It looks like the dollar is losing value

[antagon]

$500 to $1300 over four years is outstanding. You will be a very rich man if you can generate a 160% return every 4 years.

this is why i dont bother with marketized investment, toro. supposedly my chain is worth twice what i've paid for it five years later. i think that's comforting, especially when people thought it was irresponsible to buy and wear around like a pimp. i bought a backhoe in 2005, too, and i've netted more than i bought it for each and every quarter since then. who cares what that's worth now. easily half what i bought it for or less.

i just think taking $120k out of a piece of equipment in 5 years beats any $5k i'd have put into some commodity or someone else's business. ive invested in depreciated fixer-upper equipment and cost of sales. not for everyone, but a different league than staring at bullion or charts with respect to returns and risk.

so you are a real capitalist. The problem with your approach is that you can't scale it up and it isn't a formula that anybody can copy, and you rely on deals coming along along with business.

But capitalism is supposed to be a risk and a meritocracy.

there's limitations to the scalability, but i bought another hoe in '06, a bobcat trackhoe that could go through your front door. a bobcat endloader and a skiploader since. i have a dumptruck, a crew truck and a 24' stakeside. none are real lookers, but i think that's why i'm still in business. the guys leasing new shit -- some of them -- had to call it quits when the goin got tuff. some of this gear is support for the humans that do other work and for the hoe itself (you need to haul away the mess you've dug up, or spread it out nice-like) i rent a lot to sit the shit on, have to pay folks to fix them, etc.

like we've said, not everyone's cake. i do rely on deals coming, but they come. half the battle of vertical property exploitation is underground.

 

[antagon]

we interpreted this line differently:

"i've netted more than i bought it for each and every quarter since then"

120,000/5 = 24,000 which sucks as an owner operator at $12/hour on a 2000 hour work year. Renting it out for a net $24K after maintenance is damned good. I think we interpreted that line the same way.

its a netter net than that. i post on an internet message board while someone else digs with the machine . that is estimated retained earnings (after mine or my sales dude's commission). fine grading (like for the bottom of a pool is inclusive (that's either manpower or mp + another piece of equipment, net). haulaway is excluded.

courtesy timberland construction accounting software in a peek i took in '08 or last year.

10x that hourly rate for rough digging/loading, excluding haulaway (one man). i wish i had 2000 hours on that thing a year. it would explode, probably, or i would have a couple of them.

 

[antagon]

like I said we interpreted that line to mean different things.

If he bought it for $120K and netted more than that every Q then he did OK. Rates for a backhoe + operator are more like $80/hr. A small road construction company with one backhoe and an 8 man crew can gross over a million/Q. At least here in CA they can, and do. Or did until the budget went dry. Of course the backhoe is only one of 5-6 similarly expensive pieces of equipment they rely upon.

case 580D, $5250.00 after a bit of haggling. from $120/hr operated.

an M a quarter. far more humble for 'ol antagon.

 

[loosecannon]

state work, traffic control, per diem, it adds up. I rent a lot to road crews so I know several of them.

 

[william the wie]

state work, traffic control, per diem, it adds up. I rent a lot to road crews so I know several of them.

OK cleared up.