirt cheap to boot ! And guess where you will find them ? Right ! Give that man a kewpie doll !

Now on the subject of finding a young repairman, you are right. Many of the old repairmen are on the verge of retiring and are more interested in fishing and golfing that in building up a business. I also don’t see many young people who are training in this field. Too many going into computer programming and such. Too bad, as a glut of white collar workers doesn’t do well in the long run. I see a train wreck for them. My older son wants to learn transmission repair and that is one big reason I started the transmission shop. I chose a type to specialize in because it is in high mile per gallon vehicles. Something that will be in greater demand as fuel prices rise. I recently discovered that I am the only one in my state with the 1992-99 model transmissions. The cores to rebuild aren’t easy to find but I have several and am rotating them out with customers’ cores they bring in. I charge them $350 if theirs isn’t rebuildable and can therefore replace them as needed. Nothing like having a captive market. They can buy from me at $895 or the dealership at over $2,000.

Another point is that these transmissions are complex and require several special tools and a large inventory of parts as well as core transmissions. So the entry level for anyone who would want to compete with me would be enormous. By the way, I am hundreds of dollars below the competitions’ prices. In starting a new business it is important to have something to offer and in my case it is price. Also I keep an inventory of rebuilt transmissions on the shelf. I have found that to do so makes sales much easier and less pressured. Have you ever noticed how difficult a repair job becomes when there is a deadline to get the job done ? So having them ready to go is a big relief. Dramatically increases sales too.

A refining of these 1992-99 transmissions is that some customers don’t have the money for the $895 price but want an earlier transmission that I sell for $595 exchange. This works for me in that I get their old transmission which is, as I said, not easy to find. And therefore I can build up more of these later types for the future. I just found this out by listening to my customers and providing what they need. I expect that money will get tighter in the future and I want to be ready to be the only one to provide what they need. As long as it works for both me and my customers. Business is bad where somebody loses; everybody has to win (except the competition, that is). This is the foundation of an enduring business.

If any of you are interested I could tell you of types of transmissions to consider rebuilding and why they have a future. Saab transmissions require thousands of dollars in tools and are a nightmare to repair. Hondas are simple and there are a lot of them running around. Just a couple of examples but I have many more. Each type has its own characteristics and must be fully understood before investing in a transmission rebuilding program. It can be done from home in some instances or in a small rental building. I don’t know too many other types of work that pay as well. I don’t install transmissions but only bench rebuild them on production line. Less problems and much more efficient profit wise.

You could rebuild semi truck transmissions, passenger car transmissions or farm tractor transmissions; they are all different but the field is wide open. I even rebuilt a Greyhound bus transmission once, modifying the ratios for hill climbing. It took two of us to lower the huge first gear into the case. Glad that it worked out well because it was my own bus that had been converted into a motor home and if it had not worked I would have had to pull the Detroit diesel V8 to fix my screwup.

I must caution you that this is a perfectionist business; you either do it right the first time or pay the price. We all make mistakes and in transmission rebuilding, the comeback (or screwup) ratio should be 2 percent or less. That is 1 in 50 customers who are unhappy. And they must be made happy in such an event. I do that right away and have only been in court one time in my 35 year career. And it was laughed out of court. Another story for another time.

Close your eyes. What do you see ? Nothing. Close your ears. What do you hear ? Nothing. The world of opportunity is out there just waiting for you to discover how amazing you can be. Nothing wrong with surfing the internet for information but there comes a time when we all should ACT to better our futures.

I am not that smart but by always being on the lookout, things just seem to fall into my lap. There are many more deals out there than I have time for. I hope you will come to find this to be true. Then it will become a matter of picking the best deals. Then you may become as RiverRat once said, the baddest SOB on the mountain with everybody wondering what you are going to do next.

Best wishes,

Agnut

Thanks bottom feeder, bl96S5eu and silver gorilla. I have been keeping tabs and only a few hundred per week look at this thread. But what is important is the diehard readers who want to learn more and make changes in their lives. I have to say that my own writing has helped me enormously. And others’ contributions has been wonderful. I didn’t mean that I was disappointed by few readers as much an observation that the few who continue this thread are each sharing and learning. The readership has distilled down to a potent brew. HaHa

I have no intention of ending this thread unless there is no interest. I am still surprising myself with what I knew and had forgotten. Right now I am occupied with the new transmission business and have sometimes thought I would prefer to have been full time buying and selling instead. However, as it turns out, the current dollar and market instability may not be a good time to do this. So I am watching and waiting to see how far the falling knife is to fall. The bottom is hard to determine and only then will it be safer to deal. Defunct companies’ inventories will be available then but where will the buyers come from in a collapse scenario ? I have had to wait as this economic debacle has been unfolding. Now it is looking like a good thing I am so involved with the transmission shop, a potential harbor in stormy times. I let the changing circumstances lead me sometimes. And after my son is trained I may be set free to explore the possibilities no matter what is going on.

“The Bartering and Trading Special Forces, BTSF for short“ ? Good one, bl96S5eu. Maybe we could parachute into the garage sales like special forces. Good to have all you diehards aboard.

Best wishes,

Agnut

P.S. I owe a response to handyman’s post as soon as I get the time. Gotta get off the phone and build some transmissions.

Hi Agnut,
I want to thank you for the advice you gave ME a couple months ago. I had less than $100 to my name and you told me to sort pennies till payday and get into the silver racket. Well that is what I did, my bank soon cut me off of pennies haha but I didn't like them much anyways (hard on the eyes). That next payday I went to the main bank down town to cash my check and while I was there I ordered my first box of halves. July 17th I picked it up and it has snowballed from there. i got dump banks, supply banks- road trips hitting every bank I can find..... The next payday I actually ordered extra boxes to cover the paycheck too sos I could use the money to search before paying bills with it- I was getting pretty crafty huh. This has had much more effect on ME than the 127 ozt. I have amassed in less than 3 mos. I have become more frugal with my spending- thats my hunting money man. And searching 2 boxes a night has really cut into my wasted puter time.
Anyways thanks again and happy hunting, Mark

Looks like the sheeple are waking up. Some good ideas there and places to find items.

ECON - BUYING "USED" - New Growth Industry?

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=260265



Best wishes,

Agnut

To boot I just sold $180 face 40% halves for $720= full melt value. Workin hard at it. HH Mark

Nice, where did you get that deal? My dealer only gives me $1.25-$1.40 depending on spot ($11-$14).

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