How much is enough

grandpa Love

Well-known Member
Loved reading all the replies below. I will set the record straight, I think I was called a fool.... Anyway, we started our carpentry business 20+ years ago with just me and my wife. We grew slowly until about 9 years ago when we started installing fencing and decks for Lowe's. We are good at what we do and our reputation spread to more stores than a could handle. So we added trucks and crews. Not greed, not pride just sorta happened. After a couple years we realized that we were not happy. We weren't able to give the customers our quality work when we sent a crew out. I was running around dealing with screw ups and other issues. My wife was stuck in the office 8-10 hours a day. So we down sized. For the last 2-3 years it's been back to just me and my wife. We actually bring more money into our family and less stress. We had a terrible accountant for a few years while at Lowe's and she didn't know how to handle our business needs. Got in deep with the IRS. New accountant has helped us get out of that hole. He thinks we should grow our carpentry business. We think not. Happy where we are.
cvphoto56050.jpg
 
Nothing wrong with small. You are not a fool by any definition. Period. Everybody has their own priorities. Mine are inline with yours. You have a life most people are envious of.
 
Reminds me of the old quote "A man who owns little is little owned" The more STUFF one acquires the more maintenance and worry and messing with all of it or expense if you hire it out. I find as I grow older I need far less stuff lol. But live and let live to each their own Im happy with what I have versus worrying, working stressing out and wanting more.

John T Contented happy camper
 
In reality he would work himself to death for years, accumulate lots of boats and then the environmentalists would put a halt to tuna fishing and he would loose everything and be more poor than when he started.
 
I think yall are doing great just like you are doing.
I can say that with more confidence than a lot of these folks as I have seen your place and met your family.
Enjoy life as you want it to be.
Yo Sc friend, Richard
 
How much is enough? It’s like asking how long is a rope ? It’s a undetermined measure. I like to work, and I like to relax too. If you enjoy what you do for work, it really isn’t so much a job or work really is it? Person needs to have a satisfied mind.
 
Some years back I was working in the neighborhood of Kasotaman, Paul, and the Flying Belgian. As I came out out of the Minnesota River Valley on #22 there were several FWDs tilling and spreading fertilizer of sorts. As I crested the grade onto the flats east of New Sweden There was an old fellow in the field with a D17 hooked to a a Brillion seeder and he was walking the headland back to his ‘73 Dodge carrying his old round top Stanley lunch box and thermos. I thought to myself “That guy has money in his pocket.”
 
Bruce. That's the best part. I enjoy my work and my hobbies. Only stress is the 2 teenagers left at home! Lol
 
I agree with you 100%,, I ran my repair shop for 25 years,, other than one buddy who had lost his job and worked for me about two months I did everything myself, I put our three kids through school and raised two of the oldest grand kids for the first seven years of their lives,, do i have piles of money saved,, not even close,, but we get by just fine,, I worked seven days a week for over 15 years straight, more hours a day than I care to think about as well, I got so burned out I all but refuse to do any work for anyone these days but myself,, I just run my farm which I also ran along with the shop,, running 800 acres of tillable ground,, plus the 250 of hay ground and another 500 plus of pasture I take care of,, money is sure not all there is to me,, I gave a quality repair and a reasonable price,, my farm products I do the same but have raised prices on straw bales,, to 5 bucks each,, and they pick them out of the field,, they are worth at least that to me in fertilizer in my ground and are in high demand here as the local coop will buy up to 800 a year if I have them to sell, just my thoughts
cnt
 
you need to understand what works for you might not work for me, and what works for me may not work for you, i dont need any one telling me what to do and neather do you if what your doing works why change it
 
I’ve always said I don’t want to be rich.a healthy family with none of my children on drugs or in trouble.and I make a decent living and looking forward to retirement (if I live that long).
 
We have been small-time farmers since the late 1970s, Unlike most of the tobacco growers around here, we did not expand and end up farming from a pickup truck. We believe our smallness has produced more independence and freedom in our lives. Follow your conscience.
 
My Dad told me years ago "You don't want to be rich, just comfortable. All rich is going to do is buy you a higher class of problems" I think Dad was right, I keep things simple.
 
For me its being happy with what I have and enjoy life as it is at the present time.So many people I know are never satisfied with what they have and where they are at in life.They have a long list of things they want but once they get them they lots of time can't enjoy them because there is something else out there they now want.I've always tried to make the best of what I had and sure take up opportunities as they came up,never really had a set goal or a list of things I wanted.I do love the challenge of buying and selling since I was kid just enjoy the whole thing and as a result have made some money that way.Overall I'm living better and have more than I ever imagined I would when I first started out.Life these day is great get up every morning and do just about what I want to do that day.Who could ask for more?
 
I see that every day. First they buy a bigger tractor and new equipment. then they have to rent more ground to pay for it. them there is too much for one man and they have to hire help. Then more ground to pay for the help.The cycle just continues till they are acctually putting less money in their pocket,and a whole lot more stress.Sure there is a new home,new vehicles,big fancy shop and so on. but how much is owed to the bank?More than one has said they were better off and happier when they were a small one man show.I'm happy just where I am. Have no desire to get 'big'. Used to when I was young just starting. Now,Where I am is perfect.
 
A local farmer who I highly respect always ran a big dairy operation. One day, I asked him why he milked so many cows. His answer " to see if I could ". I have 60 plus employees with my trucking business. I have never balanced a checkbook in my life, still have a flip phone, don't wear a watch, and rarely use a calculator. My happiness come from watching my kids work into the business. My 4 oldest who work in the shop and office are ages 14 to 18. That is more important than money. Bill
 
Thats like I got into a discussion with a woman friend of the family.
She was always complaining about having to work.
She wanted to be like her mom and stay home and raise the kids.
I told her to quit and stay home.
She said the bills would never get paid if she did not work a full time job.

HORSE HOCKEY.

I tried to explain to her the only reason both husband and wife needs to work is to pay for the toys and luxuries.
So you can have a 4 door pickup rather than a 2 door.
So you can live in a 2500 sq ft house rather than a 1500 sq ft house.
So you can have a boat or camper or snowmobile.
And on and on and on.
You want to live the life of your mom get rid of everything your mom did not have and one income will be plenty enough.
 
A fellow who grew up across the road from me was once in competition with several others to see who could be the biggest farmer in the county.

He had a huge Steiger tractor and all of the appropriately sized equipment to go with it and farmed all over the county. Had a full time hired man, etc.

When he was 56 years old, it occurred to him that he was going through several packs of Rolaids a day during the planting and other busy seasons, simply from the stress of it all. He dumped most of it, but kept a couple hundred acres and some dairy cows to keep his hired man busy 'cause he didn't want to have to let the guy go.

He died a few years later, basically just worn out.
 
Bingo. When our son was born we decided she would not go back to work. We were a whole lot poorer,but many times happier. And our son benefitted by haveing Mom there.Yep.I still drive a 50 year old pickup,run a 50 Plus year old line of equipment(it's all pd for),do what I can handle by myself. Dut we pay our bills.We stay 'afloat'.Sure it's hard sometimes. Sometimes you scrape the bottom of the barrel till you rub a hole in it.But that's OK.we dot have a lot,but we dont owe a lot either.Life is good.
 
I remember a similar story. A man in the same situation sold out and kept a half section. Bought an older line of smaller equipment.Said he put more money in his pocket with less stress. And he had time to 'play'.
 
My wife and I are not rich and a fair amount of that is making choices. Being home at night was a priority so that meant forgoing jobs that paid more that required being on the road or away from home. The region here saw its best time economically decades ago before I graduated high school. Right now things are probably a little too sparse but can't be helped unless we wanted to move away from family and friends. The people that come in from Pennsylvania, Boston, or whatever tend to bring money with them and some of them start businesses. Selling a modest home 30 miles outside of Boston often means well over a half million dollars to start a new life. Buy the same home they had in New England means only having to spend around 100K dollars so they have a few hundred thousand dollars typically to spend on a landscaped business, small vineyard, or whatever. Makes it hard to compete when somebody has cash brimming from their wallet while you have to convince the banker that a 50,000 dollar loan is justified when your house and primary asset may only be worth 75,000 dollars. I'm not complaining but just pointing out a business was there for the taking for you where it would not be in some other areas in the US.
 
Yea, I’m on a blue version of the D17.

I like to improve what I have, not have everything I can see....

I finally last year bought a ‘new’ tractor. It’s 20 years old.

Paul
 
Good Morning Kevin
How you all holding out with all the Rain ?
When I was a lot younger I wanted to open a small engine repair shop , Wife said a Big No . She said that I was to Honest & that I would just give the repaired equipment to them & say pay me wen you get it .
She said we would be in the poor house within a year .
So I didn t have the stress of owning a shop .

Az peapickeer Kevin could I get your phohe No. My cell is 480-250-3864
John
 
Once your basic needs are met, more will not make you happier. That's just a fact. However, we are all different and for some folks starting a business or farm and watching it grow gives a feeling of satisfaction. However, if you look at money as a score card - bad year is a low score and good year is a great score and you can control your business and provide a quality service to your customers it's a great feeling. If you're just trying to make money to get rich and buy things most likely there will be a bad ending. We are all different so what works for one won't work for another.
 
does our Maker care how much or little we had when it comes time to meat him face to face? Nope it's how we treated others and the kind of life we lived.
 
You started out small, tried getting bigger in the contracting business with a bunch of hired help and now are back to smaller. Sounds like you found what works best for you. As long as you are happy and making a living you are satisfied with, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to go do what you already tried and found it wasn’t for you. You have some time for your hay , if you get a bunch of crews working you might not be able to take time off for the hay. Sounds like you are doing good to me right now without a lot of headaches.
 
Common business philosophy is that a business need to grow to sustain itself. Constant growth fueled by debt allows a business to use tomorrow’s revenue to pay today’s expenses. This is a great idea as long as the growth can be sustained indefinitely. If the growth stops, you are then in a world of hurt as the margins are not enough to cover expenses and service debt.

On a realistic note, if you can run your business, make enough to live on, put a little away for later years, and be happy that is great. Some people are destined to build great empires, and some are content with what they have. Many more are just miserable and will never find their place in this life.
 
Enough is enough once you get to the point of comfortable, happy, content, whatever you want to call it that should be enough. The only thing I can think of that everyone needs more of is Gods grace and mercy! He has an abundant supply we just need to be where He can pour it out to us!
 
Some bust their behinds for most of their lives, giving up much all along the way and near the end, find that they have accumulated so much that they wouldn't know what they would do with it if someone gave them a big pile of cash. Money can't buy you health now or buy back the quality time that you gave up for it.
 
Great thing about living in America. What you become is the total sum of the decisions that you have made. It is not he who has the most but he who requires the least. Traveling across Mexico years ago with a friend who was a bit cryptic stopped and asked this young Mexican lad for directions. After some time of trying to communicate my friend gave up trying and said "Pedro, you don'know a helll of a lot of anything". The young man replied "See Senior, but me I am not lost." Tom
 
(quoted from post at 04:31:12 09/16/20) Loved reading all the replies below. I will set the record straight, I think I was called a fool.... Anyway, we started our carpentry business 20+ years ago with just me and my wife. We grew slowly until about 9 years ago when we started installing fencing and decks for Lowe's. We are good at what we do and our reputation spread to more stores than a could handle. So we added trucks and crews. Not greed, not pride just sorta happened. After a couple years we realized that we were not happy. We weren't able to give the customers our quality work when we sent a crew out. I was running around dealing with screw ups and other issues. My wife was stuck in the office 8-10 hours a day. So we down sized. For the last 2-3 years it's been back to just me and my wife. We actually bring more money into our family and less stress. We had a terrible accountant for a few years while at Lowe's and she didn't know how to handle our business needs. Got in deep with the IRS. New accountant has helped us get out of that hole. He thinks we should grow our carpentry business. We think not. Happy where we are.
<img src="https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cvphotos/cvphoto56050.jpg">
t is safe to say none of us have as many material wealth or possession as King Solomon but he was not satisfied with what he had.

https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/b/r1/lp-e/nwtsty/21/1#v=21:1:2-21:1:3

I worked with dad building full time till I left home at 19. Still worked for him part and full time throughout the years. We didn't really get along when I was a teenager but I would not trade those years in on anything. He didn't talk much but showed us how to do things by example. When I became a parent one of the most disappointing things I would hear my co-workers talk about is what possessions they have given there children and how little they appreciate it. We parents do harm to our children if we do not take the time to teach them. The saying of Quality Time is more of an excuse than anything. Sacrificing for your children is not about working overtime so you can buy them a car. It is about buying out time to be with them and teaching them life skills. When we see helpless and disrespectful teenagers and young adults it is usually the mirror showing us where we failed. Good thing dad and grandpa were tougher than me.
 
Your're rationale is good, adjusting back to a size that is manageable, whoever called you a fool for that, ought to look in the mirror for a 2nd take on that.
 
Something I learned from the kids show VeggieTales. Bob asks Larry, "How much stuff does it take to make you happy?" Larry replies, "I don't know. How much stuff is there?"
 
There is no correct answer to that question. I do not want to sound like a jerk, but you could be a fool if you think you can answer that for anyone but yourself. There are no absolutes when it comes to people's individuality.
 
Love the article you got posted. I work by myself as a finish carpenter now. We used to frame houses until the bottom fell out. Went back to what trade discipline I started the business as.

My last employee moved on 4 or 5 years ago and I was relieved. He was with me for 11 years. I struggled to get him a full week some times. Bigger always isn’t better when all business costs increase and the revenue doesn’t.

It works for me as it does for you. You are far from a fool. The fool would have kept growing until all was lost. Seen it to many times.

Vito
 
Well as I work 40 hrs a week in town and still help dad with the family farm and the custom work we do. I have asked myself this same question. I complain about the job in town taking up to much of my time that i should be home Farming. But the job in town makes sure that my family has health insurance and my kids are provided for, Also if i make it that long there should be a good retirement for me. But having the Farm my kids are being raised right they now the value of hard work, they have seen both ends of the life cycle. They know how to milk cows, slop hogs, feed horses, gather eggs, move pipe and stack hay. They have helped butcher cows and know where there food comes from.

I have watched 2 guys I grew up with both have farm sales with in the last couple of years.. They both had been trying to run/rent 1/2 the county and had to have the newest and nicest equipment. Because of that they never where home and always in deep with the bank. I don't want that..

So I will just keep trodding along and keep providing for my family and helping dad.. That family farm has been in the family for over 120 yrs.. One day it will be mine and I want to be able to pass it along to my kids.. that will be enough..

sorry i'll get off my soap box now.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top