It pays to do some research before purchasing property. Property Owners Association's impose and enforce restrictions on the lands in their control and it's funded by the property owners of the subdivision through annual fees.

 

 

Scary but so true!!!

I do a little side work and save my pennies. Each check I set aside money for the car habit I've been addicted to for years.
I'm pretty much debt free except the house and plan to keep it that way. I absolutely hate credit cards or debt in general because paying interest is a huge money soak. We also have no kids and no pets so our money goes into cars and travel.
I build my cars slowly because I'm building stuff, looking for deals and paying cash for the whole thing. I'm not buying crate engines or trying to make 6,000 HP and call it a street car. I make a plan, a goal, a budget and stick to it.

 

My last projects were when I was an auto tech, so around the end of the 90's early 2000's. I would usually keep stuff that we would normally junk, rebuild it, and use in my builds. We quit rebuilding transmissions, transfer cases, and engines for customers. We installed remans, or unfortunately, salvage parts. Sometimes a vehicle would need more work than the owner was willing to put into the vehicle so they would forfeit the title to pay for the work already done. I got several vehicles this way. I got parts from several vehicles that were to far gone. I also inherited several vehicles. Friends have given me ragged out vehicles. If I had to pay out of pocket it was from side work or overtime. I have put some things on a credit card but I have never funded an entire project. I've never financed a project. I have bought a few vehicles on credit that I knew were going to become project vehicles after pay off. I always pay things off early to keep interest down if there is any.

 

Current project is fed from parting out another build.

It was built slowly, in stages over a few years just by saving up a little at a time. Some extra cash come from a little side work, mainly fabrication. Built a few roll cages, bumpers, rock sliders for friends, work on jeeps (lots of jeeps) and any random car really. just whoever is in need and willing to pay a bit for my time. Don't make much at it, and much goes back into the shop for more tools to expand our capabilities, as we have a killer shop set up as is so more tools is always better. A little goes into my pocket for parts though.

I try not to take any out of my day job pay check. side work and past projects is my fun money, It all goes on the CC and is paid off every month. those CC rewards really stack up, passing up free money if you don't do it that way. Pays for a vacation nearly every year for my wife and I.

 

thats the rub. you gotta use those CC's wisely to get the rewards and not get bent over on the interest. If you dont have the cash on hand to pay it off right meow, dont buy it. ive put down ten grand on a card before, but I knew I had the cash to pay it off before interest accrued. so it was like an interest free loan, that paid me to use! plus you get all sorts of fraud care through a credit card that you wouldnt with cash/debit

 

Tax refunds, overtime, whatever is left over from bills and necessities and the occasional credit card purchase, depending on timing...all in all, been working on this for 3 years, so I'm doing it little by little and in stages

 

Before I retired, I used the good ole Aunt Sam yearly refund for being a US citizen.

 

I'm getting old enough now that I have to slow up on the hookers and blow...that seems to free up quite a bit of cash...

 

Pretty much how I work, but the Cherokee project gets put on hold when other hobbies rise to the top like reloading, longrange shooting and hunting and vice versa. Married, divorced, raised both kids through high school and they moved out to got to college. One recently moved back in but that is simple economics, rather than paying for her bills, I can provide a house, food, phone, internet that I am paying for now until she resolves her issues.

Put 10 years and 200K on my new Frontier after the divorce, replaced it with a 5 year old 2500HD with 82K, good deal and pay if off with extra *every* month. Bought my house after selling my CJ project, it will be close to paid off when I retire in 8-10, but I make extra payments *every* month to pay a 30 year note in ~15.

So I spend what I want each month after bills on what I want, I maintain 4-6K in savings for oh chits that happen with older vehicles and home ownership and "kids".

In my mid-50's, I have worked to get where I am now, it's far from wealthy and assuming I don't lose my job, I will have a retirement fund to take me well into old age.

ps, I have made good money buying and selling pawn shop deals, mostly firearms but other stuff too,if it's priced right I buy and sell. Recently I bought a Winchester 70 SS Featherweight Classic that has been on the rack for years. I didn't pay attention because it was a long action but it went on sale for ~450 it was too good to pass up. The rifle sold for ~650, the scope ~200 and I kept the Harris bipod worth 75.

I bought an 85 Grand Wagoneer for the frame and centered rear D44, drove across Texas and back, after it was all done I had more than a grand in the bank plus a rolling chassis for my 78 build and that is after the purchase price, fuel, food and trailer cost.

After starting to rebuild the 360 with a rod knock, I decided to part it out, I am well over 600 with a few more parts to sell from a used AMC 360 that probably would not bring 150 on CL.

 

Basically just go to work and not spend my extra money on stupid stuff. The wife and I have separate accounts so as long as the bills are paid and investments are financed I can do whatever I want.

My problem is I have to many hobbies....dirt bikes, gun's, fishing, diesel trucks, home improvements, etc. If i could just stick to one I'd be doing a lot better.

 

man I am glad I dont have the gun fever anymore. that **** was almost as bad as collecting guitars.

 

i'm dealing with just parting one out right now. its decent money, but many i would get tired of the hassle pretty quick. No one reads the ad, no shows, guys to just seem to drop contact all the sudden.

 

Having extra money for hobbies, and really finance in general, is like having a bucket full of water. Your income is water pouring out of a hose into the bucket, and your spending (whether it's necessities like food and lodging or fun stuff like hot rodding) is the amount of holes you're poking in the bottom of the bucket. There is a certain limit to how much you can earn based on your time and sanity, so once you realize how much money you're wasting on dumb crap, it makes a lot more sense to plug those holes in the bucket rather than trying to pour more water in.

Easy ways to "increase your income" and hot rodding budget
-Stop eating out. Cook at home, it's a fun way to relax and bond with family and much less expensive than restaurants. Bring your lunch to work as well, quit smoking, stop buying your morning coffee at a coffee shop every morning. All these little "cheap" items add up to a huge amount over the course of a year. Get rid of any "habits" you might have that don't actually do anything for you like gambling, lotto tickets, smoking.

-Credit card debt/interest. This is a no-brainer. Pay off the balance every single month and don't pay them a penny in interest. I was once given advice that you should never pay for a "toy" with credit, pay cash only. The exception would be if you charge it and pay off the balance at the end of the month. If you can't afford it, you can't afford it.

-Do your own work. That's an easy one especially for the folks on this forum, since most people are DIYers anyways. I only ever pay shops to do annual state inspection, mount/balance tires, and wheel alignment. Apply that principle to your home as well. 90% of repairs are doable by the average joe and don't require any special tools - really just a basic set of hand tools, multimeter, etc. I haven't paid a contractor to fix anything on my house and we're on year 5 of living here. This is the Age of Youtube/Google, you can figure anything out nowadays.

Here is a great article about exactly this kind of thing (except this guy is a camera freak, but also enjoys cars)

https://kenrockwell.com/tech/how-to-afford-anything.htm

Remember, it's all about maximizing the amount of water going into the bucket, and minimizing any water pouring out of the holes in the bottom.

 

I LOVE THAT MOVIE! It's IRL to the max.

 

This comment sums up my solution to saving money and working on my projects.

 

We have had more than one customer tell us the re-financed there house or pulled a line of credit against there house to build a car.

 

I know people who have done the same.

 

Amazing....and the same people were shocked with the housing market went to crap in 08/09 🤯

 

My properties never dropped in value.