What Pays The Bills?

[Rapp]

Originally Posted by thomm225

There was a guy up here that sorta took a short cut as compared to some of the above posts with all the hoops folks had to jump through to go cruising or maybe go cruising one day.

This fellow was in the grass business both cutting and smokin.

He lived on his boat, a Columbia, at a marina in Norfolk, VA. He kept his lawn mower on a trailer below the ramp leading down to the floating dock.

He usually had his bike on the boat or locked up near the mower trailer.

He pulled the trailer with his bike.

He sailed when he had the cash. When he didn't, he worked or if he need more smoke.

I saw him sail out of his slip a couple times when is engine had quit.

Some save their whole lives for retirement while others do what they love their whole lives and never really stop until they are infirm. Something to think about.

It all depends on what you want out of life,I've saved my whole life yet did the things I enjoyed doing.I believe most people that have replied have done it right,they did things but in a cheaper way,so they have it both ways.A lot of people never put away for the future then become a burden to those who have.Something else to think about

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Rapp

It all depends on what you want out of life,I've saved my whole life yet did the things I enjoyed doing.I believe most people that have replied have done it right,they did things but in a cheaper way,so they have it both ways.A lot of people never put away for the future then become a burden to those who have.Something else to think about

Yeah, a lot of folks are very fearful they may have to pay other peoples bills. Check out Fox News sometime. They never shut up about it.

The fact is some folks were never taught how to make money. Their parents were poor, and they taught their children what they had learned.

The libraries here have done a wonderful thing. If you have a library card, you can use the computers there and get online for 2 hours per day. Taxpayers are paying for that, and it's mostly poor people in there using them (plus I use them!!) But please don't tell Fox News!

The point is our whole society will benefit from these folks learning how to use those computers. This is a great thing for the kids whose parents are poor. They may actually be able to get themselves out of the poor part of town not with an athletic scholarship but with knowledge.

[AgPilot]

I'm live in a state that allows medical marijuana. The money I made last year has allowed me to start my boating dreams. My day job pays my few bills.

[FamilyVan]

Originally Posted by AgPilot

I'm live in a state that allows medical marijuana. The money I made last year has allowed me to start my boating dreams. My day job pays my few bills.

This seems to be a recurring theme, I'm a former Fed, but I have no issue with people enjoying the odd reefer, medically or recreationally.

But what is the point? Is it being suggested that medical marijuana is just a great way to screw people out of money so that one can become fantastically ritch with little effort?

If that is true, why would you share this secret with any one? Least of all a group of (mostly) wealthy conservative yacht owners (sure, most on this site would never describe themselves this way- but owning a 40+ ft yacht and cruising full time isn't exactly like playing darts cost wise).

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[Strait Shooter]

Originally Posted by FamilyVan

This seems to be a recurring theme, I'm a former Fed, but I have no issue with people enjoying the odd reefer, medically or recreationally.

But what is the point? Is it being suggested that medical marijuana is just a great way to screw people out of money so that one can become fantastically ritch with little effort?

If that is true, why would you share this secret with any one? Least of all a group of (mostly) wealthy conservative yacht owners (sure, most on this site would never describe themselves this way- but owning a 40+ ft yacht and cruising full time isn't exactly like playing darts cost wise).

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Recurring? How so?
So you have no issue with people doing legal things. Well that's good at least.

Before we crush his entrepreneurial spirit we should think about this. So Bill Gates got fantastically (not sure that's the right word btw) wealthy by selling everyone a bunch of 1s and 0s. I thought people making money legally was a good thing?

[FamilyVan]

Originally Posted by Strait Shooter

Recurring? How so?
So you have no issue with people doing legal things. Well that's good at least.

Before we crush his entrepreneurial spirit we should think about this. So Bill Gates got fantastically (not sure that's the right word btw) wealthy by selling everyone a bunch of 1s and 0s. I thought people making money legally was a good thing?

No, you're right. I don't want to cramp his style. It's probably just me living in the stone age. There used to be a philosophy "everybody does it but nobody talks about it". But I guess that's just out an out of date philosophy.

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[Jason Flare]

Great thread.

Commercial and residential real estate for Mrs. Flare and me.

Mortgages are almost paid. Our son and daughter are taking over the business and Mrs. Flare and I will take paper on the RE.

[zengirl]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Yeah, a lot of folks are very fearful they may have to pay other peoples bills. Check out Fox News sometime. They never shut up about it.

The fact is some folks were never taught how to make money. Their parents were poor, and they taught their children what they had learned.

The libraries here have done a wonderful thing. If you have a library card, you can use the computers there and get online for 2 hours per day. Taxpayers are paying for that, and it's mostly poor people in there using them (plus I use them!!) But please don't tell Fox News!

The point is our whole society will benefit from these folks learning how to use those computers. This is a great thing for the kids whose parents are poor. They may actually be able to get themselves out of the poor part of town not with an athletic scholarship but with knowledge.

The state of Maine provides a computer for every child. Not sure at what grade it starts, but I think it's wonderful.

[oldragbaggers]

My husband took an early retirement (of sorts) from the Navy back in 1993. It doesn't go forever, but we've got a good number of years left on that. Plus two good pensions (including an excellent post-retirement health care plan) from the school system we both work for now as well as social security for both of us. We hope to live on 2 of the 5 checks and bank the other 3 while we're cruising. That, plus what we have in savings will finance our transition back to shore life when we are finished cruising. We don't have a time frame for doing that, our cruising plans are open ended depending on the state of our health and how much we are enjoying ourselves, but I don't foresee us spending the rest of our lives out there so having the plan in place for "when it's over" was just as important to us as figuring out how to get out there in the first place.

Yes, we worried about money and invested the years necessary to make sure we could do it right. We had other family commitments ashore anyway, but we have no intention of depending on our children or grandchildren to take care of us in our old age.

But we haven't exactly been sitting around all these years just waiting to go cruising either. We have enjoyed our life all along, sailing for many years, traveling, camping, hiking, bicycle touring, just enjoying whatever adventures have happened to come our way. I don't feel we've missed out on anything with the path we have chosen. Our cruising life will be one more adventure, and probably the greatest, but certainly not the only one.

[Timerider]

Originally Posted by lsearite

Made a deal with the kids that I brought them into my pawnbrokering business, taught them how to run it they would support me the rest of my life. Its worked for over ten years now. They just keep sending money! Bless their hearts.
Louise

Well done! That's the way to do it!

I hope to do something similar as I run an online shop and can do that from anywhere that has Internet. Thanks to Skype numbers, customers think they're calling London but most often they're being diverted abroad ;-)

Btw: Internet shops are great: start small and do everything yourself then outsource as you grow, bit by bit (warehouse, admin) until you're free.



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[Group9]

One of my favorite authors was John McDonald and the Travis Magee series.

For those who never had the pleasure, Magee was a boat bum living in Fort Lauderdale on a houseboat. He made money as a "salvage consultant", which was basically as an unlicensed private investigator working on a contingency fee of half of the value of whatever you asked him to recover.

His retirement plan was to quit working, whenever he had enough money put aside after a salvage, to do so. He would then "retire" until he went broke, at which point he would start working again, and the cycle would repeat itself, ad nauseum. His theory being, that retirement was too much fun to wait for until he was old to start enjoying it.

As I am about to start my second retirement, and second cruise, I realize that more of his retirement theory and plan rubbed off on me than I realized.

[stillblackbird]

Hi,

About six months ago I asked the same question on my women sailors group. One woman told me she works as a cancer registar from her boat. She went to school for two years and when she graduated she was offered a job making $50,000 a year. So, after much consideration and research my fiance and I went back to school this semester to acquire our associates in cancer management in hopes of being able to liveaboard with full time jobs from a far.

Hope this helps If you want more info let me know!

[Group9]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Yeah, a lot of folks are very fearful they may have to pay other peoples bills. Check out Fox News sometime. They never shut up about it.

The fact is some folks were never taught how to make money. Their parents were poor, and they taught their children what they had learned.

The libraries here have done a wonderful thing. If you have a library card, you can use the computers there and get online for 2 hours per day. Taxpayers are paying for that, and it's mostly poor people in there using them (plus I use them!!) But please don't tell Fox News!

The point is our whole society will benefit from these folks learning how to use those computers. This is a great thing for the kids whose parents are poor. They may actually be able to get themselves out of the poor part of town not with an athletic scholarship but with knowledge.

You have hit, accidentally I'm sure, on part of the problem conservatives have with welfare. If I hated my children, the way I would deal with them having financial problems would be to just give them a debit card, where I put money in it for them every month, and let them get used to that arrangement to the point they lost all drive to take care of themselves, and in fact began to see as normal, my taking care of their bills.

But, I don't hate my children, so when they get in a jam (and the older ones have), we sit down with them and say, "How are you going to get yourself out of this one?" and "How are you going to make sure this doesn't happen again?" I don't hate them, so I don't just write a check to get them out of any jam they are in. I try to give them life skills and advice so that they can take care of themselves, and the next time life goes south on them (as it does for all of us from time to time), to not have to ask anyone for help.

I don't hate anyone badly enough to put them on welfare for the rest of their lives, call their problem solved, and put them out of my mind. But, apparently, a lot of people do. Liberals seem to truly believe that those of us who don't think a massive government enabling program of the poor is the best thing for them, are greedy and evil. Maybe, we just have a completely different idea on what is a winning life strategy.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Group9

You have hit, accidentally I'm sure, on part of the problem conservatives have with welfare. If I hated my children, the way I would deal with them having financial problems would be to just give them a debit card, where I put money in it for them every month, and let them get used to that arrangement to the point they lost all drive to take care of themselves, and in fact began to see as normal, my taking care of their bills.

But, I don't hate my children, so when they get in a jam (and the older ones have), we sit down with them and say, "How are you going to get yourself out of this one?" and "How are you going to make sure this doesn't happen again?" I don't hate them, so I don't just write a check to get them out of any jam they are in. I try to give them life skills and advice so that they can take care of themselves, and the next time life goes south on them (as it does for all of us from time to time), to not have to ask anyone for help.

I don't hate anyone badly enough to put them on welfare for the rest of their lives, call their problem solved, and put them out of my mind. But, apparently, a lot of people do. Liberals seem to truly believe that those of us who don't think a massive government enabling program of the poor is the best thing for them, are greedy and evil. Maybe, we just have a completely different idea on what is a winning life strategy.

The problem is that many of the parents of the poor do not have the skills to instruct their children financially.

Poor folks believe in more work equal more money as in overtime, but if it is a low paying job to begin with then you end up beating your head against the wall and never making real money.

This is why I thought having computers in the library was a good idea and possibly a way out for some of the kids that are coming along.

Then there are the built in prejudices. I hire individuals because of their skills and what's on their resume, but I've had it said to me a couple times ...... you must like "them" since you keep hiring "them." l

These are the same conservatives that are calling the poor lazy etc. This begs the question, if "they" cannot get hired how are "they" going to make money and not be on welfare.

[Group9]

Originally Posted by thomm225

The problem is that many of the parents of the poor do not have the skills to instruct their children financially.

Poor folks believe in more work equal more money as in overtime, but if it is a low paying job to begin with then you end up beating your head against the wall and never making real money.

This is why I thought having computers in the library was a good idea and possibly a way out for some of the kids that are coming along.

Then there are the built in prejudices. I hire individuals because of their skills and what's on their resume, but I've had it said to me a couple times ...... you must like "them" since you keep hiring "them." l

These are the same conservatives that are calling the poor lazy etc. This begs the question, if "they" cannot get hired how are "they" going to make money and not be on welfare.

Well, you're right. If poor people would make the same financial decisions that rich people made, most would be rich, too. But, I learned a long time ago, that I can't make people do what I want them to do, the poor included. Even simple lessons like, "Make one dollar and spend 90 cents equals economic prosperity. Make one dollar and spend one dollar, equals financial disaster" are often lost.

I don't think it's wrong to be unsympathetic when people reap the consequences of their own free will financial decisions. I've certainly made some bad ones and I never thought that somebody with more money than me, owed me a duty to give me money to erase that bad financial decision I made. Poor people think their problem is not enough income production, when it is really almost always, their problems with income management.

I use my former step-daughter (who is as good an example of bad choices equals bad outcome as I know).

She constantly says she is unable to save money, yet she smokes two packs of cigarettes a day. I sat down with a calculator with her over and over again, trying to show her what $10 a day saved and invested would mean in her life. But, her gift and her curse, is that she can't see more than five minutes into the future. On one hand, it keeps her from worrying about anything (I've never known anyone as stress free as she is). On the other hand, it keeps her from seeing how her future could be better if she made better decisions now.

I can't change that, but I refuse to subscribe to the notion that because I can't change that, and she won't change, that I am somehow beholden to support her the rest of her life. There is a psychological term for thinking that you are in charge of other people and must save them from what you believe are their bad choices. It's called co-dependency and it's in the DSM for a reason. It is a mental illness.