RLH posted:I am a public employee in Florida which has one of the most solid retirement systems in the country and I am not looking anywhere near 80% much less 120% when I hang it up in 8 years. Whoever provided that information should be enrolled in Liars Anonymous and have their statistics grades all reduced to a D-.
NYC Z-MAN posted:C W Burfle posted:Tom, while those in the private sector have lost pensions and benefits, the public employees have guaranteed pensions at 80% to over 120% of their salaries with annual 3 to 5 percent increases.
Being a retired public employee (NYS), I'd like to know where you came up with those figures.Once again this being a public forum you can say whatever you want, fact or fiction! My NYS pension ain’t coming close to the low number here!
As well as my contractual postal increases and my Postal Pension too!
Perhaps you work for the NY & NJ Port Authority?
BobbyD posted:RLH posted:I am a public employee in Florida which has one of the most solid retirement systems in the country and I am not looking anywhere near 80% much less 120% when I hang it up in 8 years. Whoever provided that information should be enrolled in Liars Anonymous and have their statistics grades all reduced to a D-.
So the blanket statement was based on school districts in Illinois and not public employees in general. Comparing anything in Illinois to Florida is like comparing a guava to an orange.
I just added 5 engines in one fell swoop yesterday when I order the LionChief + ABA ACL and MTH AA Seaboard sets.
mike.caruso posted:Boy, this thread strikes such a nerve! It’s such a timeless question that transcends model trains. I think the question of How Much Is Enough is one that’s been dogging most of us our entire lives.
My own case in point….back when I was racing around my neighborhood on a Stingray bicycle, I had a passion for baseball cards, and an almost equal love for comic books. As soon as I got my weekly allowance with FDR’s profile on it from my parents, it was only a matter of time before I was exchanging that for a couple of packs of Topps baseball cards, in the usually fruitless hope that I’d unwrap a Frank Malzone, Bill Monboquette, or maybe even a Carl Yastrzemski!. At some point I had accumulated enough cards that the rubber band -bound pack wouldn’t fit into my pants pocket anymore, and they had to be transferred to a shoebox. (Eventually, when the allowance got jacked up to a quarter – dad must’ve got a raise! – comic books entered the equation, and I amassed a stack of those as well, reading and rereading them over and over.)
My mom would see all these cards, and see that I wasn’t “saving my allowance” like I was supposed to be doing and she’d say, “Why do you need so many baseball cards? What are you going to do with all these?” (In later years once I was off to college she essentially answered that question when she cleaned out the basement and threw them all away! Oh the Horror!! LOL!) I didn’t really have an answer for her other than “I like baseball,” or “I like to read comics.” And that worked for me. As for how much was enough, you may have as well have asked me how much Summer Vacation was enough! (“Sure, Mom and Dad…I’ve enjoyed these three months of swimming and riding my bike and playing baseball but enough is enough, it’s time to go back to school.” )
Once I reached my teenage years and started working part time, my tastes got a little more expensive and music became a new passion. Once I found out how much I loved watching my first 45, “Paperback Writer,” spin round and round on my record player as I listened to the music, I was hooked. Every week it was off to the mall for corner record shop for another 45, which later turned into albums, then cassettes, CDs, etc. etc. I remember coming home a while back from what was somewhat analogous to a Greenberg Show for CDs, with an armful of new CDs, and my wife asking the familiar question, “Why do you buy so many of these? Why do you need all this music?” At the time, I think I basically shrugged and said something along the lines of “I like listening to music,” feeling the question needed no more detailed an explanation than that. But the element of guilt was there. Maybe she had a point. How much was enough? But I never stopped.
By now, the baseball cards and comics have disintegrated in some landfill in the Boston area. The Music, thankfully, hasn’t stopped, and continues to provide me with a great deal of entertainment and relaxation. Now a new passion – much more expensive and all time-consuming -- has taken hold in these later years of my life. And like the baseball cards and comics that came before, this hobby makes it difficult to answer the question: when it comes to model trains, How Much Is Enough? How Many Engines Do You Need? Answer? I don’t know. The use of the word Enough implies that these are rational, utility-based purchases. Enough…what’s that? Enough to fulfill the need they fulfill? You ask that about things that have a practical purpose, e.g. “How many tires are enough?" Answer, 4….that’s all the car needs. But How Much is Enough when the subject brings you joy and happiness? How much is Enough when the subject helps you forget whatever frustrations, hardship, inequities or boredom Life throws your way? So long as you don’t let your purchases interfere with or hurt your family or personal responsibilities in a meaningful financial way, can you actually answer the Question How Much Is Enough?
The guilt of leisure pursuits is a hard feeling to shake. In my mind I hear echos of “How Many Baseball cards do you need?” when I visit a show like York and hand over a few fifty dollar bills to someone who hands me an engine that’s just like 13 others I already have. It’s a feeling that’ll probably never go away completely. But thankfully, it pretty much disappears for a time when I open up the box, place the engine on the layout and watch it pull a bunch of boxcars around in circles. At that point, it’s like Saturday morning, there’s no school, the sun’s out, and there’s a bunch of kids outside with a bat, ball and gloves…and they “need one more!!”
Bottom line, I always felt guilty coming home with yet another copy of Action Comics. I felt a little guilty when I’d spend what was then a fortune on some elaborate double-album by The Who or Zeppelin. (I think I waited til my parents were away for the weekend before I bought "Tommy," so they wouldn't see how much it cost!) How many of these things do you really need???
Time is flying by. There’s more sand in the bottom of the hourglass than there is in the top, for me anyway. York’s in a couple of weeks. I’m tired of feeling guilty!
Amen!
Tom
So the blanket statement was based on school districts in Illinois and not public employees in general. Comparing anything in Illinois to Florida is like comparing a guava to an orange.
Furthermore, the articles used extreme examples. Those folks are the exception, not the rule.
They were also very highly paid while actively working.
NYS has a number of six figure retirees too. ONE person gets over 400,000. That is 1 out of over 378,000 in the NYS employees retirement system. (There are separate retirement systems for teachers, and police/fire.)
According to the NYS comptrollers office, the average employees retirement system pension is $23,026.
If one was to compare ERS retirement benefits for that fellow getting over $400,000 to a person retired from a similar position in private industry, I wonder what that person would be receiving.
mike.caruso posted:Boy, this thread strikes such a nerve! It’s such a timeless question that transcends model trains. I think the question of How Much Is Enough is one that’s been dogging most of us our entire lives.
My own case in point….back when I was racing around my neighborhood on a Stingray bicycle, I had a passion for baseball cards, and an almost equal love for comic books. As soon as I got my weekly allowance with FDR’s profile on it from my parents, it was only a matter of time before I was exchanging that for a couple of packs of Topps baseball cards, in the usually fruitless hope that I’d unwrap a Frank Malzone, Bill Monboquette, or maybe even a Carl Yastrzemski!. At some point I had accumulated enough cards that the rubber band -bound pack wouldn’t fit into my pants pocket anymore, and they had to be transferred to a shoebox. (Eventually, when the allowance got jacked up to a quarter – dad must’ve got a raise! – comic books entered the equation, and I amassed a stack of those as well, reading and rereading them over and over.)
My mom would see all these cards, and see that I wasn’t “saving my allowance” like I was supposed to be doing and she’d say, “Why do you need so many baseball cards? What are you going to do with all these?” (In later years once I was off to college she essentially answered that question when she cleaned out the basement and threw them all away! Oh the Horror!! LOL!) I didn’t really have an answer for her other than “I like baseball,” or “I like to read comics.” And that worked for me. As for how much was enough, you may have as well have asked me how much Summer Vacation was enough! (“Sure, Mom and Dad…I’ve enjoyed these three months of swimming and riding my bike and playing baseball but enough is enough, it’s time to go back to school.” )
Once I reached my teenage years and started working part time, my tastes got a little more expensive and music became a new passion. Once I found out how much I loved watching my first 45, “Paperback Writer,” spin round and round on my record player as I listened to the music, I was hooked. Every week it was off to the mall for corner record shop for another 45, which later turned into albums, then cassettes, CDs, etc. etc. I remember coming home a while back from what was somewhat analogous to a Greenberg Show for CDs, with an armful of new CDs, and my wife asking the familiar question, “Why do you buy so many of these? Why do you need all this music?” At the time, I think I basically shrugged and said something along the lines of “I like listening to music,” feeling the question needed no more detailed an explanation than that. But the element of guilt was there. Maybe she had a point. How much was enough? But I never stopped.
By now, the baseball cards and comics have disintegrated in some landfill in the Boston area. The Music, thankfully, hasn’t stopped, and continues to provide me with a great deal of entertainment and relaxation. Now a new passion – much more expensive and all time-consuming -- has taken hold in these later years of my life. And like the baseball cards and comics that came before, this hobby makes it difficult to answer the question: when it comes to model trains, How Much Is Enough? How Many Engines Do You Need? Answer? I don’t know. The use of the word Enough implies that these are rational, utility-based purchases. Enough…what’s that? Enough to fulfill the need they fulfill? You ask that about things that have a practical purpose, e.g. “How many tires are enough?" Answer, 4….that’s all the car needs. But How Much is Enough when the subject brings you joy and happiness? How much is Enough when the subject helps you forget whatever frustrations, hardship, inequities or boredom Life throws your way? So long as you don’t let your purchases interfere with or hurt your family or personal responsibilities in a meaningful financial way, can you actually answer the Question How Much Is Enough?
The guilt of leisure pursuits is a hard feeling to shake. In my mind I hear echos of “How Many Baseball cards do you need?” when I visit a show like York and hand over a few fifty dollar bills to someone who hands me an engine that’s just like 13 others I already have. It’s a feeling that’ll probably never go away completely. But thankfully, it pretty much disappears for a time when I open up the box, place the engine on the layout and watch it pull a bunch of boxcars around in circles. At that point, it’s like Saturday morning, there’s no school, the sun’s out, and there’s a bunch of kids outside with a bat, ball and gloves…and they “need one more!!”
Bottom line, I always felt guilty coming home with yet another copy of Action Comics. I felt a little guilty when I’d spend what was then a fortune on some elaborate double-album by The Who or Zeppelin. (I think I waited til my parents were away for the weekend before I bought "Tommy," so they wouldn't see how much it cost!) How many of these things do you really need???
Time is flying by. There’s more sand in the bottom of the hourglass than there is in the top, for me anyway. York’s in a couple of weeks. I’m tired of feeling guilty!
Well written! I have felt guilty seeing I have about 20 engines, and now think I need to sell one each time I buy another. I think my wife is trying to tell me what you just did Mike. My hourglass is about like yours.
If I felt guilty about puchasing something, I would not buy it.
You can never have too many engines.....just too soon.
I have my hands full with just four. Three steamers and one EMD ABA unit. The mistake (or brilliant move) I made was buying from a range of manufacturers. One of the steamers and the ABA are MTH (all proto 1). The second steamer is a modified Lionel postwar 1947 Berkshire (solid state e unit, ERR sound, flickering LED firebox and a remote controlled coupler ). The third steamer is a KLine Porter that also has ERR sound and a remote controlled coupler. Everything is still conventional; the discussions here on challenges with doing both Legacy and DCS (and having to give up the MTH PSA audio if I upgrade) have deterred me from moving in that direction.
John F posted:Several months ago I purchased a Williams Santa Fe AA engine with dummy and followed up when I located the B unit. I realized I had a total of 11 engines of all types of which 6 (A switcher going back to 1950, a Lionel steam engine (646) almost as old, plus 4 others, decades old. Over the last 3-4 years I have purchased 5 other units, mostly Williams and I realized I had no space, both on my layout which I recently put together with shelving. I decided no more as I have no more room . Of course last month Trainworld had a great sale on a Lion Chief plus with remote control which I had to buy (and I really enjoy-the first of its kind I have purchased).
Where does it stop? Are 12 engines the upper limit for me? Is this number atypical or too typical for the train hobbyist? What should be an upper limit?
John
John. John here. Go by Yardmaster96. As many as you can afford without putting yourself in uncontrollable debt. If you like locomotives, no one says you have to run them on the track. Granted a $600 BNSF ES44AC from Lionel, $423 from MTH, go figure, is an expensive shelf display, but there are hobbyist out there who have every known shape, size, color, type, length, whatever, of rolling stock, and they just sit on shelves. People collect stamps, baseball cards, art. Model Railroading is more than playing with toy trains, it's art. Lionel and MTH and the other companies do the painting, we buy the paintings. I have 7 locomotives. One 1973 DT&I switcher that came with a set in 1973. One Burger Kings GP20 I bought simply because it met my theme criteria, (food and beverage industry). Five Legacy and Protosound 3 types, 3 PS, 2 Legacy. They have the road names of five of the seven class 1 railroads in North America. Canada will just have to understand, I don't have Canadian National or Pacific. But I do have BNSF, Union P, NS, CSX, and Kansas City. Will I run all five at one time, no, but I have them. I like them. And I still see other's I'd like to have, but I'm my case, I just don't have the money to spend on something I will simply look at.
But I digress. To answer your question, 1 is necessary if you want to run a train, two is better if you have a lot of rolling stock and don't want to bog down 1 locomotive, three is good for a big layout where you want to display a lot of action. But if you are like me and just have a small set up in your basement that you see and show off now and then, my answer would be 2 modest trains running in opposite directions on two track layouts. But the true answer to this question is........buy as many as you want to pay for.
I have 4 Bachmann On30 ten-wheelers (ET&WNC 9, 11 and 12 in wartime black and #14 in 1930s green/gold, but that locomotive was running on the White Pass & Yukon by the time I model, so it's yet to be used in an op session and only was test ran and set for the DCC decoder #) and a Bachmann 50-tonner diesel in Army markings. Even with layout as small as mine, I have managed to have three locos running at the same time and it worked out. Usually, no more than two are running in any op session.
I’m at a point where I just don’t need hardly anything and have very few wants within the hobby. I have long ceased to understand the “he who dies with the most toys, wins” mindset as I think that it’s always better to have a smaller amount of stuff you really want as opposed to a lot of stuff that you don’t care all that much about. Quality versus quantity, that is.
I've tried to contain my spending urges by keeping these things in mind:
- My layout (Panhandle 1.0) had limited space. At best I could run 4 locomotives simultaneously. Panhandle 2.0 will be 2.5X larger, yet I'm still only planning on running 2-3 mainline trains + 1-2 switchers. I don't want a crowded look.
- I am selective in what I buy. Is it the correct locomotive for the era and the prototype railroad? Is it a good runner? Reliable? Does it have a train to pull (a purpose)?
- I am cheap, er frugal (yeah, that's the word, frugal).
Money spent on shelf-queens is money tied up and unavailable to build and enhance the layout. - I also am also waaay beyond the "he with the most toys, wins" mentality. Life's too short to accumulate stuff that never gets seen or used. And I have some stuff that fits in that category, unfortunately.
George
Nice post Mike, but you missed the mark. While 4 tires are enough for a car, the real question is how many cars are enough?
Gerry
C W Burfle posted:If I felt guilty about puchasing something, I would not buy it.
C W, you are right. Let me clarify. I spent so many years not buying any trains while our daughters were growing up. Now that they are married, I have the money for what I have bought, it just seems like it should go elsewhere. The same is true with time to build a new layout. Being semi retired, I have some extra time, but it seems like I should be doing something else.
I am not borrowing money for trains, and my wife is happy with the time I spend working around the house. So I really have no reason to feel guilty! It’s almost like it is a habit! LOL
mike.caruso posted:gmorlitz posted:Nice post Mike, but you missed the mark. While 4 tires are enough for a car, the real question is how many cars are enough?
Gerry
Hmm, for a household of two? I'd say at least 4! The real, real question is: How much garage is enough.
My garage is full of stuff I have no control over! LOL
I always say that the term "Hoarders" in no way applies to model railroaders.
C W Burfle posted:If I felt guilty about puchasing something, I would not buy it.
CW, that pretty well sums it up.
1. No more room to store and/or display another engine
2. No more money
3. Wife says: "Sure looks to me like you have enough."
4. 1-3 do not apply if you find one you want.... 
If I counted correctly I have some 74 engines and no layout, other than some FasTrack I have set up on a 10' by 18" shelf. I got hooked, about 18 years ago, on collecting them for a "future layout."
I'm sure my wife thinks I have too many engines and rolling stock to boot.
I do definitely concur with Mike C. especially the music part. I really enjoy my music, too. I started collecting a few 45s of recordings that I had heard on the radio. I soon discovered hifi and stereo LPs sounded so much better than mono 45s, which led to spending my money earned from what early jobs I had on LPs. About 17 years later CDs came about, now here was hifi with none of the ticks and pops and other anomalies associated with LPs. I put off collecting CDs for about 7 or 8 years after they came out in 1982. I bought a used CD changer at pawn shop for 75 bucks and I was hooked. Then my mission was to duplicate my LP collection on CD and then some.
So it's trains and music for me too, Mike.
Larry
Everyone has different feelings on how many or how much trains they want to have according to their level of interest and dedication to the hobby. I buy a lot of trains, not because I want to have more than anyone else, but because I like variety and like to run trains from many different railroads from many different eras, sometimes combined.
It's my favorite hobby amongst many. And I don't spend money on illegal drugs, not on alcohol, women (other than my precious bride) and I don't smoke. I just love freakin' trains!
And besides, one hundred years from now nobody's going to give a rats pituti how many trains anyone on this forum had!
When do you have too many engines? When you have more engines than passenger/freight cars!
Don
Then you can just buy more passenger and freight cars!
I have 3 Lionel tmcc/legacy engines I’m buying 2 more the Lionel legacy RJ corman SD40T-2 and the LionChief Plus Illinois central Berkshire and I’m done.
Turley 7203 posted:I have 3 Lionel tmcc/legacy engines I’m buying 2 more the Lionel legacy RJ corman SD40T-2 and the LionChief Plus Illinois central Berkshire and I’m done.
Turley, Like you I said that "I'm done" many engines ago. Somehow the the collection keeps growing. I am at a loss to explain how this happens.
NH Joe
I always say that the term "Hoarders" in no way applies to model railroaders.
Collecting is very different than hoarding.
The definition of hoarding can be found on a number of web sites.
If I counted correctly I have some 74 engines and no layout, other than some FasTrack I have set up on a 10' by 18" shelf. I got hooked, about 18 years ago, on collecting them for a "future layout."
I suspect that a fair number of collectors started that way, accumulating stuff for a future layout. I know that I did.
Turley 7203 posted:I have 3 Lionel tmcc/legacy engines I’m buying 2 more the Lionel legacy RJ corman SD40T-2 and the LionChief Plus Illinois central Berkshire and I’m done.
Just asking, and you don't have to tell me, but with you getting the RJ Corman locomotive, and having the name Turley, would you by chance be from Frankfort, Ky?
scott.smith posted:I have reached the point of saturation. Not enough space to keep the trains. My attic is a fire hazard full of empty boxes. Not enough room in my remotes.Here is what I have.
Scott Smith
That is a nice inventory tool, Scott. I made an account on Trainz a few months ago, but haven't started populating it. I use an Excel spreadsheet to inventory, but few features. Right now I have 13 PS2/PS3 engines and 10 conventional engines.
I have been following this thread something NH Joe said went along with how I feel about the answer to the question. First, collecting isn't hoarding, I agree. Second, if you have the money to spend, if you aren't taking food from your families mouths, or shirking your responsibilities to the bill collectors, or skipping out on paying for more important things, like rent, insurance, your mortgage payment or you don't live pay check to pay check and actually budget money for a train, then buy as many locomotives, track pieces, little plastic people, houses, barns, buildings, or rolling stock as you can honestly afford. My wife told me when I first started that she wasn't concerned with my spending, it was my money to spend, she was just glad I finally had a hobby. My minimal interest in railroads, limits my purchases. I am **** interested the railroad as a history and an industry, but to say I have an affection for one particular railroad is incorrect. I am attracted to the big 5 running in the United States. I have all 5 locomotives. I would like to have and SD70ACE but I don't want to repeat locomotives. Ok, Canadian National or Canadian Pacific, nothing against Canada but I live in the US. So as for locomotives, I have all 5 of the only railroads I am interested. If Lionel or MTH would make and RJ Corman SD70ACE, I'd buy it. But they don't. One of them makes an SD40. I like what I like. So 5.
Mark Boyce posted:scott.smith posted:I have reached the point of saturation. Not enough space to keep the trains. My attic is a fire hazard full of empty boxes. Not enough room in my remotes.Here is what I have.
Scott Smith
That is a nice inventory tool, Scott. I made an account on Trainz a few months ago, but haven't started populating it. I use an Excel spreadsheet to inventory, but few features. Right now I have 13 PS2/PS3 engines and 10 conventional engines.
I may have already mentioned, by the way I use Excel to inventory my trains too, I have 51 rolling stock and 5 locomotives. My train would be 56 feet long if I ran all five lashed together and all 51 cars.
scale rail posted:When do you have too many engines? When you have more engines than passenger/freight cars!
Don
My take on this question is similar, but a lot more analytical.
For me, as an operator, it is about fleet size as well as railroad size. There should be a ratio of cars to engines, something like 15 - 20 to one for freight, and about 10 to 1 for passenger.
Car quantity is determined by track capacity. Take your total feet of track, and multiply by 35 - 50% to get your car quantity. The percentage you choose is based mainline vs yard and industrial trackage.
In my case, I have a huge layout, about 3500 feet of track. If I go with the 35% car fleet, that would give me a fleet size of 1000 cars. I should still have plenty of room to move.
I like to limit train length to between 12 - 15 cars. It simplifies a lot of things. No super long trains for me. I'm going with 15 to 1, leaving me with about 67 engines needed. I'll throw a few on top of that for good measure, switchers and and spares to cover for maintenance issues. Just have to keep it under 100 for TMCC.
I can always own more, but realistically, I can't USE more.
Try doing this math on your layout and fleet. If you're still a collector, all bets are off.
I don't know I haven't gotten there yet.
Mark Boyce posted:scott.smith posted:I have reached the point of saturation. Not enough space to keep the trains. My attic is a fire hazard full of empty boxes. Not enough room in my remotes.Here is what I have.
Scott Smith
That is a nice inventory tool, Scott. I made an account on Trainz a few months ago, but haven't started populating it. I use an Excel spreadsheet to inventory, but few features. Right now I have 13 PS2/PS3 engines and 10 conventional engines.
When I saw Scott's post I checked it out and made an account. For the past few days my spare time has been used inputting my trains. I like that you can add items to the inventory that are not in their database. I have added a lot to their system. Just have my buildings to go now.
Scott, do you have the premium account? If so how do you like it? Thinking about getting it for insurance purposes.
MartyE posted:J Daddy posted:BTW - If you are maxed out on all the numbers on your Legacy remote does that qualify you for having TOO many engines ?
I think Lionel missed the boat on this one and should IMMEDIATELY be looking at a software upgrade to save MORE than 98 programed locomotives in your remote !!!
I believe DCS has the same limitation although the APP I believe can go beyond that 99 limit.
I don't have that problem with a fairly modest new train inventory, However having 99% of my collection being postwar,,,,,I'll never run out of numbers on my transformers...
SouthernMike posted:Mark Boyce posted:scott.smith posted:I have reached the point of saturation. Not enough space to keep the trains. My attic is a fire hazard full of empty boxes. Not enough room in my remotes.Here is what I have.
Scott Smith
That is a nice inventory tool, Scott. I made an account on Trainz a few months ago, but haven't started populating it. I use an Excel spreadsheet to inventory, but few features. Right now I have 13 PS2/PS3 engines and 10 conventional engines.
When I saw Scott's post I checked it out and made an account. For the past few days my spare time has been used inputting my trains. I like that you can add items to the inventory that are not in their database. I have added a lot to their system. Just have my buildings to go now.
Scott, do you have the premium account? If so how do you like it? Thinking about getting it for insurance purposes.
It's a realistic prices not some pie in the sky values. If you have some rare items, like modern standard gauge they lack the selling history to reflect those costs.
Scott Smith
balidas posted:I always say that the term "Hoarders" in no way applies to model railroaders.
I'm not a hoarder. I've never been on a television show because I have too much stuff.
Tom
Tom Tee posted:C.W............
Those numbers are very scary. There is a variety of ways to measure that informtion and they spit out different numbers but all the numbers are extremely poor.
I will not give the numbers because of variables and ways of working the metrics, search for your self:
look at the average credit card balance of those who have a balance.
Amount of actual cash the average person has at age 65.
What percentage of people who can put their hands on $400 within 24 hours?
What is the average net worth at retirement of US citizens?
Percentage of folks who live paycheck to paycheck.
Student loan balances of adults.
How many parents of adults have student loans for the children. Balance per parent's age.
How many parents are financing the child and grandchildren due to abuse of any kind?
Mortgage balances of those on SS?
Granted, information gleaned will be population based and not a direct reflection of model RRers.
In fact Model RRers as a whole are in a better per capita range according to somewhat recent survey.
The thing to bear in mind is that the above facts are where we are as a country. The financial future is bleak at best. Save your money, spend responsibly, do not assume other's debt, keep your powder dry. (have powder to keep dry).
When caring for any relative not your spouse do not sign any medical form put in front of you for any reason.
A recent pol asked "How is your retirement funded?" Three of the top five responses were:
Win the lottery.
Lawsuit.
Inheritance.
=High lack of personal responsibility.
Another popular option:
With all due respect, what do you think will happen when all of the government debt comes crashing down? Anyone counting on savings, stocks, bonds, pensions, or social security is toast. Pretty much all of us. If you are able to afford it, you may as well enjoy your collection. No one in government is willing to seriouly tackle the debt issue, I do not know how we get through it. It will make the depression look like child`s play.
All we can do is what we individually feel comfortable with. I just want to enjoy building a railroad.
With all due respect, what do you think will happen when all of the government debt comes crashing down? Anyone counting on savings, stocks, bonds, pensions, or social security is toast.
And there is always the possibility of a Nuclear war.
C W Burfle posted:With all due respect, what do you think will happen when all of the government debt comes crashing down? Anyone counting on savings, stocks, bonds, pensions, or social security is toast.
And there is always the possibility of a Nuclear war.
I guess I better look for a Lionel 175 etc. that are in good shape.
C W Burfle posted:With all due respect, what do you think will happen when all of the government debt comes crashing down? Anyone counting on savings, stocks, bonds, pensions, or social security is toast.
And there is always the possibility of a Nuclear war.
Naw, the asteroid impact will come first.
