I thought about this a while. Although I have to believe you since you lived that life… I would rather learn from experience. lol
3 Likes
It’s harder to go from something to nothing rather than coming from nothing and going to something. The experience is insulating to the real world economy. While you think it will always be there, bad decisions and lack of divesting changes that security. It takes one to control the money, instead of the money controlling everything one does and are in life. Experience shape’s perception. One more thing, all friends than didn’t have money had less drama and happier family, friends that did, always had arguing, fights and a soap opera drama right out of TV.
The money is nice, but it does and will change how people treat and see each other as, and some think they are “better” and everyone else is beneath them. My grandmother was like this, she detested the middle and lower class. I got a scowl every time I had her take me to friends home that’s average. She was all about class and me and her butted heads over that issue.
The best of friends but we disagreed on people and status (I don’t like to brag or boast, but in short my great grandfather co founded Abbott Laboratories and created a merger with Indianapolis pharmaceutical company as a VP, he sat on the board as director of the treasury for Abbot) and our family at one point were controlling share holders, the stock was into 100k’s of shares, so must have been a huge stock options with the merger deal. So you see I didn’t just come from wealth, there’s was a status and to associate with your own class, I didn’t play ball so at 18 I was put out by my uncle because legally they had no obligation. But I’ll agree you have to live it to learn and sometimes it’s make a person better for it.
3 Likes
Wise words my friend.
You are truly a wise man. 
You would only waste your money on some tricked-out tractor… 
If I had money, I could never be a jet setter…I hate the city life.
My wife on the other hand would drag me to every known city on earth if she could.
Now I always wanted to travel by boat.
Detroit to Chicago would be a cool trip, I would wanna take all summer to do it though.
Yes, I am a dreamer but you folks know that.
Some would call it ghetto but it was not bad to grow up where I did.
Just me and my mom against the world.
Here is the house as it sits today for reference.
@OriginalDankmaster96 I just remembered about you message, I still have to read it, forgive me I have a lot going on and I am easily distracted. 
10 Likes
I would always wonder if the women would be around just for the money.
I think that even the genuine girls would be falsly accused due to the average tramp fucking with my head.
My wife is a very beautiful lady with a tight body, so you could say I married up.
She is from a nearby town so she is just workin’ class too with no money either.
I always ask my wife if she married me for my money, she just rolls her eyes, cause I gots none…LOL
I truly feel I would be a lonely man if I had real wealth. 
But like @MoBilly said, I would give it a shot… 
9 Likes
I’d have an air conditioned tractor and some land with more dirt than rock. After that, a solid, dry barn and a home built into a steep hillside facing South.
I’d never leave the place, just have feed and necessaries delivered. lol
7 Likes
Now this is the life my friend!
We live up a canyon. Very few neighbors, and none very close. I could be way deeper into the woods and be just fine! I’m about a half mile from the wilderness range.
I’d have to agree with @OriginalDankmaster96 on the money discussion. Money can bring out the worst in people. Growing up, my family was well-off, but still very blue collar. My wife’s family, no collar lol. But it has made us very greatful for everything we have.
The way society has led people to believe that you need credit, credit cards, loans, and debt is fallacy. We were all told that you get student loans, then get a job in your field to pay it back. That you finance a car. Use credit cards, just pay it off every month. In my eyes, all lies. Now I’m not trying to sound preachy, because we’re guilty of this same “normal” behavior. Consumer debit is far to common, and it gets alot of us in trouble. The truth is, that if we save and live at or below our means, the things we want can be paid for in cash and we’d all be net worth millionaires in a very short period of time. I despise debt. Even though we still have some, we’ve really buckled down the last couple years. We don’t splurge or impulse buy, we budget, and we save only to pay off debt constantly. I know, total weirdos, hehe. I can’t wait to have a paid for home and not owe anybody anything! We are going to break the cycle in this generation, and hopefully change our family tree forever.
8 Likes
Agree with all of this. 
5 Likes
Oh yes. I was raised by folks that lived through the Great Depression and didn’t forget the lessons learned. I will admit to getting a few loans while in college and regretting the decision all 13 years I paid on them. But my place is mine, my truck is mine, my home is mine, and I will never borrow on either. Credit cards? Not a one. Never fell into that trap. We still don’t have much (monetarily) but I don’t have an anchor one.
6 Likes
I’ve always thought of “easy” credit as modern day slavery. And it’s available to virtually everyone! Isn’t that great!!
I lived much of my life in the cash/barter economy. It worked well for me at the time.
Full disclosure, we buy absolutely as much as we can on a credit card that returns 1% of our purchases. Of course, we carry no debt. Everything gets paid off completely every month.
I think real estate is the only thing to go into debt for. Other than real property, don’t borrow.
6 Likes
That was, pretty much, my dads motto. “Land son, invest in good land. That’s one thing that will always increase in value”. I guess he learned that lesson by buying Poverty Ridge… 
Could be. lol
Grandpa and my Uncles own bottom land. Us… not so much. Still, we’ve done pretty darn good considering. Dad knew how to make the most out of the least.
6 Likes
And that’s how they get ya!
I’m not saying that you are part of this. But, we all say that we pay it off each month. And yet the United States national credit card debt sits at 986 billion dollars.
Nothing like the 1.7 trillion in student loan debt though…
2 Likes
I always say make the best of what you got.
What/, it has nothing to do with my manhood size…
2 Likes
Waste not, want not.
2 Likes
Sounds awesome… 
Totally jealous.
I was able to grab 10 acres of woods here in michigan, so I can not cry.
But once I went to WV I fell in love with mountain life.
Right now I live in the city… 
.
2 Likes
That trip from Chicago to Detroit going through the sue saint Marie locks is a great trip. I got to do it once took about 5 days but took time and stopped a lot. @blowdout2269 learned in my economics class,math major, found out that if you make 13 mortgage payments a year the 13th goes 100% against the principle not paying any interest with that payment. On a 30 year mortgage that will knock off 7 years of payments. So ya 7 more years of paying just because most of payments just cover interest and a small % off the principle.
4 Likes
Can I get a loader on that tractor 
1 Like
Makes me think of a saying that I live by, "I have been doing so much with so little, for so long, that now I can practically do anything with nothing.
4 Likes
This is how I paid my 30 year mortgage off in about 18 years. Now, I did not do it exactly like that, but every month, I would put at least a couple hundred extra in my payment to go toward principle. I figured I was making at least one or two extra pants a year like that.
I owe ZERO to anyone. Car, truck, cycle, house are all MINE. I do use a credit card for online purchases, but everything gets paid off when the bill comes in. It’s a great feeling to be debt free.
8 Likes
I was taught by my Grandfather, as I didn’t meet my dad until I was 23, DON’T finance anything but a house, if you can’t afford to pay cash, you either don’t need it, or save until you can pay for it. Laid out cash for the Grand Prix, cash for the Regal, boy, you should have seen the look on the guys face when I slapped $25k on the table, LOL, Truck is paid for, and only have 4 1/2 years left on the house. No credit card debt, and live a nice modest Middle Class, Blue Collar life. I wasn’t ever one that was going to go to college, went straight into the Army out of High School, had good paying jobs afterwards. Then got the call 23 years ago from my best friend, “I need ya” moved, and we have built a VERY successful glass company over the years. What started as window replacements in some of the worst housing complexes in Detroit, to doing the Largest free standing retail store in the US (Chanel in Beverly Hills) we made our way thru blood, sweat, frustration and tears.
I’ll never regret one bit of it. It’s taught us both a lot over the years, and we are still humble, treat our employees VERY well, and haven’t let success get to our head. I still work “back of house” fabricating, because that’s what I’m best at. I don’t play well with others, that’s why I’ll never be up front dealing with clients and architects, because I won’t hold back and bow to their demands and will tell them where the Bear shits in the woods, LOL
10 Likes
I’d be living back in them hills if I’d been able to find work back there in the 80’s. I miss all the family and those beautiful hills. But I had just started a family and there was no work to be had at that time. Everyone was either on the state’s dime or making money as best they could which meant dealing meth… I wasn’t in to either lifestyle. I love Missouri now but I will always miss those hills.
4 Likes