Well, in my area things have been booming because of the oil industry. A Joe Blow average welder could make $7,000 a month and a lot of high school drop outs were making $3,500-$4,500 a month just bustin it in the oil field. That is all winding down now so there are a lot of people looking for jobs as well as a lot of automobiles/boats/motorcycles/homes and property being repossessed.

Since 2004 I have owned and operated a private security contractor business, and employeed mostly friends and former fellow special forces soldiers. The work is nasty and sometimes extremely dangerous, but I certainly can't complain about the pay.

I have however in recent months scaled back on the security business and started taking less jobs in favor of other ventures. Like ordawg I too operate a family business in which we buy and sell just about anything. My family has been in the Automobile business since 1966 when my Dad opened our first dealership, so it was a natural progression when I decided to bring everybody back together in a family run business. Since my Dad had retired in 1999, everybody had gone there seperate ways and went in to different career fields. With the economy getting to be the way it is, some of my family members had lost their jobs and fallen on hard times.

I feel very fortunate to be surrounded by my family, and to know that everybody is okay. The work is still hard, and it's still stressfull, but at least I know where I stand with everybody who works for me.

There is still money to be made out there guys, you just have to hustle and work harder than the next guy.