By the way...lest anyone be mistaken...I do have a certain amount of financial freedom but I am by no means, wealthy. I did my hard time. My secret is in my handling of money. I bought a house...a small old farm house from the people who owned this farm...paid cash for it. Remodeled it and it's nice now for what it is. No house note. Paid for the vehicles with cash...couldn't always afford a new one but bought what I could afford...no car note.

I was raised to save money by a man that not only could squeeze a nickel so hard the buffalo would fart but he'd squeeze it so hard there wouldn't be anything left but bleached bones...and it fit my nature. If I were to hit the lottery for a billion bucks...the way I would see that is...OK, I have a thousand million dollar bills if I spend one million I'll only have 999 million dollar bills left. My mind works that way if I'm looking at a ten dollar bill or a billion dollar bill...a dime or a dollar. I hate going backwards in money. Doesn't mean I won't spend it some but it hurts me to do it...unless I spend it on something that has the potential to make money.

Point being and just as a bit of advice to anyone who cares...saving money is a key element in gaining financial freedom, or some semblance of it. It's been my observation that most wealthy people are that way. It never mattered to me how little I made...I always had a stash-o-cash. Hell, when I was going to college and working a part time min wage job...paying rent, food et el, I still saved money.

Saving money and therefore having money allowed for two important things. One, you aren't paying two and three times for something in interest and two, having a stash-o-cash affords you the opportunity to take advantage of potential money making opportunities that might come your way. This little old house for example. The owners offered to sell, bam, I paid cash. No house note. Now, it's worth twice what I paid for it. Numerous times people have been hurting for cash and sold me bundles of guns for cheap. I had the money, I bought. Bought a bunch for a hundred a piece. Sold one of them for 1,100 dollars.

But...what makes this country great is that anyone willing to work hard can make all they need and more. My first business was started with a thousand dollars. I grew it, through hard work and dedication, in five years to where it raked in 250K a year in 1990 dollars. Not a microsoft but decent. Yea, there were weeks when I had to work 20 hour days for two or three days of the week...but it paid and paid well. Was I that much smarter than anyone else...hell no. Was I willing to bust my asss and make the work happen how and when I told my people it would happen...yes. But that's all it took.

Oh well...life is what you make of it, especially in this country.