Leaderboard

Waiting for good weather for a chance to try out these mid-west roads. It's good to find some like-minded folks for local info.

Short answer is to live conservative and think long term. Our house is nothing huge, never owned a McMansion. 3 bedroom bungalow with a tiny lot that we paid 130K for 13 years or so ago. We remodeled slowly but surely, paying each item off one at a time. In fact we just did the kitchen this summer. Prior to that we lived in a three bedroom townhouse, raised my kid in it. He is fine. We lived there a long time too...walked away with a lot of cash from it and banged it down on the house. By not constantly moving from McMansion to McMansion we saved boatloads of money. We pay our cars off and drive the hell out of them, never buy a new one until we can easily bang half down. Mines a 2011 Elantra, your basic sedan, paid for. Hers is 2014 Subaru Impreza, it's loaded out but we get VIP pricing from Subaru. It is also paid for, we financed like 8K on it. I love guns, and I own exactly two. A hand cannon for home defense and a pocket revolver for carry. I don't have 15 other guns, instead I have that cash. I don't buy Xbox games I rent them. I didn't buy the Xbox One until it was out a year and dropping in price. I just threw my snow blower away, I bought it when we moved in here. Sucker is old and crappy looking but it worked. I don't need headlights and heated grips and shit on a snow blower. Long as it blows or is reasonably easy to fix.... I don't have to go to the Bahamas ever spring with all the other families that live in McMansions. We do real cool trips every 4 or 5 years instead. And do lots of trips on the bike the rest of the time, which are way cheaper. Don't eat out a lot. I buy computers and electronics one or two steps behind the latest and greatest. I bough my bike in 2013 at the end of the season, got a hell of a deal on it. Paid about half of it in cash and financed the rest. It was paid off in a year. I wanted and could afford a 30K goldwing. I bought a 15K Kawasaki Voyager, never hesitated and never regretted it. Investments are our retirement, they don't impact our daily lives at all.

Spend wisely. Save, invest, pay shit off early not overpaying the interest. Don't get yourself into financial debt that you can't easily get out of. Work your ass off to be able to afford the things you want in life and squirrel away the rest. I have a full time job, and 2 other companies I run. My wife stays home with the kids. We drive nice cars, and will be debt free in the next 5 years. I'm only 31. You have to know what you want and go after it. If living debt free is it that's cool. If having a lot of shit is what you want than realize it has a price and most likely a bill that comes along with it prolonging your debt free lifestyle. Hope that helps.

Chrome and Tonik nailed it. My parents taught me that philosophy. Even on one college professor's salary, they were able to finance a modest home and pay it down aggressively by being frugal elsewhere. My family didn't own a color TV until everyone else had one and my mom cooked most meals after carefully couponing each week. Once the kids were in school, she invested in a degree and went back to work as a teacher, thus supplementing my dad's income. Our vacations usually leveraged the conferences my dad was sent to, as it paid for most the gas and hotel stays. All in all an excellent childhood without breaking the bank by any means. Plus, I got time with my parents, which was worth far more than any material good we missed out on. Fast forward 15 years and I was super frugal through college and my early working years, which allowed me to pay off my school debt and car loan early. Once I didn't have to pay $500/mo in loan payments, the benefits started to multiply just like Tonik said. With that extra breathing room, I upgraded to a safer but still reasonably modest apartment, bought a better computer because I'm in I.T. and knew it would pay dividends in my career, and started to put a little retirement money back so I wouldn't be tempted to spend it. Every time I got a raise or bonus (in part because of the studying I was doing on the side), my rule was to put no less than 2/3rds of it against any debt and to save the rest as if it never existed. By doing so, that minimized "financial friction" in every subsequent month. I knew what would happen if I saw a growing checking balance each month, so I manipulated my own behavior by keeping extra money out of there and "hidden" in emergency savings and investment accounts. :-) Fast forward some more and those investments have grown, which not only validated my strategy but also has given me peace of mind that I'm OK if/when ever things break down or a major health issue comes up. It's an incredibly liberating experience. It's ultimately how I was able to pay for a huge spine surgery in November. That doesn't mean you have to live like a spartan or a monk(!), it just means soberly realizing that long-term stress relief and flexibility are far better than short-term gratifications. That's a really tough lesson for many people accustomed to living one financial orgasm to the next. I'm now fortunate to have no vehicle or credit card debt, I can handle emergency expenses and occasional charity causes (which selfishly makes me feel even better), I've got my daughter's core expenses covered, and I'm on track to have my house paid for in 5-7 years unless the rates stay really low, in which case I'll continue to make more in the market with the cash. You can do it, really, you can. Yea, it means you may not get to impress people you hate with things you don't need, but on the other hand, there is a quiet calm and gratitude that comes from having a stable base to grow from. Like the frigging Atkins diet, the first phase sucks because you go through a bit of withdraw, but when you start to see results month after month...

I will be in Shaker Heights on the 18th, and then Akron on the 22nd. Don't know how close either one of those is to you. Traveling through Akron on the 15th. This probably won't work too well as I'm traveling to Trumbull county that day. Will have to meet you for lunch, as I will be in work only car. So I won't be able to deviate too far off route.

Cylinders are probably all right, that noise is not from a brake pad applying pressure to a disc. Sounds more like some hardware is rubbing. Just FYI, on calipers the piston doesn't really 'retract'. After you apply hydraulic pressure and release, the side to side movement on the disc ever so slightly moves the pad and piston away, so there is always a little brake drag(hence why full floating rotors are used on race bikes. Noisy as all hell but very little drag!). If you had a stuck piston, it wouldn't make much sound, just normal braking friction that didn't release. Whats your pad thickness look like on both sides?

Charleston is the best. One of my favorite people from this site moved there a couple years back, kozmo. I am a couple hours south on hilton head. If you like awful weather and people stay in cleveland. If you like great weather, palm trees, people with manners, history, sea food then charleston is your place. Oh and we have palmetto state armory too

This is exactly the mentality that keeps many blue collar workers, especially those who depend on union contracts to protect their mediocre performance, from being valued more by their employer. It's no different than "the typical millennial" who maligns management when they're not put in charge of the midwest sales district two days out of high school. It's jealousy and self-entitlement. Let's pretend I worked for you, and I saw another coworker busting his ass to help you make your quota and improve your profitability while I grumbled to myself about how much of an ass-kisser he's being. Would you call his productivity "sucking the dick of the person above them to make an extra buck," or just increasing their perceived value to create more opportunity for themselves?

And its never too late. I was a financial disaster in my early 30's.

I should add, it sounds like a daunting task. But when you get started it multiplies on itself. It gets easier and happens faster.

Here are some pics I took around Mohican today on my little 100 mile jog after work.

I may be able to hook up with you at 22 and the bypass if I can get home from work early enough. Keep me in the loop.

You bastard, you made me click. He does my bike.

Had a '98 TJ that was a blast. It was a DD as well as a weekend toy. Just took delivery of this beauty a week and half ago. Already began adding to it with a 2.5" lift next up. We are loading up the kids and heading out to Colorado in it this summer to do some off-roading. As has been stated before, tons of parts, mods and accessories for any budget. They are an incredible amount of fun.

Back. Give the bike 1 season before you start modding. My wish list at first is WAY different than what I want now . Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Since I need to lose weight and not maintain, my diet/exercise is geared towards weight loss but also for the overall health benefit.

If you plan on running or biking I really can't see any reason to cut carbs. You will just kill your exercise.

The fuel you burn first is carbs, which are stored in your blood and liver. If you eat in the morning and go jogging the carbs you burn will be from last night's dinner not from breakfast. It doesn't get there that fast.

I actually work right outside downtown Akron along 77 so I can likely meet you wherever to avoid deviating from your route.

finally, the hamsters have gotten even

Totally me

@Tonik

You don't know how hard he spun it.

you still coming up this way for work? I could meet up with you and give you the filter and bulbs for Ben. Someone in cbus also wanted the Baxley but I don't want to overstep and ask you too much and turn you in to my parts mule

I think you misunderstood. I took it as we we're all to take turns punching Tonik in the pie hole?

That's a good question to ask too. Wheel not centered?

Figuratively means literally and vice versa. Didn't you learn this at 21'st century school?

Reading some of the responses sure seems like the typical millennial, I deserve the world mentality. If you're unhappy with your job, start looking for a new one. If you're being under paid prove you're worth more. when I hire in March, I tell people I'm going to pay you $XX.XXper hour.. If you stick it out through mid June and prove you're reliable and can follow simple instruction I'm going to pay you a $1 per hour bonus of every hour you work from March 15 to June 15, and if you're unhappy and want to move on, no hard feelings I'll still pay you the bonus, but if you want to stay and keep working the hard I'll straight up pay you the extra $1 per hour, all for unskilled manual labor.

I have a feeling this is going to be an epic trip.

Agree. Anyone who has the attitude that "my party will make things better...but the other worse party will be the death of US" is a monumental idiot. There are too many of these morons to count, and they are propping up this broken, two-party system. As I've said many times, I have far too much pride to call myself a democrat or republican.

Taxes and the Federal government have nothing to do with the Obama phone. But if you want to name it after a President then 'Reagan Phone' would be far more accurate.

Well, you may or may not use food stamps.

Not giving up our no payment lifestyle, it is too freaking cool watching the money pile up in the bank/investments.