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["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

That's what youngest does.  She raises turkey and sheep.  Stashes most of 
the money as she has "plans" which include visiting Europe.  She sells her 
turkeys for $40/ea and that's live!  That's more than 100% profit.  Folks 
will pay a whole bunch of money for something that is free ranged.  Same 
with her lambs.  She does two to sell at the fair where she just cleared 
$1900 for two lambs and the rest she sells for $3 a pound on the hoof. 
She's doesn't do any of the processing.  She usually picks up the lambs for 
$20-$40 at the auction and spends maybe $50 for feed.  The lambs average 
145-165 when she sells them, so she's clearing about $300 a lamb.

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com>


> Maybe my own children.  At least they conduct their affairs like that 
> right
> now.  For example 13 yo daughter had her eye on something she wanted to
> purchase and so his morning after hearing her rumble through the corn bin 
> for a
> while, she comes up with half a dozen rather skillfully done corn dollies 
> which
> will soon appear on her Etsy account.  So far for them its always been 
> cash in
> the purse before we consider buying anything.
>
> Other than that?  No one.  Less than no one.
>
>
>
> > > My brother says it
> > is the best thing I have ever done. Considering all the mistakes I
> > have made, I cannot disagree. I have never regretted borrowing that
> > purchase money.
>
> No doubt.  I once ran my left thumb,. neatly straight from the tip to the
> knuckle, into a table saw blade.  I knew that in the emergency room there 
> was a
> doctor there fresh from Viet Nam (this was some years ago) who was really,
> really good a trauma injuries.  I could get in to see a doctor in ten 
> minutes or
> defer in the triage and see the other doctor whenever he could manage it. 
> I
> deferred.
>
> If you've never had such a bone injury, you cannot imagine the pain.  I 
> had
> come to the hospital as I had been in the shop, shorts and tank shirt and
> nothing else.  I was freezing, losing blood, going into shock from the 
> pain, and it
> took two hours of that to see the doctor.
>
> It was one of the best decisions that I ever made.  He reconstructed the
> thumb and except that I can very accurately predict rains storms with it, 
> one can
> hardly tell it was ever injured.  I do not regret waiting that two hours 
> to
> see him.
>
> It does not follow that I'd run my other thumb into a table saw blade to 
> see
> him again.
>
> While I don't think we suffer from collective dementia to the point that
> people will ever think that it's good to saw up one's thumbs, or at least 
> there's
> no need to safeguard against it since there are good trauma physicians out
> there, yet we do have enough dementia to think that debt's OK, or at least
> there's no need to have a feasible plan in our financial lives since, 
> after all, we
> can always borrow the money.
>
> I'm glad the debt worked for you, and if I had had no other option, I'd 
> have
> taken out a mortgage too.  But I've never been that enthusiastic about 
> thumb
> sawing on any level if I can avoid it.
>
> > >Perhaps in some cases. But note that we now have a minority race man
> > who may become our next president who used student loans to get an
>
>
> Hmmm, I've got to mull over the notion of 'education' in that context.  Is
> the big O more knowledgeable or skilled than most men I know his age?  I 
> don't
> think so.  So when we say a Harvard "education" what do we really mean?
> Connections and name recognition, I'd say. That's what one buys with that 
> tuition
> money.
>
> But even if I conceded the point on real estate and "education", the 
> argument
> being made is "Look at all these wonderful things debt can buy!"   Yes, 
> but
> NO debt can buy them as well.  Even better.  It's a little like saying, 
> "Look
> at this wonderful tomato!  They sell tomatoes at WalMart so doesn't it 
> follow
> that since tomatoes are desirable then WalMart must be a wonderful thing?"
> No, the tomato would be much better if it was growing in your backyard.
>
> Same with real estate and education.  If all you can manage is a tomato 
> from
> WalMart, then perhaps that's better than no tomato at all.  But that's 
> sad.
> And even sadder if it is the expected and the norm.
>
>
> I did want to answer this too:
> > And were your early real estate purchases worth the same when you sold
> them as when you bought them? I suspect not. If not, what was their
> rate of appreciation?
>
>
> No, you are right.  I did OK on all of them.  No, I did much better than 
> OK
> because I bought them with  cash and all the appreciation in them was mine
> alone.   Because they were cash (and the first one was modest indeed!) 
> there were
> no closing costs, no inspections (except my own), no mortgage insurance, 
> etc.
> and above all no interest.  All that went into my pocket.  I did, of 
> course,
> buy title insurance and paid for a title search (I could do a title search
> myself, but you can't get title insurance that way).
>
> A lot of people tell me, "I paid $30K for this property and after ten 
> years
> it's worth $55K!"   Yes indeed, but although the amount of the mortgage is
> $30K, in the first ten years they've paid $50K in payments and other fees 
> so
> they've really only "made" $5K.
>
> Moreover the money I DIDN't pay in interest went into other investments 
> that
> paid me  interest or appreciation.
>
>
> So, yes, real estate that I've owned has always (it was the times) sold 
> for
> more than I paid for it.  But, says I, that's ALL the MORE reason to not 
> borrow
> to buy it.
>
> I guess I just live on a different planet!   </HTML>
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