[Jeff Lee]

I've got the race car being extensively worked on. The money is put away so I can pay cash when it's done. I do a lot of wheeling and dealing to buy what I want for the race car. I sold two clutches to pay for my new dual 7" clutch. A bunch of other parts sitting on the shelf collecting dust no longer appear important when making improvements to the car, so they make it to e-bay. The timing of these repairs / modifications is perfect because if the car were done today, I wouldn't race it more than a few times this year and that would be at a T&T only just to see if it all works, no NHRA events. With real estate (I'm a Realtor) basically in the toilet, I can't justify spending a dime of the families income on racing. I'm with Julie and others. Never been (or ever plan) to be a "full-time" racer and I use my Expedition and an open trailer to get to the races.
One year I raced both S/ST & Stock and it was a great year for real estate. At the end of the year I figured my income was down $30K+ due to that splurge from opportunity lost scenario. That was the end of that!
And please, anybody that believes borrower's didn't know what they were getting into, do I have some beach-front property in Arizona for you! The Lenders only became "predatory" when the borrower's figured out the home was no longer appreciating at 25% to 50% per year. Then all the sudden it became important to read the contract! I have no sympathy for those people who treated their home like an ATM.
Last I heard, the oil company's were operating on the same profit margins as any other successful business in the USA, around 8% - 10%. If you want to lower the gross profits of the oil companies, stop buying petroleum based products. Taxes per gallon are higher than profits per gallon. Figure out what programs or services you can live without and the gas tax will come down.