I've been waiting a long time for the appropriate thread to tell this story and this seems like a good a place as any. About 9 years ago I was laid off from my full time job where I had been working 11 years and was making a very good salary. Within a year or so of when I was laid off I also went through a divorce. I was left with a $15,000 credit card(I was a very stupid husband) having bought a car for my ex-brother-in-law, had to sell the house and give my ex 1/2 the profits, pay $5,000 to my ex directly and $2,000 to her lawyer. About 1 1/2 years ago I started scraping on my days off from my new full time job. I was pretty dumb at first: didn't really know where to find metal or how to identify one type from another. In September of 2010 I finished paying off all my debt from the ex wife, started the 401K at my full time job, and have saved up $6,000 toward the purchase of a small house or condominium. I owe this almost entirely to digging out other people's garbage at my apartment complex and scrapping for cans and the occassional construction site on my way to or from work or on my way to the scrap yard. I still claim to only do this as a hobby, as the income from my full time job is now greater than my expenses, however the fact that on a regular basis week in-week out I can make an extra $40-$60(week of July 4th was very good, I did $100)for collecting cans out of a garbage can is a gift from the big man upstairs. All I have to do is look at the success I've had doing this and people's opinions of me begin to be very unimportant. I love reading the stories I find on here and enjoy getting ideas on new sources of scrap metal. I'm sure many people on this site have similar stories, I think one thing we all have in common is that we don't waste our energy crying about our problems rather we use that same energy to come up with solutions for those same problems. As for those people who don't understand what we do or those people who whine about having no money they are the source of many problems in this country as work exists the issue is that most people are to lazy to do it. In any case take care everyone be safe and I now joke about the fact that I can even smell metal.
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