Wow I sure had to crack up. yeah the mindset has to change first. I have done the flip flop.

As a kid I considered us “poor” we never had what others had. Mom always had a garden & would can or freeze food. She always made stuff from scratch. Even bread. I remember thinking man some day I will make enough money so I can eat Wonder Bread and not this home made bread. Clothes were either sewn some times out of old curtain fabric that she got from yard sales. If not sewn always from a rummage /yard sale. We had a black and white small hand-me- down TV, old beat up bikes, If you wanted money you worked for it. My first business ever selling squash door to door out of my wagon. I was in the 4th grade. I would was cars. Take little kids out to play. One time got a job at a motorcycle shop. I would dry the bikes off when it was raining. Got 5 cents an hour. I would stand out in the rain and just dry my little heart out. Now the guy that owned the store thought I was funny. I figured it was job security because the bikes would never get dry in the rain. Then I would go in and dust the dry bikes and clean the corners of the floor. I made over $1.00 in one day!! man I was RICH. The guy gave me a huge bonus for working so hard. LOL

As a teen used car, used clothes, no walkman, no modern music. Learned to sew on a treadle sewing machine, type on a manual type writer. I would go to the neighbors and bake bread in their wood oven an pull weeds in their garden. It was funner at someone else’s house. They were poor too in my mind. We had 5 kids in our family they had 8. Guess it was the kids that made us poor.

Met hubby. His family had Chef boyrdee mac and cheese in a box. They even got pudding in a cup no making it from scratch. Hamburger patties were pre frozen and shaped . It was nothing to go out to eat and grab a burger. With it fully loaded AND fries AND shake New clothes every school year. Stereo’s music 8 track tapes in the NEW cars. Man they had a very nice big new house. Fancy furniture. They went on trips went to the movies had jewelry Man they even had WONDER BREAD!!! They would hunt and fish. They had a boat so crabbing shrimping fishing all that rich people stuff. Yee haa landed me a rich boy. HAHAHA

Oh yeah hubby had a job and a very very very nice car. That first Christmas together way back in 79 he asked me what I wanted. All I really wanted was a very small stuffed animal Eyeore. He would not accept that as a real answer. So being the smart ass I am I said fine I want a fur coat & a gold watch with diamonds. Um yeah not good to be a smart ass. He got me a fur jacket and his mom and dad got me a gold watch with diamonds in it. UGH. I was horrified how could I wear a dead animal? I hated jewelry especially watches. Well couldn’t hurt the future inlaws feelings. But future hubby had to learn. He took the coat back. I told him I really wanted a small stuffed Eyeore. that was it. He wanted me to get a big one. NO I DON’T WANT A BIG ONE. That was our first argument. One of many. I settled for the money and went and bought my small Eyeore and put the rest of the money in my piggy bank. LOL How was I suppose to know that was going to go on for years and years. DECADES.

The babies came along and I made my own baby food. We were poor. I grew my own food. Any that I could in pots or the edges of the patio in the apartment. The neighbors yard or friends yard. I sew some of my own clothes. Hubby would still ask what I wanted for gifts and every time he would buy me perfume or jewelry. Oh man the wedding ring. All I wanted was a very very small thin plain band hand carved out of wood. Lord luv a duck he had this huge ugly diamond picked out. His mom helped him. NO NO NO NO. Settled on a gold band with beaded edges.

By the time baby # 2 came around we had a bit more money. So no more hand washing cloth diapers or using the wringer washer. This was in 84. Still made some baby food. Still had a garden although small since we lived in apartments. Still cooked most food from scratch. If hubby went hunting with a buddy we would cut the meat ourselves. One time the only thing they brought home was a rattlesnake. Now that was a fun thing to cook. Was not going to have any part of cleaning it though.

A friend stopped by saw what we were doing. I was wearing jeans that I had sewn myself. The boys had flannel shirts that I had made. Rattlesnake on the BBQ with home grown salad. Home made bread and home made chili. Home made apple pie and we were going to make ice cream later. Home made popsicles for the kids. The baby was eating home made baby food. The apartment was decorated as what would be called today shabby chic with a bit of steampunk thrown in. After the tour my friend says “well I bet your car is all decked out too. I would have never thought you were a yuppy richy type person. Only gourmet food and fancy custom made clothing. I figured you more the simple type”.

Talk about getting smack between the eyes with a 2×4. hahaha Here all this time I thought we were poor. Now some 37 yrs later my parents are multimillionaires with several rental houses. Living how they want. Traveling all over the world as they want. Summer houses winter houses. Well dad passed but he did as he pleased. Hubby’s folk 250k mortgage in debt up to their eyeballs. Dam near lost every penny in 08. If it was not for an inheritance they could have easily been homeless. Not to mention all the health problems and being over weight from all the premade crap in a can food. When they try to eat healthy they buy low fat cookies and low fat chip then drink diet soda. They still charge every thing. So very very sad.

Me and hubby? Took him a good 20 yrs to believe me when I said the perfect date night is a camp fire with a hotdog on a stick or can of stew. Gifts he’s got it down now I think. Chainsaw that I can handle, saws all, screw gun, new shot gun just for me. He even made us matching wedding bands out of scrap titanium from work. They are beautiful. He still had a bad habit of charging things which was easy to fix with the new rose clippers he bought me. Took me 20 yrs to put my foot down and say NO to new cars. If they are not 7 yrs old and in cash we don’t buy.

LOL thanks for the trip down memory lane. My how things have changed and changed back again. Not a week goes by where some one does not say “man you guys are so lucky to have fresh grown veggies and grass fed free range meat and eggs to eat. You must have really good jobs.” I can only say yes we are very lucky and have worked hard. Inside I am thinking Nah we are just lucky to be poor. hahaha.

On Dec 31 2015 we paid of the balance of our mortgage a few minutes before midnight. WOO HOO. Worked hard saved and pinched every penny as hard as I could. Now almost 3 months of being debt free the battle of staying out of debt has started. It’s so easy to justify sometimes. Well we could have that new floor covering now or the new roof now. We could borrow enough to pay someone to put the new roof on. Yeah we could have it now. BUT IF we don’t have the cash to pay for it now then why would we want to pay even MORE for the same thing. (interest on the loan) yeah I can’t afford that so I will pay 2 times the amount. Now that is stupid. Keep on pinching Work on other things that don’t take money. A need is a need only if someone or something is going to die. Still a bit of mind work to be done. Now to practice living on 50-75% less than we are use to In training for retirement. LOL

Hi Jack
Question off topic. What you recommend for information about laying out Swales on contour lines on a property as far where to start? I have watched a few of your videos on the subject. Please let me know.
Thank you
Bill

I’m behind on my podcast listening and haven’t got to this one yet. But for any other plant nerds out there, you should grow Ginko just for the historical value! It was one of the very first trees that diverged from ferns about 300 million years ago, and is nearly unchanged the entire time! It is referred to as a living fossil, because it is a very useful marker in fossils to tell the age of the items near it. We have a 100+ year old one at the Detroit Zoo, and it is a beautiful tree that is very unlike what most trees look like.

I picked a few leaves and figured I would munch on them raw, for some reason thinking it would be like spinach or kale… I advise against that, it tastes exactly like what you would imagine eating a handful of regular grass tastes like. 🙂

Sponsor spots at the beginning please. I find it jarring to jump out of the main subject to “and now it’s time for something completely different” (actually if you did it with that flying circus reference, ads in the middle might go better;).

Please put the advertising back at the beginning, I think it screws up the flow of the show in the middle.

I agree with the above commenters. The ads in the middle of a stand alone show is disruptive and breaks the rhythm. It’s like watch a movie on TV as appossed to from a DVD, it’s just not as good.

I think it works for Q & A shows and expert counsel shows where there is already a clear break point between questions. Even on these shows, I prefer ads at the beginning

Great show. Personal finance is one of my biggest struggles. We’re finally tightening up our budget after years of frivolous spending and have been able to find enough room in our finances to dedicate 40% of every paycheck to debt reduction and still have enough to live comfortably on when we were literally living paycheck to paycheck before.
I have found the YNAB software really useful personally.

As for the ads I personally prefer to get the ads out of the way at the beginning. I prefer not switching gears in the middle of a great topic or conversation to hear ads.

OK jack, I’ll bite. How is financing a depreciating asset (overbuying on a vehicle) a “smart debt”? Not sure if I follow your reasoning on that.

RE: the Sponsor segment, for a Just Jack show (and probably for an interview show), I don’t like it in the middle because it breaks my concentration on the subject and it takes a while for me to refocus after the break. It’s why I don’t listen much to terrestrial radio. But I think for shows that change topics quickly, like feedback, call in or expert shows, I wouldn’t notice it since the topics are varied.

I much prefer the ads at the beginning. I have listened so long that I could probably recite most of the ads from memory so I usually skip them. I listen to the show while driving and will prep the podcast to play the actual show content before I start driving so as not to have to mess with my ipad while im driving. The ads in the middle break up the flow of the show and I get stuck without the ability to prep the show and just listen. Put the ads back at the beginning please.

Hey Jack.

On the hoses, im not sure of the brand but we have a store chain up here (montana) called north 40 outfitters, used to be called big R, basically a tractor supply type store they have the good quality red hoses like what your describing in 90′ lengths. something to look out for. thanks for the show.

My personal favorite quote credited to Von Goethe – None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

Another vote for leaving the ads at the beginning for Just Jack and Interview shows. When the show has multiple parts, I think moving the housekeeping into it works fine. When you (and a guest) are taking us deeper into an idea, its a bit jarring. And when I am listening to 2 or 3 of those shows driving to my farm each week, the housekeeping is actually a nice time to fully digest what was said and get ready to listen to the next one.