I sold both of my busineses in the fall of last year. Gas station- no profit on gas - some on repairs but people were gettin tighter with the money. Restoration shop - phone was ringing but people were opting to do less than originally talked about. Looked at both sides and decided to sell both businesses (cash out) and work for someone else for a while. I wasn't willing to risk what I made by selling. The business I work for is doing extremely well though.
Here in the south not too many people are complaining about job loss. It's inflation on everything. I'm in the housing market and this is nothing compaired to 84-5 and 6 taught me a hard lesson. Insterest rates were in the high teens, gold went to 800 an oz! Ha this was 24 yrs ago. The price of gold is regulated by peoples fears of insecurity. Gold is on the way down from over 1000 to about 925 just in a week or so. A very good sign. But the price of oil has caused inflation that will take a while to recover from. I'm thinking we'v hit our lowest point to recovery.
I'm only 23, I've never seen it worse. But like Genes 29 said, those years were bad. My parents made a million bucks in those years on property, and lost it all in the early 90's. All I have is their experience, and it was not a good one. Debt free is so huge to me, I don't want to make the same mistakes. Of course, the first thing you learn about small business financing is that debt makes the wheels turn. Take for instance the boot shop down the road. They are small, and seem to never be doing well. But the guy loves boots. He also owns his land, and doesn't have a thing to worry about. Whereas the lady in the stripmall next door bought a failed floral/gift shop, and then opened it back up again with, I think, a huge sba loan, only to go out six weeks (literally ) later. That seems nuts to me. What did she think was going to happen? I've seen it a million times over. I can honestly say that starting a new business now is a million times better than buying one that has been failing since it started.
Personally I think when they stop lowing rates is when we will start to recover but they seem to think housing is causing everything. Maybe we could do with a reset, everybody going back to saving more then 2%, getting the trade deficit down a bit and maybe just maybe putting some political might behind drilling in our own backyard. I have a been stashing cash and large hard goods that I need, and paying down all debt for the last 14 months or so to prepare. All I have is a mortgage and utilities, and I could always sell a car and drive the old truck to work.
The worst thing I don't want to see is the little guys go out. They are still the backbone of this country, they are the compe***ion. Someday when all you see is Walmart and Mcdonalds on mainstreet everyone will agree with me. The same idea holds true in this situation as it does with Chinese goods, don't buy the ****, spend more on the homemade/good ol USA; every dollar is a vote, who have you voted for today?
It is quiet for me on the local level for selling parts. I have been selling alot more to overseas buyers, and out of state as well. On the flipside, I do not have enough money to buy all the cars that are coming up for sale. People are in a crunch. It does not help that they borrowed against their homes, which are worth at least 25% less than they were 2 years ago, and still have all the new cars, boats, etc they owe on. Where I live, about 75% of the people that do work have to travel 60-80 miles one way to work. that ends up being 2 1/2 full fillups for fuel each week. On a car that does 25+ mpg's That went from about 90 bucks a week, to about 150 or more. Imagine paying 360 a month last year to 600 a month this year. Nobody gets a 200+ a month raise each year... well most do not. The s**** metal price is pushing the price of old tin higher, but if you have the space, grab it up. Engine blocks, frames and other iron is supposed to hit $400 a ton real soon. As the dollar stays soft, the prices of fuel, s****, and all other commodities sold on the world market will stay high. I am thankful that I only owe money on my house, have no credit cards, or other debt. Hopefully the house will be paid off soon.. I say it not a recession, its an effect of poor financial choices by ALOT of Americans
Right on about Ramsey, Tman! He saved my ***. I had over 12K in credit card debt, my wife's student loan, a truck payment, and we moved to Georgia. In three years, I paid off the truck (it was a 7 year loan), all the credit cards, the wife's loan, put money in the bank, did a bunch of stuff to the new house, and started my swap meet. The swap meet is paying for itself, but not much left over. But for the first year and a half, it was money off our table every month. The company I worked for has laid off a TON of people, because their business plan ****s. I got the boot because I made the holy sin of telling them someone else might be interested in giving me a job, and wanted to be up front with them and told them they might want to hold off on spending time and money training me to do another function, and buying me a plane ticket to Kansas until I heard back in 30 days. They let me go. With no new car payment, no credit card bills (the road to hell is NOT paved with good intentions, it's paved with Visa Gold cards!), and some money in the bank, we're not at all freaked out about my prospects at making a living as a freelance writer and growing the swap meet. As for the recession: The actual unemployment numbers are very, very low. A decade ago, the numbers we have right now were considered a robust economy. The housing debacle: I bought a house 5 years ago, and was pushed really hard to get more house than I could afford, using the trick math that is biting everyone in the *** now. In the end, it was MY responsibility to look at my income, my bills and decide what I could afford. I did it the way my grandparent's generation did it, and I'm sitting pretty good right now. AND, what the news media doesn't want to tell you is that 96-percent of home owners are making their payments. They reported it the week that came out, but now it's quiet again, and we're back to "Millions are losing their homes! The government has to bail them out! People have to abandon their family pets because they can't move them into apartments because they lost their house!" blah blah blah. Darwin was on to something, you know. The dollar is much weaker than it used to be. That's why our gas is getting so expensive. Drilling our own would help, but even at that point, the Dems and the environmentalists have stopped every new refinery in the last 20 years. That's like driving on roads that were built 20 years ago, and not expanded for modern congestion. The Dems and environmentalists have been screaming for years that we need bio fuels and renewable fuel. Now we're making it out of corn, and they're screaming because it's making the cost of food go up, and we can't ship it to poor countries for charity. Tman said it perfectly--negativity is a self-fulfilling prophecy. My unemployed prospects are fantastic. If you're just gonna stand there and *****, get out of my way. -Brad
A lot of interesting points covered in this thread. Shows the diversity and intelligence of the folks here. It is strange how the o and g business in Texas can be good in west and east Texas but lousy in south Texas. But, anyone who has been in this business knows that the good times end so, the smart ones save there money for that rainy day. Back in the 80's Corpus was devistated by the collaspe in the oil field. This place was a ghost town for 10-15 years before the city decided to promote tourism and retail. Problem is those jobs don't pay much at all. I talk to people in the business every day from all over the state so I pretty much know what happening. I did get a call yesterday from a guy working near Ft. Stockton (major gas fields) who wanted to come back to south Texas. There is a lot of work there but seems the quality of people is low. This business is hard and demands hard people that stay away from their families for months at a time. The money is good but you have to want it real bad. I know at one time a year or so ago companies where hiring ex-cons to work the rig. Yep, hiring them as they walked out the gates. They were ready to work and drug free for the most part. Oh well, things aren't as bad as we are being told by the press but then again, that's how they "sell" the news business...on gloom and doom. Heaven forbid we ever hear a story on the news about how good things are going. Tman, I'll take you up on that cold one...make mine a root beer cuz I don't drink. HA, HA. Anyway, don't sit idle and don't let the *******s win!!
Yesterday I went to Discount Tire for a rot/bal on the Saturn. Shop was a ghost town. Drove by the Goodyear dealer, no cars anywhere. Scary. Small shops around here ****ing it too. That affects the parts dealers.
Good on ya! It was really cool when I got home last night and Carla told me to look at the fridge, she had a list of our 2 last debts..................top one was my daily truck with a line thru it saying PAID IN FULL! I am going to thin the herd a bit now as well, the 54 needs a home, I havent driven enough the last 2 years to justify it. I prob have 3k in vintage bicycle stuff that needs to see Ebay. got an old PU that needs to be s****ped.................bottom line, I prob have 6 months of income tieed up in **** I am NOT USING!
Couldnt have said it better myself! I just hope I dont get laid off, or the old ladys company dont go ***s up! Best of luck finding new employment.
Its getting tougher everywhere.Here in Western Australia we have had a mining and real estate boom over the past few years ,but things are starting to go to **** because people have dug holes for themselves in the good times and now interest is getting higher and higher and belts are getting tighter and tighter. The automotive industry in Australia has certainly slowed Everyday we have young couples coming in trying to sell their cars outright (no trade) because they cant afford to live
Wow, australia. Your housing market is insane. If you think CA is expensive, try Sydney. My friends tried moving there a year ago, but when they added it all up it was not going to happen, just too expensive, they didn't even bother flying down there to see if they liked it.
Where I work (not auto related) is very busy, but all of our work is going over seas. The weak dollar is actually keeping us busy. Kind of a double edge sword. The $ has to be low enough valued that other countrys can afford to buy American, but high enough that we don't go broke doin it. Eric
I believe the biggest factor is that we have sent the majority of manufacturing and jobs abroad. I'm looking out my office into a factory that has less then 50 employees, which two years prior had over 200. Setting a side corporate greed, we also need to take some of the responsibility for this. We all want to pay less for products and we are in love with our Wamarts. I guess MADE IN THE USA means nothing today.
We at Wolfgang Publications publish How - To books in the Hot Rod and motorcycle industry, our custom motorcycle book sales are down 10-15% from last year at this time BUT our Hot Rod Books are up 33%
I believe that is because there are way more do-it-yourselfers now, it just makes more economic sense to not pay a shop to do what you can. Besides that, it also puts pride in a ride. That's good news, it means the weak will be strained out and the strong will continue to have hotrods.
people have to remember a couple of things, election year and war are happening together and people these days are listening better and throwing caution to the wind about spending. last few years we enjoyed the good times now were going to suffer through the bad times. greed is catching up.
Ya know, honestly, part of me is plenty upset over pricing, fuel, etc... just like we all are. However, a small part of me says "bring it on, get it over with". If we're gonna have hard times, lets do this. Then we'll all be stronger because of it. Look at the advances in fuel technology, people becoming less greedy, etc. I read in trucking trade magazines about new amazing technology for the big rigs. I see where the shippers are planning to save 28% on ocean cargo by installing large metal sails on the ships. People look everywhere to save a buck when times get tight, and lots of them find it. Like I said, I don't want tough times, but I'm gonna go into it with the best at***ude I can. And if gas hits $5 a gallon, that lazy ***** in her monster SUV will be kissing my four banger 1929 Sedan ***!
Shipping costs are slowing orders. But I use this time to catch up and develop new products. Constantly seek to improve....your compe***ion is. Good luck and chin up.
Well, someone opened up the floodgates around here. I am suddenly SWAMPED. tighten up the belts a touch, fellas. it's about to go nuts in your neighborhood, I ***ure You. and don't come yelling to me when you have to work a weekend or two. econominc stimulus checks just stimulated me out of a vacation.
Dude- I work 7 days a week now...LOL The last vacation I took was Disney when my kid was like 6 (he's 10 now) Would love to get a chance to visit something other than THE MOUSE.
The Jalopy Journal
