What is the worst set back you have had? I have never had a real bad one. My friend in Madisonville had all of his cows stolen last Tuesday. About 30 cows, I have no idea of their value. I'm sure divorces have whipped a lot of guys asses. Just curious!

thankfully i've never had a bad one. but i have lived paycheck to paycheck in my life while eating mac and cheese and stovetop stuffing for almost every meal. it was a big motivator to make me save.

I and several others invested about $50,000 each into a business and a couple of insiders embezzled all the money, stole the company plane and skipped town to not be found again- no kidding. We never saw a dime of the stolen money. About the same time, my Mom got terminal cancer, was too young for Medicare and had no insurance. My Dad had passed so I had to help with that.

I'd still be hunting them.

More than a couple. I care not to discuss details, and tempt Mrs. Murphy's bastard son.... again.

No details, it still hurts, and it's a long story, but nineteen-eighty four was the worst year of my life, so far.

But, as they say, "If it does not kill you, it makes you stronger."

[quote=hanco].. My friend in Madisonville had all of his cows stolen last Tuesday. About 30 cows, I have no idea of their value...

Whoa! getting pretty western in that part of Texas these days!

Last year was a bit of a roller coaster. Started off the year by getting laid off and my wife was working part time with our bills considerably greater than income.

But it turned around, wife got a full time gig after a few months and while I was "underemployed" most of the year I was back to full time by year end.

In the big scheme of things, probably exactly what I needed at the time with a break from working full time and an insight into the desire to be working less than 1/2 time well prior to reaching "retirement" age.

Looks to be an ongoing problem there.

http://www.kbtx.com/content/news/String-of-cattle-thefts-hit-Madison-County-388214142.html

They need to start killin' some rustlers and leaving them by their cattle trailers.

That'll deter it.

The old ways are the best ways

i got drafted one time into involuntary servitude by the war criminal johnson.

but, i survived and i prospered. instead of a real job out of college in which i had paid my way, i got a 100 dollar a month assignment.

but that dude is in the grave. if i ever find it, i might choose to dig the corpse up and shoot it over and over. it might help, right?

after that debacle, i've done very well, once i got back to my native Georgia.

It's Texas, his brands are registered, be hard to sell at auction, but they don't check brands at rendering plants from what he said. They cut lock, drove in, used his loading pens to load them on trailer. They had horses.

30 head of good quality commercial 3-4 year old bred cows would worth +$50k.
(around here anyway)



No big losses yet, actually been a little lucky in the last few years. But the luck has taken a lot of work, it didn't come cheap time-wise.

need a gps implant on those critters

So bad that my bologna didn't have a first name.

Nothing very bad. Many more successes than losses.

Owned 5 or so equities over my life that went completely belly up - $0 residual value.

Bought a house once for $110K and sold it 12 years later for $124K. That is some bad performance for a home value but I didn't actually lose.

Probably the worst was I stayed in a job that I hated and was underpaid there for too long. I was getting interviews and trying to get out of it but didn't. Eventually circumstances changed and the job became much better.

theft happens. learn to live w/it.

there's 7 billion people walking around down here on the earth, and not all are honest.

in fact, a lot of the national ldrshp isn't honest, but we have to live w/it (or die).

beef is high priced in my neighborhood. horse meat is nearly un-available. but why, pray tell?

It is illegal ,in the US to sell horse meat. All feel good bs.

I joke with my wife often; if someone broke into this house, they would probably leave $50 on the kitchen counter.

yep. i suspect the beef, poultry, and pork farmers in the us would fight tooth & nail to keep out that source of potentially low-cost protein. folks could do w/o sufficient protein as a good thing, if it kept out commercial horse flesh.

and don't forget the piling on of turkey farmers, goat herders, and a few others.

There's no statewide brand registration in Texas. It's by county.

And no state law to say the cattle have to be inspected before being sold.

They could drive them 300 miles away and run them through the sale ring with all expectation of getting away with it.

Knock on a bit of wood I suppose, but no.

I think my whole danged life has been a financial setback, really...mostly due to some bad career choices made long ago. It's getting better the last ten years or so but retirement is likely to be somewhat tight.

ok, not to poke anyone in the eye, but the cows got stolen. they got shipped to a sale point. they got off-loaded and probably sent to a processing plant. wal-mart, ingles, kroger, sprouts, publix whomever agreed to display the animal parts in their meat dispaly cases.

so, the person who "failed" to protect his herd lost valuable assets.

there's people in downtown inner cities getting to eat beef because of how the process is structured. now, is that all that bad?

seriously, an asset that is valuable has to be secured, controlled, and looked after.

so, who failed to prevent the theft? anyone know for sure?

Something is either yours or it ain't. Pretty simple unless you started shooting heroin as a draftee in the late 60's and have never stopped.

Got hurt on the job. Doctors would not release me to go to work. State workers comp decided they did not want to pay me. No unemployment as I was not able to work. Lost my Navy retirement as I was no longer physically qualified to finish my last 18 months need to get in my 20 good years. Cashed in my 401k and lived on my retirement for 4 1/2 years with no other income. I guess you could call it a setback.

As A side note a lot of crap came from some people here because I did not save more retirement and now I just get SS and VA disability. You know, the filthy leach thing. Kind of like the workers comp case woman that called me every week to tell me a honourable man would just take his life rather than be a burden to family.

Gus, I am sincerely glad you made it through that kerfuffle.

When my first son ws born premature and was med-evaced to Denver for 7 weeks , we found out that my wife's school district employer saved money on their health care plan by capping coverages. Flight for life max benefit, $400, ICU, $900/day max benefit etc. That nailed us for over $150,000 and then two weeks after he was born I lost about $250,000 in a weather-related business event that wiped me out completely.

Fun times, but son is graduating high school this spring in the top 5% of his class.

firstly my time served wasn't in the late 60's but plenty of people did serve time then.

plenty of heroin got injected by the rank & file, some were stateside from the beginning, and others were RVN returnees. it was ugly in the latrine every morning, but what to do? johnson didn't know either.

seriously, theft occurs. ya gotta keep up w/your stuff. and theft can still occur. armed break-ins, and car jackings is regular around here. be ready, or just give up the ghost, i reckon.

Sometimes it seems like life is just a series of financial setbacks?

Everyone I know has suffered some. Some more than others, some bigger than others etc....

I do know a few that basically have not suffered any significant setbacks and they generally don't understand what others have gone through, in fact many blame the people with hardship.

Bad things happen to good people everyday.

Speaking of killing rustlers, read Col. Chas. Askins Jr's account of his trip with "old man" Cox into Mexico to take care of cattle thieves and recover stolen cattle. It's in Unrepentant Sinner, the Col. autobiography. Interesting read. The Cox ranch was in S.E. NM, north of El Paso, near where the White Sands Missile Range is today.

No mention of the Texas and Southwest Cattle Raisers Assn (TSCRA)?

They're a good bunch to solve such things. We had affiliation with TSCRA when I was in the cattle business in Louisiana. They had a good reputation, probably still do.

DF

yes, thank you. and i think you are sincerely glad. not many folks gave a damn one way or another. i saw a lot of young lives lost due to drugs, stress, or whatever. but, i survived because of the Fates, or whomever.

but, still it was two years lost, and the war-criminal johnson is still to blame. no forgiveness, ok?

My divorce put a hell of a financial strain on me as well as just breaking even on the sale of the house.. It took over 5 years to recover from it..

I've been very fortunate. Always been able to make it through the tight spots, due mainly to having started working for a solid company from the get-go that paid well and offered excellent benefits. Never had to worry about layoffs or cutbacks. For my part, for 40 years I showed up, did my job, and tried to give them their money's worth. Never got rich, but am almost seven years into what will hopefully be a long, enjoyable retirement on a decent pension and SS.

Regrettably, opportunities for that kind of security are pretty scarce for young people these days. Periodically, I remind my sons to save their money, 'cause they're gonna need it!

I always worked thru every one, sometimes meant working 2 full time jobs 7 days a week and my wife and I eating rice and beans for every meal

What an [bleep].

I laugh at your stone ravings sometimes, and you seem(ed) like a harmless enough guy, but this is a douchy thing to say.

I lost my home to a flood in 2006. No flood insurance. Not in a flood zone. 183,000 dollar loss. Would have been paid off in 2008 and I would have been debt free at that point.

pretty much it right there^ ^ ^ ^ ^
i don't hold with thievery whatever the reasoning or "logic".
thieves need to be planted right beside murderers

We lost about 80,000 when 911 happened.

Took years to get that back and pull ahead again.

Things have been put in place so that does not happen again,I HOPE.

well, yes of course. and nearly every reader agrees w/you.

so, it get's pretty deep pretty fast, but let's move forward.

my front doors are locked, if a home breaker kicked it in, there'd be hell to pay, and blood on the floor. and it happens about everyday somewhere in and around hot-lanta.

beef is pricey, so is gold,guns, jewelry, cars, etc. stuff gets stolen, it's not limited to just cattle, race horses, etc.

so, financial setbacks happen. how to compensate or ameliorate the pain, and cost? insurance maybe? insurance, what is that?

My biggest all-at-one-time screwing came at the hands of a man that went on to become a representative in Oregon. Go figure, a dishonest politician. $32,000.

Other than that, my mortgage company has done a very thorough job screwing me on my home loan. No lube, no kiss, no nothing, just a good solid screwing. Any time I interact with them they seem insulted that I'm not enjoying it.

If I was ever elected to office, I would run hard at insurance companies and mortgage lenders and try to get some advantages back for the little man.

Lost several hundred thousand in bad debt to my ex-inlaws due to my divorce..... and it was the best thing that ever happened to me financially. Never do business with friends or family.

How Texas ranchers used to handle cow and horse thieves.





L.W.

I read some of your accounts, and I am reminded that some folks go through lots worse than I have.

I'm sitting here dry and warm under a roof after my dinner, having finished loading up some ammo to shoot five rifles that are purely optional for me. I'll be driving to the range my paid-for pickup. I will shortly be in my warm bed, sleeping soundly because I'm not worried about eating tomorrow.

I'm truly blessed.

Gus is on an extra special retard episode tonight.




Now please excuse while I go out to do the hourly herd check....


Fuucking idiot.

y'all seem to be very trustworthy, and trusting. that is good. the cattle theives and other type thieves are very appreciative, i'm pretty sure. if your wealth is safe, don't bother to do anything except to reap the rewards and profits. otherwise please remain vigilant, ok?

X2 Gus.

Going through a less prosperous period right now as a matter of fact, prob'ly take a few years. OTOH I do have running water and electricity, which is more'n I had in Africa.

And yes, cattle thieves should be shot on sight.

I think mrs. murphy's bastard son retired, at least i hope so.

Nope.

He's still alive and well.

<<< Read my location. Been there since June 9, 2016.

Cattle ranchers don't bring the herd in the house at night?

I pretty much lost everything at age 42 due to a divorce.

Fortunately, I didn't really givva damn. The way I saw it, I just got to be 18 all over again.

My ex clipped me for about $500K, out and out thief. Add that to not working for 7 years of Obama my retirement funds have taken a hit.

I have a big azz safe I lock mine in. They don't like it, and sometimes I forget the combination if I have been drinking.

But by God they are secure! Seeing how expensive they are and all.

Big D slammed me pretty hard.
6 yrs later lost my job after 20 yrs.
Clawed my way back.....now kids in college and medical keeps me working Saturdays.
I'm pretty well burned out.

Proly small peanuts, but had to pay for books In jan.
1400.
Youngest has had 4 jaw procedures since about Xmas, 2100, 3300, 2100 and 1900 bucks. Out of network, pay up front.
Insurance will reimburse me 75%.........have yet to get my first dime back.
Kinda making me grumpy.

So let's just say the Ruger #1 at my LGS is still sitting there. I don't need it LOL....tempting, but I'm a little older now and don't use all the stuff I have (used to have way more before the Big D).
I figure when stuff mellows I'll just get a different one, or say screw it and go custom.

life is a series of ups and downs, hopefully the ups take care of the downs.
i have lost at times six figures, then turned around and made it back up.
i have dealt with the medical issues to, say about 25k in my wife's teeth, son with cancer, daughter with cancer, hell, some of my goldens have had cancer. brother in law, wife's brother died of cancer, and i had a lady that stayed the month of december and part of january with me. She had knee surgery two years ago, got an infection, and still has it.
Somebody always has it worse than me.
You have to value the important things, like i do my wife, and my dogs, and the family i inherited when i marry her.
material things don't mean much in some ways.

Truer words are not in this thread. Those that have had the golden life and eventually get hit seem to not cope well at all. Trials harden us on the forge to allow small stuff to roll off us like water on a ducks back.

Some of the stories here sure make me appreciative of my bad times.

The lesson on patience seems to keep dragging along....

I have had three divorces. Those were no picnic.

I have had it really good compared to many people.

When we leave this place, all we get to take with us are the things we did in life, we lose everything else.

Kinda sucks, there's some objects I've grown attached to over the years.

So by the same token if you go visit someone out of town, and your house gets broken into and your stuff gets stolen, and your wife's diamonds end up on another well deserving ladies fingers, surely that's a good thing?

It's the owner's fault for not protecting livestock better?

That's pretty crazy Gus.

Even for you.

Prob the best thing that could happen, collect insurance never lift a feed bucket, make more clear money !!

Well-put. Nobody gets through this life unscathed.

As a well known preacher put it one time "I see two groups of people here tonight -- one group that's been through some kind of tragedy and the other that hasn't.................yet."

"Retirement" nine years ago, just before Obama. I was next on the hit list and had seen the movie before four times as the boss went after jobs. At 51, with only 16 years credited, the check is miniscule. However, God is good. My wife had gone back to work (same company) at her former rate, with full vacation etc. just like she'd never left, after thirteen years raising our daughters.

We now have care of my 92-y-old father (3 1/2 years) and my 50-y-old bro-in-law (stroke recovery) as well.

The county owned educational farm I managed was closed in 2009/2010. I found another job at about the same hourly salary but the old job was 96 hrs in a pay period and housing was provided.

Less hours and paying for housing equaled about a 50% pay cut. And with the economy in the crapper then, it took my wife 18 months to find a job.

Dale

We've had some ups and downs but have always been able to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. I count my blessings everyday.

My dad and four of his siblings got taken for $4.5M in a land investment scheme. Come to find out the SOB who got them had served a prior prison sentence for the same thing but changed his name and did it all over again. Currently in prison in California, but they'll never get their money back.

My low point financially was immediately following the 911 attack. I was an insurance agent at the time, and our company (Farmers) implemented a huge rate increase on all of their commercial insurance products, my main line of income. Basically, I was no longer competitive with other insurers in our market, and my income went from five figures per month to just a couple of thousand on a good month. I was up to my neck in personal debt (mainly credit cards and college loan payments.) It got so bad I missed at least one mortgage payment (my first one ever) and had creditors constantly calling me on the phone demanding payment. This was the lowest financial point in my life. A change in careers turned everything around, and discovery and adherence to Dave Ramsey's Seven Baby Steps got us 100% out of debt and on our way to financial freedom.

I hate to call it a setback, but when you hear the ultrasound tech say A and B.....your having twins.

It is more than twice as much money to have twins... but my financial "hardship" has been paid in full by having a pair of little boys that I would not trade for any amount of money.

the purpose of prepping, is to create a safety net, to Coast through those low times. most of your grandparents would have been called Preppers by today's standard. Frozen, canned, dried, salted, pickled, or live on the hoof, you stored food or you didn't eat very well through the winter.
Six months worth of stored food would be a small safety margin. I know of a Mormon church that requires the man set aside two years worth, before he is allowed to marry in the church. This to prove he can provide for a family.
( I used to work in a Mormon owned machine shop.)
When my wife Took sick, We dropped to one income, and the medical bills never end. But that stored food made the difference between Eating and going hungry. It's mostly gone now. My winter has lasted about 10 years now.
she could die tomorrow, or ten years from now. depends on how many factors hit her at once .
I Supplement my income by Recycling scrap metals.

In the market crash about 15 years back my IRA took about a $40K hit. Took about 7 years to get it back. Bailed on the recent housing related crash, so lost nothing there.

Been lucky and saved a lot, so have never been hit with a life changing situation.

These kinds of issues tend to be relative in nature - a big setback to one person or family may amount to a bump in the road to another.

We are grateful to have been blessed with success in our work and to have been able to keep a home and eat while raising four kids into good people. Our hearts go out to others who have known financial hard times, and especially those with families. I admire those who dig in and come back on top after drastic losses.

That said, when we married as college kids we were about broke - did not have enough $$ for a bank account, both worked part-time jobs and didn't think we could afford to buy a pizza on Saturday evening. And, our first child arrived 11 months later. A start like that will help make one financially conservative and investment conscious. Each small improvement over those days has been a blessing. Having been so fortunate, we do try to give other good folks a leg up when they experience bad setbacks. The least we can do.

Short version: Due to a few bad decisions on my part, and a few major setbacks I couldn't control, I'll never live well again or ever retire.

My New Years toast this last time was Fuck 2016!

I will never retire. Thanks obama.

I'm sorry that it remains a sore point with you. Is what it is. I thank you for your service, and along the way probably at least one family somewhere over there benefitted from your setback

The loss of life of loved ones far exceeds the hurt of financial setbacks. Money can be renewed, lives can not.


I always try to keep that in mind.

Excellent observation - thanks.

I'm Mormon and I never heard anything like that before.. must be one of those offshoots of the LDS church..

You're almost always a smart azz , and make me grin often with your reparte

Sometimes the emphasis is on the azz

Oftentimes on the smart

This post was the latter

Been really fortunate but even with that good fortune I've suffered my share of 5 and six figure hits


Close to the top of those hits was when I shut a biz down to care for my wife when she had cancer, but I was burnt out running that biz anyway

So grateful to be back at work, but even more grateful she's healthy and mean again

Yeah, I know. It is not a standard of the religion, but of that particular Church. (I still have a book of Mormon from thier attempts to convert me, as I was the only non-Mormon employee)

Now that's bad......

Glad to hear your son is well and thriving. Medical bills are crippling. When my dad passed, he spent 3 weeks in guarded intensive care before he finally gave up his fight. The bills were astronomical. The hospital wrote off most of what his insurance wouldn't cover. Our bill was well over 100K.

Lost 60k plus my time on a couple of lawsuits I advanced litigation costs on that didn't pan out. I was a bit younger then and had bunch more gambler in me. Experience has made me much more cautious. On the flip side I made 90K for a phone call in one case.

Perry

I gambled when I bought the house, a "low hanging fruit" of 2010. I had finished my last Army Reserve mobilization and went back to my civilian job, a City employee, and humbly grateful I that I had a job.

One incompetent clerk, kicked out of every other city office, screwed up my pay badly, shorting me $2400 my first month back. I was just under $200 short of making all my obligations. With a pregnant girlfriend, her two sons, and their cousins living with us as their family had fallen apart. I went to my Union but that was fruitless. The City countered with a threat to withhold $80,000 from my next paycheck (news flash: I do not make $80,000 a month as a cop)claiming they over payed me while I was deployed.

When I threatened to go to the Labor Board, the reprisals happened. I was whispered to in the latrine by a Sergeant that he was ordered to remove my name from all forthcoming commendations. Work, though minor, that I did was credited to others. Then I was brought up on criminal charges by our Internal Affairs office for an event that happened four hours after I was off-duty and at home.

I was cleared in the formal investigation, but I missed my daughter's birth while being grilled by former comrades who were not climbing the ladder.

The first negative mark on my credit report nullified my Security Clearance and thus ended my military career. Down to only one paycheck, Debt soared as I made only minimum payments and broke contracts. Gas and groceries went on the credit cards. Luckily, I had a minor but good collection of guns that kept me from losing the house. There were rough times. Her boys were bitter during their High School years but have grown into fine young men. One had run away but grew up fast, learning the truth about hard times and good people versus frauds and hustlers.

It is my fault for not having a enough money saved to prevent the catastrophic cascade of debt. I am still struggling but will soon sell off everything gun and hunting related and concentrate on maximizing money and minimizing debt. I am too old for this and the girls need braces and clothes.

Wah. Sniveling over, for now.

Years/years ago ...we got a food box.

2008 was the big crash for me. I lost close to 200k. Fortunately, most of that was money I'd made on the market so I guess it's easy come, easy go. Real estate has always been kind to us, although I think possibly Canada is in for a bit of a burst bubble in the next few years.

In 1978 my father and I were farming together and my wife just had our first child. We were building a new house for my parents and we were going to move into the old farm house using the new house a partial down payment on my buy-in on the farm. On December 12, my father suffered a massive heart attack and died at 7:00 pm. At 1:00 am on the 13th our neighbor called and said the new house had burned down. Two teenagers had gone on a pyro-rampage and burned about half a dozen properties including our house. The insurance on the house only covered the building materials but none of the labor. I went in the hole about $100k. Friends and neighbors helped with building our dairy herd and dairy facility. With my father gone I had to buy more equipment to handle the crops etc...but things were going o.k. A friend and I started building houses to supplement our incomes. We borrowed money to finance the business.

That gap-toothed kocksucker, jimmy carter, decided to raise the interest rates to slow down the economy. In the spring of '80, I had to borrow $100k to put my crops in. The bank charged me 19% and 6 points loan origination fee on a 1 year chatel loan. Land, cattle and used equipment values dropped like a rock. The farm next to mine sold for $2,500 @ acre in '76 . The spring of '80 it sold for $540 @ acre. The houses we had invested in on speculation had to go to the bank and we realized about $100k loss on both of them. The dairy subsidy kept us afloat but we were going farther in the hole everyday on interest payments. I began selling life insurance to make ends meet.

In the spring of '83 our second daughter was born prematurely. My wife had some severe complications from the birth and had to be in the hospital for a couple weeks. Our health insurance didn't cover "pregnancy and the complications thereof". At the same time our first girl came down with pnemonia and was in ICU for almost a week. My whole family was in the hospital and I came down with pink-eye so they wouldn't let me visit them.

In 1983, I was offered the management position in the largest insurance agency in the area and took it. We liquidated everything but the the home place and a few head of stock cows. We still owed about $1,000,000 to the bank. My banker told me it was time to declare bankruptcy sell out and move to California. The SOB almost had me convinced when he fell down the stairs in his house and broke his neck. I had a friend who worked in another bank who wanted a chance to restructure our loans. He saved us a ton of $ and gave us some good advice on careers. Within seven years we had paid the loan down under $100k. Our daughters both went to good schools and have no student loans.

Today we have a nice house, own some nice rental/investment properties and have a little in the bank.

And, we don't owe anyone anything except frickkin' taxes.

It has been a struggle but God is always good and always faithful.

Amen to that!!

Had a business my wife and I started up from scratch taken away as the result of a lawsuit. Legal fees ended up in 5-figures. Loss of income was ~$25-30k per year. Business had been going for just over 2 years and was finally starting to gel. Value of the business was approaching 6-figures and don't know where it might've gone.

Didn't ruin us financially. Was one of those learning situations. My wife said this is the time my kids learned the F word from many phone conversations they overheard.

Congratulations Johnny for holding on and pushing on through.

Some of the experiences on here sound pretty grave. But it reminds me of something I try to keep in mind when faced with difficulties.

If money can fix it, it isn't that serious.

+1
Gus has always had this whiny thing going on about how he had to go somewhere and do something he didn't choose to do.