4 Protos!!!!! Hurmphhhhhff!! It is only 3!

I wish it was 4......4 sweet, glorious, protos! Besides, 1 is a user! Sooooo.....not complete collection.

It was not that long ago I was looking for one really good quality fixed blade and I had my eye on the S6 but the SS4 came along and I decided to pick it up. It was a bit smaller than I was looking for but would probably be fine as my only quality knife when paired with a hawk or axe. Needless to say it has become an addiction.
I really want one of each kind of knife now. Instead of just buying Busse or Scrappers I am trying to collect one of each type of blade ,hopefully an excellent example as well. I always get a spare scrapper for trades also.

I have a nice katana ,a first rate WW2 FS Dagger ,a Emerson Commander(Waved) for my tactical folder ,a Lambert custom for my custom linerlock/gentsknife ,a Spyderco Police for my concealed MBC fighter ,and a Scrapyard HookGuard for a fixed survival knife ,a Strider ED neck knife ,a spyderco Yang kitchen knife ,a Swarden fixed EDC and I have not decided whether the YKLE or MuttLE will be my bushcraft knife.

I still need a scandi ,probably a Helle anniversary. My bowie should be here next week. My Chinook3 is a MBC(martial blade craft) knife that was designed to be used in the same style as a bowie. I will still need a companion knife for the DFLE. Pretty much all these are users. I will even use the FS if I have any sentry's to take out. The problem with this collecting strategy is there are millions of types of knives. I still NEED a good kukuri for example. Also the FS Dagger triggered a love for antique knives. That is a great hobby if you find new knives are not draining your savings fast enough <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif" alt="" />


When I bought that first Scrapyard SS4 I went back to the CGN(Canadian gun nutz)
site to show it off. There was a really nice guy there named Cold One who rather liked it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Hey Diceman, regarding investing, check out a book called The Richest Man in Babylon. I took some classes for my degree at school like financial managment, personal financial planning, principles of investment, and other related classes. That book was one we had to read. It’s easy to understand, and has a lot of good info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Richest_Man_in_Babylon_(book)

http://www.luinc.com/elibrary/rmb/richestmaninbabylon.pdf

First, you should save 10% of all you make to invest in yourself and your future. Use the time value of money to your advantage while you’re young. For short term investing, look around and find the highest rate you can for a savings, money market, or similar type of investment. You might be able to make a better investment by personally investing in undervalued items for sale locally that you could sell on eBay, etc. You should have 3-6 months cost of expenses in liquid assets for emergencies.

Inflation averages about 3% a year. If you just stick cash in a jar, it will lose value over time. So, you need to find an investment for your cash that has a return of 3%+ just to break even. I have a PayPal Money Market account that currently earns 4.64%. Personally, I make better returns by reinvesting my money in more things to sell.

For longer investments (5-10 years) put your money in the stock market. Historically, the total of the entire NY stock market since inception averages out to 12-13%. Minus the rate of inflation, that’s like 10% return average per year. To diversify your portfolio, you can buy shares that encompass the whole market through Vanguard or similar companies. To realize returns this high though, you need to invest for 5-10 years (7-10 is better) to adjust for the fluctuations in the market and average returns near this high.

First you should be saving for your retirement. You can in 2008 put $5000 a year in a Roth IRA. The money grows tax free (because it’s already taxed income) and you can withdraw it tax free when you retire. Every year you should put the most you can in a Roth IRA for retirement. You can get whole market shares for your Roth IRA, and average around 10% returns with the profit reinvested until you’re older. As you age, you diversify your portfolio with less risky (but lower return) bonds, precious metals, etc. before you retire. You can easily retire a millionaire or richer if you’d like. It’s all a matter of having the discipline and getting your financial house in order, and saving early and using the time value of money to your advantage.

It cost me many, many, thousands of dollars to learn this info. I hope it helps you. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Oh, another thing I forgot, money saved is money earned. If you have any debts with a higher rate than you can find as an investment, pay off the debts first.

Thats good advice Andy. Right now might be a good time to buy property in the US with the market so depressed. Just as long as it is not in an area where there has been lots of speculators "flipping" property as they are still overvalued. I don't expect the stock market to behave the way in the futre as it has in the past because all the baby boomers are going to retire at pretty much the same time and take their money out and the following generations won't be doing as much saving(ie investing).

You know who probably made a enormous amount of cash in the last couple years is Jerry Busse. Good quality steel has gone through the roof in price and he liked to buy bulk and stockpile it. The kind of tool steel he likes is what has gone up the most because it is needed for construction and hi tech projects.

So Andy you couldn't sleep either?

I have to say from personal experience that the real way to go is to win Lotto. It makes things much simpler(yet more complicated at the same time)

Andy - good stuff. 10% should be pretty easy to set aside. I'd also like to invest as well, as soon as I've got most of my debt paid down. The CD's for my boys pay 6% in 9 months, which is pretty good. I'll check out the book. Another one I've been meaning to read is "Rich Dad Poor Dad."

Ted - I thought that Bruce was going to tell you to jump off the top of the Empire State Building - and if you lived, to go buy a lotto ticket. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I've spent maybe... $7 in my life on Lotto? So far I haven't won anything!

Lance - My wife wants to flip houses. When I'm done w/ school, she wants to be a carpenter/finisher (I don't know anything about that stuff) and do some realestate investing.

Let's see, become a rock star, win the lottery or marry a rich girl, hmmm. I failed at being a rock star, I purchase less than $10 a year in lottery tickets and I did not marry a rich girl. Hmmm.....

That was what I intended to do as well - rock star or marry rich.

My band is too lazy for us to get famous. Maybe my wife will win the lottery, then I will have married rich.

I try not to remind her that I have 1/2 Million $$ in life insurance on myself... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> I could have an "accident" and she'd end up rich!!!