Money tree

[polexican23]

I want it to be known that i hate (extremely jealous) of all the guys that post on the garage gallery and seem to have never ending supplies of money.
Plasma cutters, CNC machines, Bridgeports, all kinds of CAD software at their disposal. Everyone of them seem to have a race car of some sort in them.

Ok, poor-man ranting about how little money I have and wish one of these guys would adopt me is over.

 

[KCarGuy]

Me Too!
Ha ha...We need to run far from Illinois if we want to save more Money.

 

[Dale Leeds]

They married rich women?

 

[LAROKE]

On the other hand, Kiwi Kev puts the rest of us other "underfunded" guys to shame with his fantastic residential hot rod shop built on the cheap over the years.

 

[LXCam]

You want half my money?. Take it its yours.






















Cause that n two bits might get ya a cup of coffee.

 

[BigAl62]

Me Too!
Ha ha...We need to run far from Illinois if we want to save more Money.

AMEN to the running away from Swillinois!!! The state is bad enough, but if you're unfortunate enough to live in Crook county it's even worse!

All that aside, I'd love to have money to build a 2 car garage behind my house and have some sort of a project car (a Mustang!). I do have to hand it to those who don't have a lot of money and still do great things with and in small garages.

 

[crewchief888]

seem to have never ending supplies of money.
Plasma cutters, CNC machines, Bridgeports, all kinds of CAD software at their disposal. Everyone of them seem to have a race car of some sort in them.

putting together what i wanna build wouldnt be any fun with all the stuff...

garage/shop is all about perspective.

i can do what i want to do in my 19x22 garage.

do i wish it was bigger?

yea a little,
but not much bigger really.....

heated, insulated, enough light to see, more amps?

yea it would be nice.....

fridge, bar, stripper pole?
not really...

when i bought this house, almost 8 years ago, (by this time) i had intended to build a bigger garage behind the existing one, and demo the old one..

unfortunately real life got in the way, and it'll probably never happen.

 

[Falcon67]

I'm fortunate to have what I have, but what's here got here by "eating the elephant" one bite at a time over 30 years. It's still tasty and I ain't done.

 

[383 240z]

I've been building my shop for about 20 years now. Yea I have a LOT of toys, however I don't have a fortune into it. My tools are a result of 18 years as a wrench in a dealership, and a hot rod shop. The big ones were either bought REAL cheap, like my mill and lathe were UNDER $900 for the pair, or were needed for a job, where it was cheaper to buy the tool and do it my self, than to pay for the labor.

I also work 50-60 hours at my real job, and about 10-15 hours on side work to pay for my junk. Keith

 

[polexican23]

well good to hear my misery has a lil company. My warden would never allow me to move out of IL until a majority of her family kicks the bucket. I offered to speed it up, but I got the frowny face from her.

CrewChief, mine is 10x25. Not enough room to even get my work DD (toyota corolla) in there. Looks like I will have to get the stripper pole in there to make it useful for something.

 

[crewchief888]

well good to hear my misery has a lil company. My warden would never allow me to move out of IL until a majority of her family kicks the bucket. I offered to speed it up, but I got the frowny face from her.

CrewChief, mine is 10x25. Not enough room to even get my work DD (toyota corolla) in there. Looks like I will have to get the stripper pole in there to make it useful for something.

i couldnt afford a house in illinois, especially in cook county..

and never found anything within 30 miles of work anyway....

i'd have plenty of room in mine if i got rid of my harley, my off road truck, and a bunch of tools....

at least during nice weather, the old lady parks her car in the driveway, and i have a little room to work if i want/need to

 

[where2]

I don't have a money tree, but I have plenty of Dollar Weed in my yard... I can't seem to find anyone willing to exchange it for $$$ other than the Tru-Green lawn maintenance guy who wants to charge me to take my dollar weeds away.

Single car garage with not enough room, but I won't trade this house for anything, because I can't afford a better ocean access house.

 

[Rusty32]

I know the feeling but for me I have to blame it on poor life choices and deciding to get into the mechanic trade.

 

[Beach Dude]

I'm fortunate to have what I have, but what's here got here by "eating the elephant" one bite at a time over 30 years. It's still tasty and I ain't done.

I really like this attitude,

I also feel very fortunate to have what I have, I have a couple VERY good friends that also have Garages that are equipped to do about whatever car repair we need.

Do I wish I had more, sure, I need the drive to keep eating a bite at a time, will I ever have a Garage Mahal, probably not.

 

[HOTFR8]

They married rich women?

Or they stayed Single either way who cares. Just shows what you can have if you work for it or even go into debt to have it.

 

[kmacht]

It is amazing what you can afford if you don't buy new cars and don't buy a mega mansion. Friends always wonder how I can afford a nice garage/shop and the plane I am building. They always overlook that I drive a 94 mitsubishi and that I bought a house that needed every room updated over the past 10 years (all done by me) while they are driving a brand new 2013 car and had their house custom built. Even the smaller things add up. Do you really need a smart phone or can you get by with a basic phone and have an extra $100 a month ($1200 a year) by not paying for that expensive cell phone plan. What about cable TV? Do you really need things like HBO, Cinemax, and that 150 channel lineup or would that money be better spent on a new tool each month. It is all about priorities and tradeoffs.

Keith

 

[theoldwizard1]

I just missed the money tree that sprouted today !

Icahn says bigger buybacks can drive Apple shares to $700


AAPL up 4.75%

 

[zuk123]

Take a look at the garage sale thread. Lots of us are building it "one piece at a time" and there are lots of strategies mentioned throughout the thread.

There have been a couple of good threads where a young guy asked for financial and life advice. There are lots of good tricks, techniques, etc in those threads.

And if you haven't yet, read Jack Olsen's 12 gauge garage thread. I think he has less than $5k in his garage at this point and it's so sweet, hot models keep stopping by for magazine shoots! (He's been featured in at least 6 mags so far.)

Jack isn't the only one getting great results, look for Tinbender's thread, or the Salt life Hideout, and others that I'm sure folks will chime in with.

My point is, you don't have to have a lot of money to live well, if you are creative and persistent. And there are LOTS of examples on GJ to look at and 'borrow" ideas from

good luck! Start NOW, before you know it years will have passed.

Zuk

(left chicago and illinois at 18 and except for a half a year after school, haven't lived there since. And yep, all the family is there. Nice to visit, can't live there.) BTW where you choose to live and who you choose to live with will determine about 95% of your happiness in life. Choose well, or FIX IT!

 

[NUTTSGT]

I want it to be known that i hate (extremely jealous) of all the guys that post on the garage gallery and seem to have never ending supplies of money.
Plasma cutters, CNC machines, Bridgeports, all kinds of CAD software at their disposal. Everyone of them seem to have a race car of some sort in them.

Ok, poor-man ranting about how little money I have and wish one of these guys would adopt me is over.

My place is nothing fancy but it is mine (banks). The key is either have a good job making plenty of money, having born/wed into a wealthy family or work plenty of OT, sweat equity and buy one thing at a time.

If you scroll through my refurb thread, there is one time that you will see other people and that was family & a friend when we poured the new floor and apron. Everything else I did myself. What I saved by doing the labor myself, allowed me to do more. I took advantage of the Big Box stores offering no interest for 6-12 months when I did a project.

You can look for deals, hit up swap meets and let your friends know you are looking for a certain tool, put the word out . . . always, always be looking, that is how you find the good deals. Although I don't need it yet, I found a weight distribution hitch with the bars, their brackets and sway control. Usually around here they go used for $150 without the sway control. I found it on CL, made the drive and got it all for $125.

 

[thundermug]

I'm in Illinois. Born and raised. The only reason I'm still here is because my parents will need me in a few years...and then someone will have to settle the estate. My brothers are on the other side of the country.

When the time comes, we're heading over to Delaware.

 

[HOTFR8]

Gardening advice on the GJ. Come pruning time do not cut back to hard as the fruit will only come out in smaller currency.

 

[where2]

It is amazing what you can afford if you don't buy new cars and don't buy a mega mansion. Friends always wonder how I can afford XYZ?

^^^^ I know what you mean, and ate my PB sandwich at the office today as I do most days. I'm driving a paid for 2004 VW Jetta_Wagon_TDI (40mpg city), living in a waterfront 1962 house I bought in 1998 before the bubble (paid off in 2012). I have no HOA. I haven't had satellite since 2004, and never had cable. My iPhone is $30/mo (Virgin Mobile). I still mow my own yard, wash my own cars, wax my own boats, painted my own house, and built my own floating dock.

My wife and I have friends who got married 3 months before we did (about a dozen years ago). They just bought their third "new" mini-mansion. Raising 4 kids on one income, and moving every 5 years, I'm guessing they are a long way from being debt free... Everyone I work with is a slave to their payments on something. The last place I worked, one guy managed to pay off his house in the 16 years I worked there! I think it's a rough month if I spend more than $70 on fuel. Unfortunately, those GJ "Garage Sale" deals that keep popping up are cutting into my slush fund. (Nicholson files, Kreg router table, Kobalt power-cross ratcheting wrenches, Gladiator Cabinets, etc).

 

[bczygan]

well good to hear my misery has a lil company. My warden would never allow me to move out of IL until a majority of her family kicks the bucket. I offered to speed it up, but I got the frowny face from her.

CrewChief, mine is 10x25. Not enough room to even get my work DD (toyota corolla) in there. Looks like I will have to get the stripper pole in there to make it useful for something.

Mine is 9x19.

My goal is to make it just what it needs to be. No excess.

I don't have room to make a man cave.

So the whole house will be the man cave.

Garage fridge is the kitchen fridge.

Garage bathroom is the downstairs powder room.

Garage shower is the upstairs shower.

Garage entertainment area is the living room just around the corner.

Garage wet bar is the kitchen counter.

Stripper pole? That's the 4 poster bed upstairs...but I just look silly hanging from one of them...

 

[diernosaj]

another ilinoisian here with a decent 24x24. the only reason why im still here is because I havn't moved yet. bought my house in a pretty nice neighborhood 2 years ago. paying extra on the payments a month i got 18 more years to go on a 30yr mortgage. i figure by the time i have a kid and kick the poor sucker out ill be on my way to greener pastures somewhere down in the florida keys hopefully.

if any of you guys move before then can you take me with you lol.

getting married down in the keys next month. have been through old vw's as a hobby of mine quite a bit, i can attest to that age old fools question about how do I live like i do with all these cars and vacations all the time i must have a money tree or something this that and the other blah blah blah. when i dont have any kids and i dont have any new vehicles my cellphone screen has been shattered since i got it, i dont watch tv and i dont drink my money away every day and i got a real good deal on my house at the right time in the market, I save it up and then i spend it and then i save it up and then i spend it one of these days ill quit savin and startin spendin more i guess lol

 

[ZRX61]

They married rich women?

or they stayed single, which is a far better idea.

 

[BellyUpFish]

I want it to be known that i hate (extremely jealous) of all the guys that post on the garage gallery and seem to have never ending supplies of money.
Plasma cutters, CNC machines, Bridgeports, all kinds of CAD software at their disposal. Everyone of them seem to have a race car of some sort in them.

Ok, poor-man ranting about how little money I have and wish one of these guys would adopt me is over.

Maybe you should retire from professional slacking and take up a new career?

 

[Toolgarage]

illinois is hard try california then you will feel the rod

 

[drmarkr]

4 years of college, studying my *** off, hours on end, instead of playing/partying like many of my friends.....

Followed by 4 more years of medical school, studying about 10 times as much as I EVER did in college, getting by on as little $$ as possible.....

Followed by 4 more years of residency with many, MANY months of working 100 plus hour weeks, getting paid $15-20k per year (do the math on that wage at 100 hrs/week).......

Yea, it winds up earning you a pretty damn decent paycheck. After 12 fuggin years of post-high school ***-busting sacrifice. What did you choose to do with your time after you got out of high school?

 

[BFBOB]

for that expensive cell phone plan. What about cable TV? Do you really need things like HBO, Cinemax, and that 150 channel lineup
Keith

These days, only 150 channels IS roughing it!

 

[stingry]

They married rich women?

OR, maybe they worked for it!!!

Cheers
Steve

 

[wssix99]

I want it to be known that i hate (extremely jealous) of all the guys that post on the garage gallery and seem to have never ending supplies of money.
Plasma cutters, CNC machines, Bridgeports, all kinds of CAD software at their disposal. Everyone of them seem to have a race car of some sort in them.

Ok, poor-man ranting about how little money I have and wish one of these guys would adopt me is over.

You need to let go of the Cubs. Just on the price of tickets, you could buy all that machinery. Just watch some Little League locally and go home to your garage full of tools. Its a win-win and the games will be more competitive.

 

[NUTTSGT]

These days, only 150 channels IS roughing it!

150 channels and still nothing on. . . .

 

[polexican23]

So the list goes.------then what I did/am doing
Marry rich or stay single:marrying a social worke- fail
Drive a POS car- 1999 Toyota Corolla with 65K miles-Pass
Dont waste money on beer- I drink beer- Fail
No expensive phone--I do everything on my phone, mostly surf ****-fail
No cable-Cost of cable is $10 more a month than JUST internet alone- fail
CL or fleamarket- Go to Allstate arena fleamarket when I can,live on CL-pass
Go to college- Did that SIU auto grad- fail
Get a good job- See above-fail
Work OT- 70 hrs a week, on salary- epic fail
Side Job- Sell flowers at a farmers market in Wheaton- pass
Do all work yourself/with friend- Do as much as I can when I can-pass


So i have a few things too work on. I did buy a house in Crook county, but it is in RW and the property taxes are under 4k, only cost me 170, and is 4 miles from work. Will start riding my bicycle once we get settled enough where I dont have to stop at Lowes/Ace every day.

 

[zmotorsports]

^^^^ I know what you mean, and ate my PB sandwich at the office today as I do most days. I'm driving a paid for 2004 VW Jetta_Wagon_TDI (40mpg city), living in a waterfront 1962 house I bought in 1998 before the bubble (paid off in 2012). I have no HOA. I haven't had satellite since 2004, and never had cable. My iPhone is $30/mo (Virgin Mobile). I still mow my own yard, wash my own cars, wax my own boats, painted my own house, and built my own floating dock.

My wife and I have friends who got married 3 months before we did (about a dozen years ago). They just bought their third "new" mini-mansion. Raising 4 kids on one income, and moving every 5 years, I'm guessing they are a long way from being debt free... Everyone I work with is a slave to their payments on something. The last place I worked, one guy managed to pay off his house in the 16 years I worked there! I think it's a rough month if I spend more than $70 on fuel. Unfortunately, those GJ "Garage Sale" deals that keep popping up are cutting into my slush fund. (Nicholson files, Kreg router table, Kobalt power-cross ratcheting wrenches, Gladiator Cabinets, etc).

Very similar to our situation. No money tree, just been frugal most of our married life. I would like to say ALL of our married life but I would be lying. When the wife and I were first married, we spent money like we had it. I figured two incomes (even though they were not that great) and I was doing a lot of work on the side we were rolling in money. There was nothing left at the end of the month and the stress level was through the roof.

About 8 months after getting married we had a reality check and decided we didn't want to rent forever and wanted a home. We started cutting back on extra activities with friends and got our little messes (loans) cleaned up. We were able to save a few thousand dollars for a down payment on a new home just 14 months after getting married. The payment was bigger than I expected when we first started looking but the wife and I were on the lower side of our earning potentials at our jobs plus I was keeping very busy doing side work.

We took out a 30-year mortgage and by paying a little extra each month and me using most of my vacation check each year from work we paid our home off in just over 15-years.

My wife and I have a great life even though we don't have money falling out of our asses and are able to enjoy some of the nicer things in life along the way. We have nice vehicles and toys but they are far from new.

We have some friends that are the way you described, on about their fourth or fifth house and keep looking for that next new mansion but they are never happy with anything they have. Their stress level is taking its toll on their marriage and they can't seem to see what the cause is.

We are teaching our son to use his education to make a good living but to ALWAYS live on less than your means and put money away.

I enjoy looking at everyones Taj Mahal of garage/shops but in reality I wouldn't trade my life or what my wife and I have worked so hard for. I will continue to work out of our little congested shop.

Mike.

 

[artrem]

Over the long run, it all comes down to priorities. My dad was a mechanic and I grew up wrenching on all sorts of vehicles. I inherited many of his tools as well as his knack for working on stuff, so when we were looking for a house to raise our kids, my only "must have" was a 2-car garage. Unfortunately, the best house we could afford back then only had a 1-car carport. My wife assured me that we would add the garage ASAP, so I acquiesced because it was a good house and yard to raise kids in. But the garage never happened as family expenses and later college expenses came and went. So I never got my 2-car garage, but finally, 28 years later I was able to get my carport converted to a 12x24 ft garage. Small, but very well done with an epoxy floor, heated and insulated.

I would like more space, but I have crammed as much functionality as you can imagine in my tiny garage with a lift, compressed air, a bench, an engine hoist, some shelves and one of my tall tool boxes and still have space for my DD. This will do until I can retire and move to a house with a larger workspace.

 

[polexican23]

Artrem, I am in your boat, but just setting sail. Our must haves, were a basement for her (who am I to deny a woman who wants to put a bar in the basement) and a 2 car garage. We got neither. Lets see where this journey takes us i guess.

 

[bobadame]

Hey polexican, if it will make you feel better I used to live in my car. Then I lost my car and I was on the street. I do have a race car and a cnc machining center and a mill and 3 lathes and a tig welder and all the sheet metal forming equipment except a Yoder ,and a lift and 2 shops, each with a built in crane and an old house on 6 acres of heaven. It has been a mountain of long hard work to get to this point. If I can do it, anybody can. It does help to have a wife who's a life partner and not a liability. Bottom line is stay healthy, mind and body and work toward your goal.

 

[NUTTSGT]

So the list goes.------then what I did/am doing
Marry rich or stay single:marrying a social worke- fail
Drive a POS car- 1999 Toyota Corolla with 65K miles-Pass
Dont waste money on beer- I drink beer- Fail
No expensive phone--I do everything on my phone, mostly surf ****-fail
No cable-Cost of cable is $10 more a month than JUST internet alone- fail
CL or fleamarket- Go to Allstate arena fleamarket when I can,live on CL-pass
Go to college- Did that SIU auto grad- fail
Get a good job- See above-fail
Work OT- 70 hrs a week, on salary- epic fail
Side Job- Sell flowers at a farmers market in Wheaton- pass
Do all work yourself/with friend- Do as much as I can when I can-pass


So i have a few things too work on. I did buy a house in Crook county, but it is in RW and the property taxes are under 4k, only cost me 170, and is 4 miles from work. Will start riding my bicycle once we get settled enough where I dont have to stop at Lowes/Ace every day.

First of all, you are listen and not taking offense what your fellows members are telling you, that is a good start. Just remember, everybody's situation is different and not the same.

It sounds like you have to shell out alot for your area where you live, it happens. Some of us live in areas where the cost of living is cheaper or rural areas where our money might get us more or take us farther. Your property taxes for example, at 4 grand a year, (We're ball parking this number) comes out to $333/month. Imagine if you only paid a third of what you do now, where could that money go ?

 

[NUTTSGT]

Artrem, I am in your boat, but just setting sail. Our must haves, were a basement for her (who am I to deny a woman who wants to put a bar in the basement) and a 2 car garage. We got neither. Lets see where this journey takes us i guess.

You are just setting sail, that is good. Sit down with the wife, set your goals and make out a plan to get there. It's better to do it now than in 15 years.


It also sounds like you bought a house "just because" as it didn't have the features you wanted. You might be close to work but what would you have gained house wise if you would have went out 5-10 miles farther ?

 

[zmotorsports]

You are just setting sail, that is good. Sit down with the wife, set your goals and make out a plan to get there. It's better to do it now than in 15 years.


It also sounds like you bought a house "just because" as it didn't have the features you wanted. You might be close to work but what would you have gained house wise if you would have went out 5-10 miles farther ?

Good, sound advice right here. My wife and I have sat down with pen and paper to record any and all thoughts pertaining to the pros and cons of every major financial decision in our 24 years of marriage. We also have a "Must Have" and a "Would like to have" column for every major purchase.

All of the "Must haves" should be checked off and as many as the "would like to haves" should be checked as possible. She was very respectful of what I did for a living when we bought our home and the first priority was a two-car garage attached to the house for parking the DD's in and enough yard to be able to put up a detached shop in the future. We both knew we didn't want me working in the attached garage due to noise, vibrations, etc. so we had a solid plan before we even started looking at houses.

Although we looked for quite a while we didn't settle just because we wanted to get into a house. We found one that fit our every need and especially our budget. We didn't want to end up being house poor and not be able to afford anything else in life.

Mike.