What do you do to support your gun habit?

[RCPractitioner]

I might be posting this in the wrong place and if so I apologize and please move it. My question is, what do you do for a living to support your gun habit? Just curious because I feel like I have a pretty decent career for a young single guy with no kids (expensive GF though). Even though I do feel like I do alright I have a hard time finding the money to buy new toys I want and see. Being I asked I will start 1st, I am a respiratory care practitioner (aka-resp. therapist) and I make between 20-26 an hour depending on shift differential and usually work 3-4 12hr shifts a week. I always fantasized while in college how much easier life would be after I finished. Well here I am 1 1/2 years after graduation and granted my quality of life has gone up but I still don't feel on easy street! Anyways, I might be out of place asking and if you don't feel like disclosing anything I completely understand but if anyone cares to share or give advice, let me have it!

BTW- I just started a new stategy, I opened a "toy savings account" at a completely different bank than my usual one. I set it up to have $100 of each paycheck deposited into it and hope that I am disciplined enough to leave it alone.

[Garand Illusion]

Looks like you're doing good for yourself.

I also make decent $$ as a computer geek, but it doesn't matter how much you make it's easy to spend it all and not having anything left for "toys" unless you budget it in (and after you've got your hunting rifle & shotgun and personal defense pistol, all the rest are definitely toys).

I try to basically do like you do and set some cash aside every paycheck. Every payday I get a certain amount of cash from the ATM (immediately, so it doesn't get sucked up by bills) and split it between my wife and I. That's our "allowance," and we can buy anything we want with it/use it anywhere we want. "House" money is more budgeted and we have to be careful with it and agree on expenditures. Wether you make a lot of money or a little, you should plan your monthly expenditures (how nice of a house payment/car payment) to have a little left over.

Good plan on the $100 a month. I have less guns than you do, and probably always will (only have a few more on the list) but that's OK -- I have other toys too

[jonathon]

Right now, I do nothing...

Planning on applying at safeway soon.. Most of that will go for guns, but 1/3 of what I make will go into my Bronco for a paint job..

I still live with my folks since I am 17 :P

[chris in va]

Professional window cleaner, mostly residential. On average I make $25-60/hr when everything is said and done. Granted, I only work about 4-6 hours a day (one house) but still. You start losing money when employees come in to the picture.

[Jkwas]

I try to limit my range visits to once a month. Also, I buy my ammo online to save money, and I go to the range with a limited amount. It's easy to get carried away down there. Also, I have a family, and it has helped to involve them in the activity, and then have their support. Today I will take my son, who is 12, for the first time to shoot 22cal. Once you have your guns, it's not that expensive, but it's like anything, you have to pace yourself. Also you have something to look forward to, and it doesn't get old. BTW, I sell auto parts at a car dealership.

[Dwight55]

Sounds like you are doing fine, RC, . . . and if I may be so presumptuous to do so, . . . may I make a couple of suggestions:

1) Try very hard to keep the ones you acquire, . . . unless there is some over powering, absolute necessity to get rid of it. Reason? I would gladly repurchase my original .357 Ruger, . . . Colt Python (4 in bbl), . . . and AR15 that I released too many years ago. They were all good shooters that I have not been able to replicate, or replace.

2) This is NOT A SLAM ON MARRIAGE! But, . . . you didn't seem to indicate that you have a SO, . . . and if that is the case, . . . make sure when you find one, . . . that she is pro firearms also. Although it is quite possible to continue your "collection" after she comes into the picture, . . . it is a required part of the "contract" that she is involved in the hobby. That includes purchases. I don't get a lot of grief from my wife over my purchases, but at the same time, . . . when I was single, . . . I didn't have to think twice, . . . I just did it. Involve her, . . . and you will have a much better relationship. (Or just buy out the store before she comes into the picture )

May God bless,
Dwight

[ATW525]

I make okay, but not great money in computers. My mortgage and car payment eat up the majority of what I take in, though. One of these days I'll have to find a decent girl I can put to work to help pay that mortgage so I can afford more guns...

[IZinterrogator]

While staff sergeant pay in the military is pretty decent these days, debt from the E-4 and E-5 periods was keeping my gun buying to a one or two a year kind of deal. Of course, if I had used the money that I bought guns with as an E-4 and E-5 to pay bills off, it wouldn't have been so bad financially, but I wouldn't have any guns. It has been a kind of tradition for me to buy a new gun everytime I returned from a deployment. I bought my first pistol shortly after returning from Bosnia in 1999. Now that I just completed a year-long deployment as an E-6 the whole time, I had a lot more extra money to use to pay off the truck, wipe out the credit card debt, etc. I even had enough to buy one gun while I was home on leave and two on Gunbroker which were held by the sellers until I returned. So now my paycheck covers the monthly bills and the hobbies. I still plan on trying to go back soon for another tour so I can get something more extravagant, like a custom Delta Elite or something like that.

[seb5]

My wife the accountant gets my paycheck, overtime, and military reserve check. I don't know or care what she does with it. My off duty work is mine. I average 8-12 hours a week at 22.00 an hour. That gets me my toys, or whatever else I want. My needs come out of the family accounts. I still can't convince her that new guns are needs.

[Colonel Klink]

When I was your age my life revolved around cars and women. All my money went to one or the other. If I could do it over, knowing what I know now, I would attempt to be less fickle. I fell in and out of love with cars to the tune of 5 or 6 cars in one year. Imagine what that cost me. Times have changed.

My wife made me get a new car a few months ago. I had the same Mercedes diesel station wagon for 12 years. I now have a 1998 Mercedes E320 station wagon that is the same body style as the 2005. I expect to keep this one as long. My wife's car just got paid off last month and the company van will be paid off in 3 months. Soon we will have three cars we like and only one car payment.

Set your sights on one thing at a time and stay with it until you get it. You want another gun? What do you want most? Focus on that and forget all the others until you get that one. Understand it may take a year for you to get that gun and that's OK. Once you get what you want enjoy it to the utmost.

We have friends I have known since 1975. Were some of you even born then? These friends have never had much and probably never will. I realized, one day, that they both wish for all kinds of things but never concentrate on any one thing long enough to make it happen. It seems to be a way of excusing not getting things. Am I making any sense? See if I can put it in one sentence - Decide what is important to you and work toward getting it until you get it! Sometimes compromise is necessary. I love Porsche 911's. I decided I wanted one back in 1976. I looked at new ones but they were $40,000 back then and way beyond my reach. I got a used one for $12,000 and enjoyed every minute of owning it.

You can have every single thing you really, really want. Very few people can have everything they want. The trick is to pick carefully and never let it out of your sight until you get it.

[perception]

I work in a kitchen for 12 dollars an hour, have enourmous credit card debt, and support about 7,000 dollars a semester of tuition and flight lessons. That said, i probably out way too much money into guns, but hey, right now I am completely single, so I can afford a new gun a couple times a year.

[Mannlicher]

I know I am paranoid, but a newbie, asking that kind of question always raises a red flag for me.

[USP45usp]

I'm not that paranoid . But, I am just a normal "joe", as most of us here, that makes a normal "joe" wage. I make twice the minimum for Oregon but less then many. I have good medical and dental, and I could make or do more if I would get off my butt and go back to school.

Guns, like any other collection item, comes and go as I try to decide exactly what I wish my collection to contain.

The only thing that keeps me from enhancing my collection quicker, is me. Until I decide to move on or raise up, I will continue to make my average "joe" wage and continue to collect when I can .

Wayne

[kelsey]

Well, I guess mine is unique. I started my own gun store. The money isn't as good as it was in my corporate job, but at least I am spending my time doing what I love!


Kelsey
www.luvtohunt.com

[Nnobby45]

I gave up booze---the savings went a long way toward compensating.

[snacktrack]

Hey RC. I have the same strategy as you, except I have 3 accounts in the same bank. Primary for bills, secondary for "spending cash, entertainment etc, then savings" I set up my accounts online so that they automatically transfer a given amount every week from the primary account, down the line to savings. Whatever doesnt get used that week for spending cash, it gets transferred into the savings. Works well for me.

I myself get paid pretty well, between 25-45 an hour putting in custom stereo systems. My girlfriend is very expensive as well. ; ) Going to school though to be in the healthcare field like you being Nuclear Medicine Tech. Need something with better options for the future, retirement, 401k, vacation etc.

[RCPractitioner]

I know I am paranoid, but a newbie, asking that kind of question always raises a red flag for me

Why in the world would my question be cause for paranoia? I understand that there are a few people who like to keep their career choices private. (That raises more of a red flag to me than someone willing to disclose what they do.) As for all those that offered advice thank you and I will take it to heart.

you didn't seem to indicate that you have a SO

Actually I do, I think that I originally posted that I have an expensive GF (girlfriend) have had for 2 years now. She is not as supportive of my hobby as I would like, but when I explained that I wanted different guns for different things much as she wants different shoes for different outfits she got a little better. We currently co-habitate and she makes next to nothing at her job (Veterinary Tech) so I end up footing the bill for most everything. Now if I can just convince her to finish school so she can get a real job and we can make enough together that I can buy more guns! Yeah right I know keep dreaming!

[utaherrn]

I have my full time job at one hospital, that $ goes to bills, the family, etc.
I then have another part-time job at another ER, work as much or as little as I want there, and that money is equally divided between myself and my wife for fun. When I want some new toy, I'll pick up more shifts at the PT job, get the toy, then work less to have time to play with it. Not a bad situation.

[defjon]

Hey...giving up booze, there's a suggestion.

For real, I'd save hundreds! Unfortunately, I'm extremely Irish.

[MissMak]

Instead of buying jeans and shoes (after all how many pairs of jeans and shoes does one girl need?) I'm going to buy tons of ammo and another gun.

[snacktrack]

Instead of buying jeans and shoes (after all how many pairs of jeans and shoes does one girl need?) I'm going to buy tons of ammo and another gun.

im sure all the guys on this board will chime in too but, thats my kind of gal!

My girlfriend has so many new clothes on the hooks never worn its ridiculous.

[Glockgirl26]

I'll pick on the terminology used a bit and say I don't consider it a habit, but a lifestyle. Granted, not all LEO think like this, but I do. That said, no one goes into LE to get rich, myself included. Purchases are made when I can afford them, income tax returns and the like. Unfortunately, it always seems that as soon as I get some $$$ set aside for a gun purchase, I either have to spend the money on medical bills, or the car breaks. It never fails.

[Anarx]

Humm... well i'm a student normally so i might take a bit of my finatial aid tword it when it finally comes through...

but right now i'm working temps... ohh and when i need that little bit of cash for ammo theres alway selling your plasma...

Will work/give plasma/pimp self out for ammo...


:-D

[U.F.O.]

I trade bonds (as in "stocks and bonds") professionally to support this wickedly expensive habit/lifestyle I find myself immersed in. Thanks to all you fine folks for helping teach me the ropes.

U.F.O.

[SemperFi83]

Go to the office every day and pretend I know what I am doing