! ! FLASH ! !

When you finish reading the following new post - and before you leave this SITE . . .

. . . be sure to hit (once) the PREVIOUS ENTRIES link at the very bottom of this page and review some data that may well mean a LOT of fresh $$$ for you and yours!

$  $  $  $  $  $   

In our final post of 2008 we said, ‘’2009 Is Gonna Be FINE!'’

And indeed, it WILL be for me and mine plus many DAX-DOERS who have been sensible enough to employ basic DAX-AXIOMS over the years, such as avoiding stupid, risky investments, shams, scams and most ANYTHING offered on the Internet by anyone you’ve never heard of!

That could be stocks, commodities, ‘’get-rich'’ schemes and so forth. Many people (including US, at one time) got screwed by the likes of e-Bay, Amazon.com, YAHOO! and others who (now) have a pretty good name in the industry.

But, as we speak, there are many crooks out there - especially, operating on the Web - people and firms NOBODY HAS EVER HEARD OF - asking for (and GETTING, from what we hear) tens of thousands of dollars for fly-by-night, crappy/iffy/non-existent biz opps that are just plain criminal!

If YOU have need of intel vis-B-vis who some of the more current crooks are - just click on the WATCH YOUR BACK link to your left, there.

Meanwhile, here’s the deal: For NON DAX-DOERS or those who have slacked off on maintaining what DAX and DAX-DOERS traditionally stand for . . . well, there’s no doubt that such people are in for some really ‘’bad times'’ as 2009 portends to be a very bad year in most all economic sectors that deeply impact each of our lives daily.

We are, of course, talking about the dissembling credit market - especially banks, credit unions, savings and loan - and most of all, due to the pervasive (read, pernicious) nature of the beasts - CREDIT CARDS.

Most people, under retirement age, have no true understanding of the reasons why we are mutually in peril at these crucial crossroads.

Far MORE folks are, in NO way, prepared to deal with, suffer through or circumvent the horrendous obstacles that they may have already been hit with - or, if ‘’lucky'’ to date - they may expect to confront near term.

BLAME MOM AND DAD

Doubtful that very many men and women fifty or under were ever taught the true meaning of self-reliance - unless, they were raised by the Amish - and that’s not a joke - a bit more on that shortly . . .

If a preponderance of people in our society HAD been instructed to be self-sufficient - to maximize whatever natural skill sets they have and more importantly, INCREASE their skills - people would not be in such a panic, as they are today. And make no mistake:

We are already seeing nastiness coming into being - at least on a fringe basis: A hike in personal assault crimes, shoplifting, outright stealing, burglaries, home invasions - even murder most malicious, what with that bastard ‘’Santa Clause'’ killer on Christmas Eve:

Arriving at a house where a party is in progress and shooting an eight-year old girl in the face when she answers the door to find God-Should-Damn friggin’ ‘SATAN’ Claus standing there? THAT’s the kind of insane crap we can expect across the land as the economic woes of a few start to multiple into the monetary miseries of the many!

But I digress (and in my mind . . . with good reason!)

The point of this essay is: To become self-reliant - knowing that YOU can support you and yours NO MATTER WHAT - without outside assistance. That confidence starts in childhood. We all must be TAUGHT to work hard and work SMART, to ALWAYS save as much money as possible and sock it away for SAFE keeping - in ONLY Federally protected (and guaranteed) institutions.

I am particularly disgusted with the likes of Suzie Whorman or whatever that lezzie’s name is - and others who continue to fraudulently advise listeners, viewers or readers - to keep buying stocks and to continue making additional deposits to 401K plans ‘’if the employer is still contributing matching funds.'’

GEEZE! Has it not occurred to these idiots that MAJOR employers have either gone OUT of business - are wholly KAPUT - or very likely WILL be soon? Do they not realize that already, over a TRILLION dollars has been lost forever by pension funds - the same kind of monies everyone’s being told to invest IN - even at this late date?!

Regardless - I need to get back on point here, which is this: Those of us who are multi-talented are the ones who will survive - as ‘’our kind'’ always has. That does not mean that we are super-duper people but rather, what at some point along the way was considered ‘’normal:'’

We recognized that it’s not good enough to ‘’just'’ be a writer, a painter, a plumber, a teacher, a mechanic - or whatever narrow field is our customary way of earning a living.

It is important - in many cases, downright VITAL - to have-at-the-ready a variety of ways to make money . . . ‘’just in case.'’

In my own situation - just for an example - and I KNOW (but do not CARE!) that it sounds like I’m simply bragging . . . here are SOME of the things that I can do ‘’well'’ - aside from just punching out words on a keyboard.

I have built several houses - plus an entire ‘’Mini Plaza'’ - with my own hands. Into each of the several storefronts I installed a business that I owned: A beauty shop, a dress shop, a dry cleaners ('’Your Clothes In A Jiffy From Spiffy!'’), the home offices of my state-wide network of Debt Collection Agencies, etc., PLUS several rental apartments. All without ANY help whatsoever. I had to engineer ways to lift multi-hundred pound rafters two stories up and put them in place. By myself.

I once literally came up with a workable method that the ancients may well have employed to build the pyramids (since to even this date, NO one has ever come up with the actual method). I know that it would truly work - but do NOT know if that’s ‘’how they did it!'’

I have done major excavation, built forms, poured LOTS of (miserable!) concrete, framed, sheathed, sided, roofed, done all electrical work, plumbing, heating - you name it. Again, all by my ownsome.

At 16 I literally, and single-handedly drilled a water well nearly 50 feet deep - by hand. I darned-near died from exhaustion. I can stand at a cash register for 12 hours straight without eating or going to the bathroom. I once overhauled a straight-eight Packard - with only a tattered instruction manual to guide me.

I can conduct all-day seminars in any city in the U.S., Europe or Asia - and drag in attendees at several hundred bux per! My record ‘’take'’ was $265,000.00 in a single day for a seminar conducted in Washington, D.C. (That appearance was recorded and later converted into an audio cassette package - still available, as we speak!)

I know that I can write TWO entire (PUBLISHED) novels within a two week period - because I once did so! I taught myself to successfully trade stocks and commodities (using my own unique method which does NOT call for participants to lose their shirt as so many are doing with NON DAX Methods(!) . . . and I can walk away from any casino here or abroad with more money than I walked into the joint with!

I have taught ALL things that I have learned throughout my life to hundreds of thousands of others. And mostly got paid rather well for it!

Again, those are only a FEW of the things that I personally can do - so if I were ‘’out there'’ in the work force and were to lose my job - for ANY reason - I’d just go make myself a DAX Perfect Martini and salute my NEW job - whatever I decided it would be!

All of that is possible because MY parents and grandparents collectively suffered through the ‘’Great Depression'’ and were damned if THEIR offspring would lack the skills that THEY possessed to survive ANOTHER severe downturn in the nation’s economy.

As result, people of my age were raised to be independent and to never rely on anyone else for their overall support or even basic substance. When I was in my late teens, I often went hungry - but my then-wife and two children did not.

Never - NOT ONCE - did I ever ask for any hand-outs or receive any government entitlement programs. The other day, on the teevee, I saw a report of a single mother with two children who was complaining about her ‘’plight.'’

Turns out, that whilst she was receiving a couple thousand bux a month from various social service-type programs, that fat ne’er-do-well had about fifty bux worth of jeweled fake fingernails, had CABLE television and her kids were very nicely dressed. Is THAT what our money is supposed to go for when they take it from us and give it to the ‘’needy?!'’

Not totally the ignorant woman’s fault - but rather the family values (or lack thereof) with which she was raised. For starters, you do NOT go out and have children unless you are either married or have someone else to help you finance your actions - OTHER than your fellow citizens - the taxpayers.

ANY HOPE FOR THE RECALCITRANT?

I doubt it, frankly! People are not going to change quickly enough - or deeply enough. The new President coming in will be forced to increase all the hand-out programs, as well as further insult those of us who are still classified as ‘’producers'’ (rather than suck-offs) - with ever-increasing taxation.

Unfortunately, as Shelly Berman, one of my all-time favorite comedians once intoned in a famous sketch wherein a stewardess asked if he’d care for a beverage, ‘’There isn’t TIME for coffee, tea or milk - the plane is on fire - we are DOOMED!'’

But for those reading this who still have a bit of rugged individualism left - if they believe that maybe, just maybe, it’s time to step up and ‘’take care of yourself'’ instead of depending on poor ol’ financially burdened Uncle Sammy, I would suggest starting with adhering to a very famous quote from World War II - which was subsequently adopted by most Amish people. It refers to the material necessities of life:

‘’Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or Do Without'’

That is a wholly alien concept for many modern Americans, what with our all living in a highly disposable society. Why fix it if you can replace it(?) - has been our collective mantra for a couple generations!

The answer is: With businesses failing across the land, there soon may come a time when whatever you want or need will NOT be readily available on the shelves of your local retailer . . . and that is IF you have the wherewithal to purchase it!

It may behoove us then, to get more use from a product than we would normally or in a further extreme, be in a position to repair such items should they fail. Or, learning how to do without until the situation improves.

Next, if you’re out of a job . . . GO GET ANOTHER! Just because your ‘’field'’ isn’t hiring does NOT mean there are no other jobs! Take whatever you can find - and work it like it was the best job you never had.

When I was 16, I got fired from my 7-days a week cashier/advertising/stocking job at FOODLAND in Sturgis, Michigan that I’d had since I was 14. All of a sudden they got a liquor license and the law did not allow me, at 16, to have ANYTHING to do with the stuff - so I got canned. No notice.

I had to scramble, as I was married with a first child on the way (she died at birth, by the way). The next couple years found me doing anything and everything I HAD to do to survive and support us all. One job was night-time janitorial work. I cleaned tens of thousands of square feet of floors plus, well over 2,000 grimy factory and restaurant toilets in a year’s time.

You know what? I POLISHED the damn chrome pipes UNDER the sinks and made the whole cotton-pickin’ place GLISTEN! I HATED the job - but appreciated the opportunity to EARN SOME MUCH NEEDED MONEY!

So get yourself another job - any job. Or SEVERAL jobs. No matter how little $$ you make - put away SOME of it in savings. Don’t tell me you cannot afford to do that: If you had NO job - then yes, perhaps, it would be difficult to sock away even a few bux - but once you have SOME income again - first of all, put SOME of it away!

Get yourself a low-cost/no-cost house. I’ve spent much of the past fifty years showing DAX-DOERS HOW to do that. It is easier than ever nowadays - what with the real estate AND the overall economy so screwed up.

There are untold numbers of houses - nice houses - that can be had for absolutely NO Money up front - and very low monthly payments - in some cases, wholly deferred for six to twelve months. Study all the stuff you’ve acquired from DAX over the years - it’s all in there - all the answers - everything you need to know.

MINI & MAXI!

MINIMIZE your transportation needs. Chances are you do NOT need that expensive SUV or other vehicle (or SEVERAL vehicles, in many cases).

You may need to give up a car or truck if you simply cannot afford the payments, insurance, fuel, etc. Don’t fret . . . SOME nice car company (foreign or domestic!) will still be in business MAKING very attractive cars at such time when you can better AFFORD to buy another one!

Meanwhile, get yourself a set of wheels in the form of a ‘’beater ‘’ - basic transportation at the very lowest-possible cost. Buy only the required (by law) insurance coverage and . . . LIVE WITH IT!

MINIMIZE your expenses every way possible: Cancel the cable, turn down the thermostat, batch automobile trips, employ basic gas-savings techniques, learn to cook your own food from raw foodstuffs, buy needed items in bulk - avoid eating out, attending costly concerts, comedy clubs, bars, etc.

MAXIMIZE your innate or newly acquired skills to create extra streams of money coming into your coffers. A few dollars coming your way from MANY different sources adds up. I’ll give you a quick example. Again, back when I was a teenager I figured I needed one hundred dollars a week to feed my family and fund the cost of the first new house I was building.

At the time I had a job as projectionist at the Strand Theatre in Sturgis, Michigan. $7.00 a night for 5 nights, plus $9.00 each for Saturday and Sunday which included a matinee plus the evening show on each weekend day. That totalled $53.00 before taxes - far from what I needed.

I calculated all of the other jobs at the theatre and what they paid, wrote a cohesive proposal to my boss wherein I offered to execute ALL of the jobs, i.e., advertising, promotion, janitorial work, film pick-up, marquee changes, etc., for the hundred bux I required. This saved my employer $74.00 (exactly!) each week.

I got the job and worked my butt off for the next three years. Might STILL be there save for the fact that the boss’s daughter got pregnant by some scofflaw and I was asked to train HIM for my jobs and once he knew it all - I got fired from THAT job HA! (No good deed goes unpunished, eh wot?!)

Incidentally, I would be fired from two MORE jobs in the next couple years and in each case it was truly a ‘’blessing in disguise'’ and we would not be here chatting about all this stuff had I NOT been sacked so many times - which made me decide to become my own boss so NO one could ever treat me like that again! And no one has ever dared to try it . . .

. . . in case I have neglected to tell you this in the past . . . one of the GREATEST benefits of being rich is that of being able to tell ANYBODY - no matter what - to go take a flyin’ leap and then, to be able to back it up in WHATEVER WAY is necessary.

Right now, for example, I have a law firm on the run - both via a mal practise suit plus a formal complaint with the State Bar Grievance Committee.

Oh, how sweet it is to be able to take such bastards to task - when they truly deserve it . . . One thing I advise my fellow successful DAX-DOERS to NEVER do is Lord over anyone your success - just because they’re stupid, ignorant, inept or display some other trivial failing. Just do it when they are outright crooks or malevolent in some way - as MOST lawyers are sooner or later.

By the way, we note the addition to our extended family a successful lawyer who just married my youngest daughter in Maui on December 30. SuEllen and I were not invited to attend, although other family members were - and did - but S.E. tells me she got ‘em a nice wedding present anyway . . .

TRAIN THE YOUNG-UNS WELL!

Once you have mastered your own ‘’new way'’ of self-sufficiency, think seriously about teaching your children and/or grandchildren to follow suit. Again, I was fortunate to have parents who cared about my survival - NOT by giving me stuff all the time, but by showing me how to get my OWN stuff.

As early as 6 and seven I was out collecting pop bottles (2 CENTS each), selling Cloverine Salve and garden seeds, collecting newspapers and magazines, various metals and such to sell to the local junk yard.

Just yesterday, I saw a piece on the teevee where Morgan Freeman (one of my all-time favorite actors) who was just honored (for I believe, they said, the SEVENTH time) by the Kennedy Center in D.C. He mentioned that when he was a youngster he, like myself, collected empty bottles - ALSO at 2 CENTS apiece - so he could pay for the 12 CENTS admission at his local theatre.

Coincidentally, I have told you before, that’s exactly what I did, only instead, sometimes my friend, Jimmy Gillams and I would mow a lawn for which we were paid 25 cents.

We would then buy our TWO 12 cent tickets and throw the extra penny up the street as far as one of us could throw it. (No way to spilt a penny and apparently, we were not far-sighted enough to SAVE the extra cent and add to OTHER extra cents in the future!)

Regardless, in EACH case, good ol’ cheap-o here would later go back and spend whatever time was needed to . . . find that thrown-away penny - HA!

By the way, the owner of the local scrap metal yard where I took all my gathered papers, magazines and ‘precious’ metals - once blatently cheated me out of a couple VERY hard-earned dollars when I was about 8 - but recently, I laughed my head off when I learned, that at the ripe old age of 93, the bastard was just forced to file for bankruptcy - oh, SWEET revenge!

’tis TRUE, children: It ALL goes around - and then sooner or later it COMES right back around!

Finally, when anyone is in serious financial straits and it becomes necessary to use any available money you may have . . . use it only as you MUST - not as you WISH.

In closing, I doubt most seriously that more than a very few people reading this will take any real steps to improve their lot in life. There was a time - about two decades ago, I guess - when the foregoing advice would have been heeded by many - and thus, many would benefit.

These days, ’tis probably mostly ME who will benefit - having whipped out some copy here which I KNOW is potentially helpful to others - PLUS, it nicely fills up a few pages, as well . . . all that makes ME feel good!

-Dean

P.S. Here’s one additional helpful suggestion - and again, do note that it’s 100% FREE! Click on the MONEY SAVING link over there to your left. The LEAD article - and there are DOZENS of other good articles there - is entitled, ‘’7 COSTLY MISTAKES TO AVOID THIS YEAR!'’

That alone will save you enormous sums of $$$.

P.P.S. Also note that in this post I have NOT tried to get you to buy anything in particular. There ARE many things that we produce that would be of enormous assistance to you during ‘’bad times,'’ but, as I do not know exactly from whence your particular economic woes emanate, I hesitate to ballyhoo any one particular item. I realize that cash is precious to many right now. Instead, do some more clicking on the links on this page:

Check out the two items featured in the SHOWCASE on the upper left corner. Also, click on the BOOK NOOK tab in the MENU BAR. IF you see something you feel would be helpful to YOU - only then place an order. We WILL do everything possible to help you not merely survive, but also to prosper or, as we call it . . . SurTHRIVE™!

Finally: Be SURE to click (once) on the PREVIOUS ENTRIES link below and check out some VERY exciting info that could well result in some extra $$$ for you! 

ALWAYS LEAVE ‘EM LAUGHING

A trucker stops at a red light, and a blond who has been following him, jumps out of her car, runs up to him and knocks on the window: When he lowers the window she exclaims, ‘’Hi! My name is Heather and you are losing some of your load.'’

She then runs back to her car and the trucker just proceeds down the road.

When the truck stops for another red light, again, the blond gets out of her car, runs up to the trucker and when he lowers his window she says, ‘’Hi, my name is Heather, and you are losing some of your load.'’

The trucker just shakes his head and drives off again.

This happens a couple MORE times - until, exasperated, at the next stop light the TRUCKER jumps out of his vehicle, runs back to the blond’s car and after she lowers her window, he says, ‘’Heather, my name is Mark . . . it’s WINTER here in Michigan and I’m driving a SALT TRUCK: I’m SUPPOSED to be losing my load as I go along!'’

-30-

 

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