How Do You Finance Your Collection?

There's nothing childish about being responsible. My wife wishes I were better at that.

Chancellor Sutler

That's true what has been said that those are not the really difficult to find. It's just the ones in MS-70 that are a little on the expensive side.
With me it's those lousy ones to fill a slot in an Album that I can't find. For example the 1913 Liberty Head Nickel or the 1894S Liberty Head Dime. Even harder to find is a 1943 Copper Cent. For some reason the ones I've got are all Silvery looking?
Back to the original question. Since I've been collecting for well over 60 years now, coins just accumulate. Sometimes not even sure where they all come from. So far never sold one so the amount accumulated is rather a reallllly big mess.

I've said this one before and I'll say it again, I finance my collecting by not letting my wife ever see the bank account. I "fudge" the balance in the checkbook to keep a healthy hidden balance. This hidden balance can be used for my collecting. Though my collection is primarily my collection, it always has at least some investment potential. The silver coins I bought when silver was at $4 an ounce is worth an awful lot more today. Occasionally the hidden balance gets too big so I'll make a big transaction and just not record it (just paid a $500 credit card bill without recording to bring the hidden balance back to a more reasonable level). This is a seriously great trick if you can get away with it.

I have a job, for now. I buy coins as I feel like buying them. Obviously that does not mean I can go buy the 1913 Liberty nickel any old time I feel like it. One month I may not spend any money on coins and the next maybe $1000 or $100. Just depends.

"I finance my collecting by not letting my wife ever see the bank account. I "fudge" the balance in the checkbook to keep a healthy hidden balance."

Wait until she get's a lawyer and you have to sell the collection to pay him LOL.

I inherited a substantial collection with a lot of key dates, so it's a little easier on the pocket book.

I budget $50 a month, plus any cash gifts that I receive around Christmas or birthdays plus any money I net from selling off duplicates or upgrades.

It can be frustrating to wait sometimes but I also go through spells where I can't find anything I want and that kitty keeps building!

Ken

Well, being a YN and not being able to work definitely doesn't help, but I've found a few ways to make money. I recently bought one of those two-headed candy machines, bought some M&M's and Skittles, and I placed the machine in a restaurant. It generates about $30-$40 a month, which is then mostly spent on coins. There is a pawn shop near me that often has some cheap silver and some really good deals, so sometimes I buy there and then resell on Craigslist or some other website for a profit.