>>A paid-for house remains worth exactly one house, whatever shysters do to the real estate market. Pay off the house, car, and credit cards, and watch your overhead plummet. You also have to worry about what the elected Mafia does with feudal rent payments (aka,real estate taxes). Otherwise excellent advice. Dean Dean W May (812) 235-5272 PianoRebuilders.com (888) DEAN-MAY Terre Haute IN 47802 _____ From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Susan Kline Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2011 11:11 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] year so far Your points are well taken, Dale. Since we have little control of state and federal budgets, and therefore can't prevent abuse of the currency by not-so-nice powers that be, better to avoid paying them by not taking out loans or using credit. Stay out of debt, pay off the mortgage, avoid carrying loan or credit card balances, live within your means. I think that buying local is good, and this includes banking services, if you have a good local credit union. Keep the money at home, put it into real things. A paid-for house remains worth exactly one house, whatever shysters do to the real estate market. Pay off the house, car, and credit cards, and watch your overhead plummet. Has anyone tuned for barter? Susan Kline On 1/2/2011 7:24 PM, Dale Erwin wrote: Hi Ryan I'm not looking for a political discussion here but a prudent next step would be balancing our budgets personally, and budgets at at state and federal levels. The entire economy has been sucker punched by our elected and unelected leaders and we are left to pick up the pieces. Deficits affect (our) economic growth. Enough said. Real wealth grows gradually as everyone goes to work everyday. It is going to take time but many of us see an uptick in the economic patterns that affect our industry. Meantime we work hard (er), treat our clients with repect and honesty, enjoy them, deliver a good product. I remember when the scud missiles hit Israel and did major damage. The Mayor of Jerusalem was interviewed. He was asked, what will you do now? The paraphrase is "we will rebuild and continue to live and enjoy life". Love that.....that's what we need to do too. Peace Dale S. Erwin failure isn't fatal...success isn't final We are at an interesting point. I can only stand to service a finite amount of pianos - not more than around 600 per year. We've been developing our piano sales business hoping that would provide more growth opportunities, but it takes up a lot of time. We are reaching the point where about the only way to grow our income is to raise our rates. Of course it is necessary to raise rates at least 3% a year to keep up with inflation and avoid a "pay cut". Growing a business is an interesting and challenging game! I'm wondering what the next step is... Ryan Sowers, RPT Puget Sound Chapter Olympia, WA www.pianova.net On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 4:34 AM, James Grebe <jamesgrebe at charter.net> wrote: Yesterday, I equaled my gross income from 2009. That means the work I have today and tomorrow is over the top.. Not bragging but last year was my best year ever. this in spite of all the gloom and doom. How have the rest of you fared this year? It seems to me that the people who can afford pianos still want to take care of them. James James Grebe Est. 1962 Piano Tuner-Technician Creator of Custom Caster Cups Creator of fine Writing Instruments Pump Organ & Plyr Piano benches Table Timepieces Theatre and Theatre Organ Historian www.grebepiano.com 1526 Raspberry Lane Arnold, MO 63010 (314) 608-4137 Become what you believe -- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110103/b722ba35/attachment.htm>
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