Vehicle Repairs

   I own two old vehicles.  I have a 95 Chevy Corsica and an 84 Chevy K-10 Custom Deluxe pickup.  I love old cars for a few reasons.  One is their body style.  Old vehicles have a certain body style that reminds me of a time when life was simpler.  We didn't really have to impress anyone, they didn't come with all of these fancy gadgets that vehicles come with nowadays.  They had really only two motives functionality and simplicity.  Cars of old didn't come with computers that controlled absolutely everything to do with your vehicle.  They basically just monitored the sensors and that was about it if your vehicle even had a computer. These days cars come with computers slightly more advanced that a home computer it seems.  Which brings me to the other reason I love old vehicles... their inherent simplicity to repair.

  My Corsica has a very simplistic computer.  I can do virtually all of the repair work myself.  For instance in this vehicle I am in the process of replacing the head gasket.  I was able to disassemble the cylinder head and  all of the components that bolt to it myself, took the head to get checked and milled, pop on the new gasket and now all that is needed is to put her all back together, flush and refill the cooling system, change the oil and oil filter, change the spark plugs and wires and drive the hell out of her.  This vehicle saved me a ton of money in gas which is one of many reasons for my love for her.  Her blowing the head gasket however is the reason I purchased my truck.

  My truck is a whole other animal all together.  She is quite literally a beast.  However, she is thirty years old and even though she only has 91,000 original miles and is basically in stock condition it's about time some of those old factory parts start failing.  First was the lower radiator hose, a very cheap and easy fix.  Next came the starter and after I finally got the right starter for her it was a matter of minutes before she was running again.  Recently however, the fuel pump went out.  This should have been a twenty minute job but took me two days.  If you are ever working on your vehicle do me a favor and be very careful with your fittings and bolts.  The steel line running from the fuel pump to the carberator was cross threaded at the pump and the bolt had been stripped.  I finally had to remove the smog pump (freeing up a small amount of horsepower) and the alternator and take the whole line off while still attached to the pump,  I was able to have a new line made out of hydraulic hose and zip tied it off of the manifold.  She is running like new now and I'm saving a little in gas with the new pump.  The bottom line is old vehicles save money with cheaper repairs you can do yourself, they are usually better on emissions if you live in a region where you have to do that, and they are fun to drive and restore.  If you are in the market for a new vehicle I would say forgo the new car and get an old one. 

Day Trading

   After a lot of research, I have found that the greatest potential profit can be found from investing.  Whether that investing is long term or short term (such as day trading) it is a potentially very profitable endeavor.  There is a lot of risk involved in trading and investing so it should always be done at your own risk after your own research.  However there is an e-book that will give you some tips to help you in your trading.  The book can downloaded at this link    <a href="http://08e03iqcx0b0nmfd1n54nbynzk.hop.clickbank.net/" target="_top">Click Here!</a>  The Author invests similar to a hedge fund in an effort to minimize risk.  ***Remember invest and trade at your own risk. 

Revolution??????

  The not so aptly named "Occupy wall street" ( they have occupied everywhere except wall street) movement has been going on for a while now and I am wondering what is seriously going on in their heads.  They see a problem OK fine but they are protesting the wrong group. Wall street is in it to make money yes  but they really don't have control on how the markets perform. Yes! I agree they are definitely living it up and enjoying big government bailouts, but that is not the problem the problem is the Government giving all of these bailouts.  They just throw money at any problem that they would rather not deal with which in my opinion they shouldn't be dealing with in the first place.  I completely understand instituting regulations and controls to prevent companies from having too much influence such as preventing companies from monopolizing certain industries, but when I was in economics I was taught that we have a "laissez faire" economy meaning the Government kept their paws out of it. Now it seems the opposite. The Government is putting their paws really deep into the cookie jar. Throwing money to big corporations that they believe are "Too big to fail." ya know, they said the same thing about the Titanic and look what happened, and her sister the Britannic suffered the same fate. Nothing is too big to fail, if the U.S. Government really wants to stimulate the economy they should take those huge corporation bailouts that are being wasted on frivolous parties and other bullshit and toss that to the small business owner who is trying his damndest to earn a living. His business really supports the economy because he employs people, he offers a good or service that others will buy thus earning the state money. His business is taxed more than any other earning the Federal Government a pretty nice sum of money that they proceed to use to finance a big fucking party for a failing corporation. These wall street protesters are advocating socialism which is the worst fucking idea ever, It works on paper however it has never once worked in practice. The problem with our current Government is that all of these barely legal voters (my peers) are too simple minded to think for themselves and veg in front of MTV where they are fed their opinions and viewpoints in turn, they elect people for congress and the office of the president that are not really suited for the job. I apologize for the rant but it hurts to see my fellow Americans finally awaken and rise up in protest but to the wrong group and for the wrong reason. God bless America, and grant her longevity.

Make Money.

  Like most Americans, I hate my job with a fiery passion.  Waking up early working for 8- 12 hours at a time. sacrificing family and friend time to make a buck.  Last night I saw the most beautiful truck I have ever seen in my life. It was a navy blue lifted 1986 Ford Ranger.  I wanted that truck so bad and it was for sale for only 1,500 dollars but I just couldn't afford to buy it. That got me thinking what if I had some form of side business or something that would earn me a little extra money. I mean I already invest in silver and gold and sometimes when the price spikes considerably I take advantage and sell, but I mean something that would really make me some considerable "disposable income" if you will.  I was thinking and had a few ideas, I could cut grass in the neighbor hood, buy things for resale online, work a second job, scrap metal. There are many opportunities out there I just don't know where to start. Any Ideas?  

"A penny saved is a penny earned"- Ben Franklin

Some of the wisest words on finance I've ever heard were said by Ben Franklin.  He said "A penny saved is a penny earned."   I paid cash for my car, a patriotic red "95 Chevy Corsica.  I have decided that I liked the fact that when I went to the bank to withdraw the money for my car that I liked having 1200 dollars saved in just the course of a few months.  It hurt alittle to hand over all those hours of hard work but at least I had something tangible to show for it.  One day I went to my other bank ( I know it's not polite to look at another persons ATM receipt but it had no name on it and they were long gone because it was the middle of the night.) and there was a receipt in the ATM and I saw that whoever used the ATM before me had withdrew over 200 dollars and still had over a thousand just in their checking.  I knew that their savings must be looking pretty healthy also and I decided that I too wanted to have healthy looking finances.  I'm only twenty-one and make minimum wage but in just in three months I had saved 1200 dollars for a car and I know I can save that much and more if from now on I use the same method I used for my car and cut back my spending.  I usually spend my money on precious metals because it's harder for me to spend it and I've already seen the price more than double since I bought most of my metal.  I have a pretty good sum of metal in my safe deposit box at the bank that I'm saving for my future. Part of the reason I need to save money is because I run vol ems and there is a two week EMT class opening in the summer and my county about once a year hires paid EMT's which will better my pay.  Ultimately my goal is to get married, own my home, raise a family, and have money saved up so that if something should ever happen to me my wife won't have to worry about how she is going to make ends meet.  I apologize for the ranting type post. If anyone has any suggestions to help me save they would be greatly appreciated.

I'm in love with Morgan

Have you ever held a Morgan silver dollar in your hand?  It is probably the most beautiful coin that these great United States ever minted.  Its beauty is in that its not too extravagant yet at the same time its far from plain and simple.  The peace dollar is pretty as well but shadows in comparison to a Morgan.  The peace dollar has too much going on where as the Morgan simply features a beautifully detailed bust of lady liberty on the obverse and the eagle with the arrows and olive branches on the reverse.  When did I become a numismatist?  Well just recently.  I like any other 21 year old kid liked to spend money when I was out with friends.  I would put it into my savings account only to transfer it to my checking account later on.  Well I began looking for a solution to this problem and came across silver.  After doing weeks of research I decided that silver wasn't a safe bet but a sure one.  I really liked the 90% silver coins minted  by the U.S. mint prior to 1965 so i wound up buying them, especially the Morgan silver dollars.  By the way, when I started buying silver it was only 22 dollars an ounce and that was about 4 months ago, now it has doubled thus doubling my original investment.  I still continue to buy silver and will continue to buy silver until that time comes that it will prove wise for me to sell. I also own a little gold and I want to get a hold of some platinum and palladium.  Do you think owning precious metals is a wise decision or a foolish one?  Tell me what you think with a comment.

Zombies bite medics

I was sitting in an infection control class today for the rescue squad I volunteer with.  We were talking about what to do if a patient bites us and draws blood.  There is a federal law that requires the source of the blood to be tested for a battery of blood borne diseases.   He then proceded to say that nothing can be contracted from saliva so the patient would not be tested.  When hearing this I muttered under my breath that nothing could be contracted from the patients saliva unless of course said patient was in fact a zombie.  I got a few laughs from this, but if you think about it the only reason I could think a patient would bite a medic dispatched to help them would be if they were a zombie.... or just plain crazy.  If a patient bites me and is not crazy or a child then they are going to get punched in the head.  What actually are the chances of a zombie apocalypse actually happening.  Honestly if one happened it wouldnt exactly surprise me.