Eric

Wow - enthralling piece ...

I agree that no. 1 above is folly. And I will also agree that no. 2 works. But -- I would speculate that well over half the "rich" in this country got there by either investing in real estate or as I mentioned above - owning some/all of a business. God forbid, neither of these are risk free and both involve hard work and a willingness to make sacrifices. But it can be done and without connections or a fancy degree.

Mutual funds are actually a pretty horrible investment in the long run. I assume you aren't including index funds in that category. Guy Actually I am. After fees, index funds are guaranteed to (slightly) underperform the market, plus there are usually restrictions on when you can pull out. I'm not personally interested in an equity investment that is going to tie up my cash and yield a below-average return. I can see why they are attractive to others, though. Not sure the index funds you are referring to, but I would guess the vast majority do not have restictions on when you can redeem. Further, on average, index funds typically outperform 2/3 of all actively managed funds.

Depends on the field. Plenty of people from my grad program went on to wall street and became millionaries very quickly. I agree completely.

To turn this around - the best way to become a millionaire - is to own part or all of a business. There are no guarantees - I am sure Chuck will attest to that. But working for the man - without a share of the business - will at best lead to a reasonable level of comfort.

Got this one too. If they can mine this sort of stuff along with the dreck, I am all for it.

Perhaps this will provide some clues ...

ditto

Check with USAA. They used to be military only, but I think they have expanded it.

What a great video . Thanks for posting that, Brownie! Peter

A belated Happy Birthday

Attached is a "Ringer" cover that I have never seen before - but think is very cool.

Me too.

Yes it is! Yes, I have had "Byrd's Word" in fairly heavy rotation lately.

Another big Some records are just special and this is one of them. The Strayhorn record is also nice. I ahve tried several times to get into Ph.D., but it just doesn't do it for me.

I actually prefer the automated approach:

This just adds to the confusion:

Congrats Paul!!!

I once owned the Mosaic and made burns of these two before I (sadly) had to sell the set. I did however exclude the vocals, so I "know" these albums without them. I listen to these two quite a bit and enjoy them.

There is a lot of great music on them. "Heaven" is a little funkier - almost a throwback to his pre-Blue Note days. The opening cut - "The Infant" is as ass-shakeingly funky as anythng Young did. "Of Love" is defintiely heavier than both of these. For some reason, I thought Contrasts was coming out as a RVG or Conn this year.

I once owned the Priester/Rivers CD. It sounds like a "can't miss", but sadly it does and pretty badly. The problem (IIRC) was the use of some sort of eletronics - not electronic instruments - that really detracted from the music. In this case, the AMG review (which I just read) is pretty accurate. The Chip White is a keeper. The Land is a strings date and is OK, but I am not a big "with strings" fan - some might be more impressed.

I have lived in the Raleigh area a couple times and have spent some time in Charlotte, but not enough to comment intimately on the city. I do know that the mountains are close and the beach is maybe 4-5 hours away. Winston and the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham & Chapel Hill) are not too far away. There are definitely worse places.

LOL

When shipping used lps, the standard seems to be to remove the lp from the jacket. I guess the idea is to prevent the lp from splitting the jacket seam enroute. My question - once the lp arrives, should the vinyl be stored outside of the sleeve (but within an inner sleeve and next to the jacket - all wrapped snug by an outer sleeve)? For the record, I have owned jazz lps for 25 years plus and have always stored the lps inside the jacket. To my knowledge, I have never split a seam. But now, I am wondering if I should make a switch. Part of me thinks the benefit of "lower exposure to seam splits" would be offset by "potential damage to the vinyl from storing lps out of the jacket". Part of me thinks I would never get so anal as to even pose this question. Thoughts and abuse welcome ...

Up - does anyone have a complete list of these or a web site? I keep seeing more and more of these.