"The harder I work, the luckier I get."

-Samuel Goldwyn

sadly, the anecdotal does not trump the empirical.

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"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."

I'm not so sure, most "lucky" people I know are in the habit of making good decisions. Conversly, people who live on the edge are always at more risk from external forces. The individual who buys a house he can't really afford in an area with an inflated real estate market shouldn't be shocked when he ends up in trouble. Bad stuff happens, the "lucky" people are the ones with options.

If it is true luck, I don't think anyone can be lucky enough to succeed in life. Even if it is pure luck that you find a $100 bill on the road, you still have to get off the couch and walk out and pick it up.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

Yup, that's the point. I don't believe in luck over the long term. Someone may be lucky enough to have an opportunity, he/she has to act on it.

For my self I operate on the idea that the harder I work and think the luckier I will be.

However, I know lots of folks who work plenty hard but still are not fortunate financially or in other ways.

Being lucky in marriage goes a long way in life.....how does anyone know? I married my wife after knowing her less than six months and it has been wonderful, but I consider myself very very lucky in that respect. (I wasn't so lucky the first marriage!)

I don't advise anybody to rely on luck but in my own case I feel very lucky for what I have and what I have been given through no effort of my own.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

But if you do stupid things, nothing matters. I decided to buy beer instead of insurance and it damned me for a couple of years. I thought there would be time to buy it next month but that didn't happen that way.

3 months. Married since 90. No, it wasn't luck. It was that you probably were too idealistic the first time. I scrutinized my wife, checked what she said vs what she did and see the pattern. To this date, I still verify but way less often.

I think you underestimate the work you put in.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

Showed the documentary 'Waging a Living' in class last week and today to spur some discussion about social justice. A number of people noticed that the hard working yet down on their luck characters in the film, are all single yet had previous marriage partners. It impressed upon me the truth of Tom's statement. Much of what it is written about the institution of marriage ignores the fact that it is fundamentally an economic institution. The most hopeful character in the film is a women who fell into poverty as a result of divorce and is about to climb her way out with a new partner.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Tom, you should take some credit yourself. Many times it is the intangiables that swing things our way. I too am also blessed with a good wife incidentally.

We also were very fortunate to have four daughters that grew up pretty well. Not perfect mind you but far better adjusted than the mean average both emotionally and intellectually. I should ask the wife sometime if they are really mine as well. That way I can have my head served up for dinner.

I have always had more than one iron in the fire. Even today possibly from habit at age 67 I still do it. Call it fall back positions perhaps.

I also try to keep it balanced so if one iron gets cold another is hot enough already to easily meet current needs. The reserve ones keep piling up and could employ many people or my time for the next hundred years.

I do not really know how people develop enough self confidence. In my mind it is a critical component to well being. . At the same time perhaps a lot of people did not either have the opportunities or were distracted too much from aquiring the essentials of life to develop it. One small item can rotate a persons life. The ability to see what others cannot percieve sometimes is a blessing and a curse.

I also see life as a bit of a gamble. You have to at times engage risk. Especially when young. The secret perhaps is adaquatly and accuratly evaluating it before engaging. Or just possesing enough awareness to structure it better your self.

If the engagement of risk is forced on you then it may be just coincidence on how it works out. Then the factor of the unknown enters the picture sometimes as well. Not a pleasant senario to travel through. That journey can be a major learning experience or be a fear development event. Much depends on your perception.

One thing that has not been mentioned with unemployment that is unexpected or prolonged is the depressing factor. Actually an interm clinical depression type syndrome can develop that further inhibits a persons chances of gaining employment. Basically the person may start to feel almost worthless for example. This in my opinion is quite understandable. We are fundementally emotional creatures.

This area can leave very long lasting mental shadows. For example my mother and father lived through the great depression. They were semi scarred by the event to some extent permanently.

A lot of members on site have possibly heard relatives for example talk about it at one time or another. For many the unemployment lasted a very long time and changed hopes and life for perhaps millions of people. Our expected system at that time just took a very long nosedive. This is one reason that regardless of cause I take longer periods of unemployment as a serious social issue.

I do not think one can develop a clear picture of how it impacts an individual really without being there yourself. One can say for example I am 200k underwater on my house. I would not personally experience the feelings that senario develops in the individual. Nor could I properly visualise them.

Once again it is a situation you have to be exposed to yourself to appreciate the true effects in my opinion. I suspect for example either a rise in divorce rates attribuatable to this or a reduction. It is too early to tell as people are waiting for a value recovery and how much percentagewise wise it will be.

It may for example help to sit down with paper and pen. List true replacement costs for the house ignoring the currrent markets evaluation. Theoretically it should at least recover to true current replacement value. supply and demand should enable that after awhile.

If one just paid the market price during a peak that really had no relationship to true value there will be difficulty. For example if I can have a builder put up a simular new house for say 200k today in your area and you paid 350k for your property there is no true recovery.

Sure ultimatly you will see 350 again but not in todays dollars. The reality then is you have lost 150k in real wealth long term. I understand the forces that enabled it. In a way it has the scope of the 1929 crash but in a normally more secure area. The best hope currently is some form of recovery adaquate enough to reabsorb the unemployed.

Weird. I seem to encounter that quite a bit. Not that every time it works out but quite often. OTOH, when I just "go thru the motions", it fails more often than not. Not sure why. Maybe it is just luck. That is it.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow