what do you guys do?

[No Regretz]

Job wise how do you afford paying for all these trucks. I know you do a lot yourself but you gotta have a garage with tools. Jus wondering on what i should look into going to college for

[LilD]

I never went to college and work as a janitor for our local school district. The pay is good. Ill never be able to buy a truck already done but Im fine with that. Ive acquire tools over time and do everything myself.

[piecesparts]

I went into the service right out of high school and spent 6 years learning my job. After the service, I did jobs with lousy pay and finally got a job at the Nuclear Power Plant that they built in my area. I now make seriously great money and I don't even have a college degree. I am a Senior Reactor Operator/ Shift Manager at my plant and I now pay in taxes more than I used to make before this job. The bad thing to good money is that you can spend what you make, no matter what that amount is. You have to decide when to hold some of it back for the future.

[leddzepp]

Learn a skilled trade or go into the medical field. I kinda did both....CT/MRI tech for 16 yrs. You will make a good living and never be out of work.

The key is to learn how to manage your finances no matter how much or how little money you make. Always live within your means.

[RandyL1966]

I have a small Body shop I work on Muscle car's and old Truck's
the wife work's in upper Management at WM
never get much time to work on my own trucks but here in the next couple weeks I'm putting aside the time not bringing anything in except mine

[68shortstep]

I do real estate sales & appraisal of real estate. My wife does real estate too, with me. Due to this sucky economy (thanks to all of the jack-hole politicians, big banks & power-brokers), that's why, for right now at least, I'm an ex-truck-owner.

Just gotta hang on long enough for this mess to sort itself out (soon, I hope) & I'll be back.

[hugger6933]

I have a body shop and rebuild late model trucks acars. I don't take in any outside work and that gives me a lot of flexability. I was a single dad for a very long time and being set up like that allowed mr to be more involved with my kids growing up. I do get to work on my own stuff sometimes but that also means I am not making money by buiulding. Jim

[71swb4x4]

I own a property management firm and my wife is a nurse. The PM firm is relatively new and we are still investing more in new equipment than in my paycheck, so I don't make much money. But, this is a long-term investment that will (hopefully) pay off.
All that being said I only own one, and it's a company truck. It's a 67 C30 dually dump truck that works very hard until winter rolls around. Then it sits outside in the cold for four months. Someday I will add more to the stable.

[DALTON]

I am a real estate appraiser and my wife & I buy,renovate and sell homes. If you dont go into the medical field or computers, get yourself a degree in business adminst. you can do just about anything with it. just do what you love. what is your passion?
just remember if you think you can OR cant,,,your right.

[cam.man67]

Senior in college (business major, history minor), work full-time on my family's organic dairy & produce & beef farm, savings from my 4-H days allowed me to work on my truck.

[rusty baker]

Floor covering installer for 38 years. Semi-retired now. Tough on the body, but a good, honest trade.

[bsteele]

I'm an 8th grade Algebra I teacher. Getting ready to start my masters in administration with hopes of becoming a principal one day. I coached football up until this year.

[hgs_notes]

No matter what, you have to find something that you like to do, that will keep your interest. It really doesn't matter what it is, how much you make, etc. My oldest girl is a freshman in college going into psychology. I'm a boiler inspector, no college, 6 years in the navy to start out. Probably the same as piecesparts, but I stayed out of the nuclear field after the navy. No matter how much I made over the years, I managed to live on it (most of the time). It has taken me all of my adult life to accumulate the tools, the skills, and the knowledge on where to find what I needed.

No matter what you think right now, you will be happier and more satisfied as an adult doing what you like as a job/career, no matter how big the paycheck. Minimize credit card debt, live with in your means, learn how to make this one simple decision: Do I need it or want it?

[nasqar]

I am a general manager for Schwans and i make pretty good money but i have 5 kids to fend for. My secret is to make ALOT of contacts because you can get the best deals this way. We purchased an entire parts truck for $200 which saved us hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Now that we have most of the little parts off of it, I made a deal with a local guy to purchase his inline 6 and automatic tranny and he will remove old engine/tranny and install new setup. This kind of horse trading has worked out really well with me. I rarely pay full price for anything because there are always parts for sale from other projects.

[trapperjack]

I'm a trapper. Like others have said, do something you enjoy. I've had jobs making 4 times the money I do now, but you couldn't make me go back. I'm paid to do what I love, hunt and trap.

[travlinman]

truck driver.. was a o/o (owner operator) but had to park the truck and become a company driver. it pays ok and we can pay our bills with some left over for parts when really needed. but ill never be able to afford to just put a project in the shop and pay someone else to build it and i fine with that. i learned early how to work on cars and enjoy doing it myself and teaching anyone i can.

[05crewcab]

My most recent position (as of Tuesday) is being a Dad


otherwise, I have a finance degree, but work as a project manager for a consumer driven healthcare benefits administration software company. (that's a mouthful!) in my off time I flip houses and am a Realtor. My wife is a Clinical Social Worker working with traumatic brain injury patients at a rehabilitation hospital.

No matter what you go into, make sure you BUDGET when you start making money, and start a 401k as soon as possible. The biggest impact you can make to your retirement plan is funding it well in your 20's. you will be a millionaire when you hit 60

[JCD]

I design and machine robotics and animatronics for the special effects film industry..
I have to echo a few things already stated..
Life is too short to box yourself into something you'll dislike or even hate.. just because you think it'll keep you in money.

Find what you like, what you're good at.. and when you're happy, the rest falls in line.

[RandyL1966]

CONGRADS 05crewcab

[05crewcab]

Originally Posted by RandyL1966

CONGRADS 05crewcab

Thanks! My truckin' time just went from slim to none... haha!

[unreconstructed1]

I'm a union construction worker.

[pjbjr413]

Find a career that you enjoy, the money doesn't really matter as long as you can make a living. Having a job that you don't dread going to is worth a lot more than you would imagine. I have a paid position with the Boy Scouts, I'm an Eagle Scout, so the Scouts mean a lot to me, probably doesn't pay as much as some other jobs I might be qualified for, but it is a job that matters in my mind, my wife is a full time student working on her PhD, in the past 6 months we bought our first house, with all that I have a '69 Chevy pick up I'm building, it is a running and driving project and I just bought my wife a '53 Buick Super so she too can join in on the fun of an old car. The things that matter in life seem to make it into the budget one way or another.

[martindc1]

I'm a wildlife biologist, I get by on the pay/benefits. Like the others have said, find something you like to do and avoid debt. I worked a job making more money that I absolutely hated for 5 1/2 years. Finally I landed a job that I love, and even though it pays less, everything in my life including my finances has been so much better. You have to seriously avoid debt and live within your means. Do what you can to avoid college loan debt. I know people with well over $50,000 in college loan debt, and they will be paying on it for 20 years. $400-500 per month paying college loans for 20 years will put a serious dent in your monthly budget.

As far as the trucks go, I have messed around with a few different types of car hobbies, and I'm pretty sure that Chevy trucks is about the cheapest. Lots of parts can be had for good prices on the classifieds here, and often ebay and craigslist. Another thing is to try and be patient. I just got a pretty much new set of tires of for $250 installed, by being patient and using what I had which was good enough for the time being. Ordinarily you'd be talking $700+.

[Shyguy]

I am just an old guy that has been collecting tools over the years. I was lucky to inherit a small garage on the family farm when my father passed away about 15 years ago unfortunately there were very few tools in it.

I am now on a fixed income as many old people say, the government sure makes sure it is fixed with no COLAs. I am able to buy stuff for my old trucks because I work part time now and then. I am lucky I have a son that has a lot of experience working on these old trucks and has some of the tools I don't. Also I can get tools at O'Rielly's or Auto Zone through their loan a tool program.

Before I retired I had worked many jobs starting with Naval Nuclear Power Program right out of high school.

[VA72C10]

Measure, design, and sell wholesale to custom cabinetry. Also demo jobs and install sometimes.... Sample of a recent job...





I will echo the comments about living within your means. That being said...I buy and sell truck parts to not only fund my projects but give my family spending money each month. I always buy a part I see on here, craigslist, or ebay that's around half or less than what I've sold the part before....knowing I can either use it or flip it for a profit. Also will buy good parts that are ugly and clean them up to sell....especially a parts lot...

....more often than not though...having cash on hand when you go to look at parts means you can negotiate a good deal and many times the guy has a garage full of the stuff they're trying to get rid of so I make an offer I can live with it for it all....sometimes I get it...sometimes not....

Also have bought several parts vehicles with the plan the whole time to either part it out or to finish and sell it. Right now I own two trucks but neither will stay with me and neither runs (for now) I have a dream truck and I've been buying parts/tools for it as I find them for 2+ years. I eventually will build it when I have all the parts and tools needed.

Finally, networking and horse trading have been mentioned. Great idea. Found a great guy on craigslist who's super cheap on welding and on mechanical repairs. He has a 35+yr painter friend, a body guy friend, glass guy friend, tranny guy friend.... that helps out BIG time.
We also swapped out things for work...like I would take his welding tanks and fill them and he'd take the price of the refill plus $30 or so for my time off my labor bill. I also used an acct with a metal company to save him a couple hundred off some steel for a project and fronted the money for the steel. He took a lot off my labor bill for that...in the end I gave him a couple hundred cash for thousands of dollars worth of work and he and I were both happy with the deal!