I'm seeing that more and more, miss a month or two in income and it all comes crashing down. The ease at which we're lending money for home purchases these days is as bad as student loans. Just because you can buy something doesn't mean you can afford it.

And that is the real game changer I mentioned.

Yet another day of another week we will here all the self employed folks crowing about how awful it is.

*hear

People use complaining as an endearing way to socialize. How many old timers do you know who when engaged in conversation, just focus on the negative? I’m guilty of it at times myself.


There is no one size fits all to life. You have to live the way that makes you happy, not follow the advice of someone else who more than likely has never been in your shoes to begin with. And when you do take advice, make sure it’s from someone who has a lifestyle you want to emulate, not someone who has nothing you want

Wise words TxTrophy85!

Just don't bite off more than you can chew. It could come back and bite you.

I wonder how many people live their life "the way they want" and dont arrive at the end they had in mind.

There are some people that cannot operate a screwdriver, while they can do magic with a computer. Some people have no mechanical ability, they could spend decades in trade schools and still not know how to use that "knowledge". Same goes for using a college education.

.The problem is parents, educators, and peer pressure. More the parents than the latter, almost everyone wants more for their children than what they had.

TxTrophy dropping some truth bombs in this thread.

I gave my kids the freedom to choose their own path in life but stressed my hope that they would pursue education once out of high school. Could be a trade school or college. My oldest went to work right out of school for several years as a welder at a few large corporations. He went back to school and has his business degree, his wife has her MBA. He learned how a manufacturing plant works first then got educated. Now he is a former welder that runs a unit for PACCAR.


I know a lot of people that do and don't have a degree, have seen various outcomes in life with them. Hands down those with some education had an easier path in life. Flip side to that is hands down the most successfull of either group were two without an education. Two examples. First one never finished high school, went to work at 16 in his fathers oilfield company, then pipe line welding and ended up with his own business, sold 51% of it for 21 million when he was 55. Second one is a guy i have done some engineering work for that started his own oil tool company in his garage. Sold his company a few years ago for over 300 million in cash and 160 million in stock. By standards discussed in this thread these two are the worst of the worst, uneducated welders that worked in the oilfield yet had better end results than most likely anyone on this forum.

I would vote for an education in something and planning for retirement, I would also vote for enjoying life as you go along, you may not have the chance to live long enough to retire.

Valid points TKM. Not to downplay them but to emphasize a couple of things that come out in your note:

1. Self-motivation: everyone you talked about was motivated, not lazy. A lot of folks think school gets them paid without effort and that is frankly not true
2. Entrepreneurship: school doesn't matter if you run your own business FOR THE MOST PART (there are exceptions). See point #1 above for all you need to know about that. If you work for someone else, then the likelihood for training/schooling requirements vastly goes up.

Moral of the story, work for what you want and you'll have a much better chance of getting it unless you have a skillset/gift chasm between what your God-given purpose is and what you think you want to do.

That is a very important thing to remember! I’m a worker bee.

Living their life the way they want or the way they think they should? I know some bonifide Eff-ups who are now doing great. Know a lot of steady-Eddie types who are doing ok but not great. Great being a relative term. One of my best friends in high school, got too far into drugs during his 20’s, DEA kicked in his door twice, pretty sure he has a felony conviction. I used to have to put money on his books in jail. Guy straightened up, got a good job selling boats and met a good girl with a great job. They just sold their boat and waterfront house in Galveston and moved to Alaska last week. This guy was a waiter up until he was damn near 30.

Another buddy, also got too far into pills, had to move to Washington state to stay out of trouble. Had to take the ASFAB 3 times before he could get into the navy. Did an 8 year stint as in the SARS unit, then after his discharge went to school at A&M, graduated and is now a NRCS biologist in South Dakota, which is his dream job.

IMO people need to trust their gut more and have some balls to go after what they want instead of listening to Parents, Uncles and Co-Workers, unless they want the same life they have. Go after what you want. A lot of times that isn’t the safest path. Who you marry, when you decide to have kids and other factors will be a determining factor in your tolerance for risk.

So we should all do drugs as teens break the law and it all turns out roses? Is that what im gathering trophy?

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom; for we never know what is enough until we know what is more than enough.

-- William Blake

If that's what you gathered out of that comment you might want to switch from a hay fork to a grass rack.

No, but the moral of the story is you can rise above thru gods grace despite even oneself.

Hard partying ways doesn’t always lead to a life of ruin nor does walking the straight and narrow lead to a life of ease.

More truth.

For a young man I would say redchevy is what they call an old soul. Based on his post historically he not only does not believe in excess anywhere in his life, he’s against it in others. The stick is firmly planted.

Yep. He be the man.

Nope, nope and nope.

Put me in the "enjoy life now" category. Nobody is guaranteed to make it to retirement. No way am I going to live in a tiny home in Dallas for 30 years just hoping to make it there one day. I like nice trucks and shooting pigs off the porch in my underwear. Life is too short.

I did not go to college. I started working on airplanes when I got out of HS in Bandera. I got married when I was 19 and am still married to the same woman. A little over 54 years now. I worked at a lot of different places on airplanes learning something different at each one. One of my bosses at one of them once ask if I had gone to college. I said no and why did he ask? He said that was a shame because even though I was probably as smart as most I would never make as much money as they did. I proved him wrong in later years getting my A&P license and then my 727 Flight Engineers license.

Graduated from High School and started to college where I learned a lot about drinking beer. I did that for 4 years off and on. Then went into the USAF with a grand total of enough college hours to barely be a Sophomore. I was immature. Picked up more hours plus a wife and baby during the next 4 years. Got out as an E5 and came back to Texas. Went to work in the new field of computers. Went back to night school. Eventually got an Associates, BBA and MBA. That took another 15 years of night schools. I think I needed to prove to myself that I could complete things without walking away or dropping out. Left theCorporate world after 25 years and started my own head hunting business furnishing full time candidates and consultants. Then Indian companies started furnishing computer people for less than I could hire them.

I retired while I still had some money left. Wife retired about 6 months ago. We are financially secure and can afford her desire to go to Winstar. But, we have to be careful about that. It is high priced entertainment.

BTW, I’m now 78. My best investments have been real estate. Went through a devastating divorce about 35 years ago. Remarried . I had bought a small, older home and new wife had a home that she had just bought. I had also bought 133 acres of junk land South of Bowie for $415 per acre. Rented the houses out and bought a new home. The real estate has increased in value in a big way. That $415 per acre has increased into approx $5,000 per acre. The rent houses have increased big time also and others have paid for them.

I like real estate.