Skydiving Incomes

[kallend 1,632]

Easy. Make sure your degree is in a marketable major, get a good job, pay for skydiving, the sports car, the airplane, the yacht, college tuition for the kids... If money's a bit short, cut back on flying the airplane (that's what I do).

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[MotherGoose 0]

"Financially-responsible Skydiver" ??? Isn't that an oxymoron ?? The real answer here, Ryan, is one that no one has really touched on . . . and that is CREDIT CARDS !!! LOTS AND LOTS OF CREDIT CARDS . . . MAXED TO THE NOSE!!!

... ok...ok that only works for so long, actually the solution is simple. There is one thing that EVERY dropzone is in need of. Something that requires a bit of hard work and dedication but is one of the most financially rewarding jobs on a dropzone. Learn to pack parachutes. All different kinds of canopies and different techniques. Get really good at it. Its the best investment you will make in your skydiving career. No matter where you travel to skydive, you can always pack on the side to pay for your fun jumps.

When you are just starting out in the sport, its the single best way to pay for jumps. Later, as experience develops, camera flying, tandem, AFFI, etc., will be a much funner way to make some loot, but until then . . . TRUST ME . . . pack. Wherever there's a dropzone, there are jumpers looking for packers.

That just my opinion, its worked well for me so far.

You think you understand the situation, but what you don't understand, is that the situation just changed.

[MagicGuy 0]

For me there's a lot of budgeting involved. I don't go out much (if at all) during the week. It's work, come home, chill out and go to work the next morning. But on the weekends, I'm jumping my ass off. Pretty even trade for me!

Once you get more involved you WILL find ways to pay for it. It sucks that you're in college, I'm sure that doesn't make things any easier. But hey, graduate, get a good job, and then jump as much as you want!

Buy gear, used gear preferably. Yeah, gear is a big out of pocket cost all at once, but once you have gear you will save a ton of money beacuse you won't be renting gear. Something to think about.

Oh, and start to accumulate small pieces of gear here and there where money permits. Helmet, altimeter, jumpsuit, goggles, gloves.. whatever it may be. This will help, too, instead of trying to buy everything all at once.

Good luck!

[wildman2231 0]

Ok! Here goes!
42 yr. old carpenter(should'a finished college!).
1)Ramen noodles are much better these days.
2)You never go wrong with mac-n-cheese.
3)Hot dogs (splurge on coney sauce here).
4)Treat self to a whole pound of bacon!
5) 30 dollar electric bill,100 dollars jumping,hmmmm(keep candles around 4 a week).
6)Keep the ol' beater hoopty truck.
7)dog gets Pedigree instead of Alpo...$20 a mo.
8)GF split on my lvl6...savin ALOT there!
9)"surplus"? gear?
10) "Light" beer. (I know, I know,) Spank me...
11)Go easy on the "light" beer. It may lead to a GF that will cost more than jumping next summer!

Things to do: Learn to pack.
Skydiving all next summer: PRICELESS!

I'm fine...crazy people don't know they're crazy...No,Really!

[Tink1717 2]

Get a good job. Dump the girlfriend (unless she's a jumper too), don't get married, don't have kids and don't buy any other toys. More or less.

Skydivers don't knock on Death's door. They ring the bell and runaway... It really pisses him off.
-The World Famous Tink. (I never heard of you either!!)
AA #2069 ASA#33 POPS#8808 Swooo 1717

[ntrprnr 0]

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There's 2 ways to do it:

1> Make enough money so you can jump as much as you want.
2> Spend as little money as possible so you can jump as much as you want.
.

What he said.

If I'd gotten into this sport when I was 21, forget it - I never could have afforded it.

The key is to find a job/lifestyle that affords you the opportunity to make enough money to do what you enjoy. Unfortunately, you enjoy an expensive hobby. So you need to find a good job. Or several.

It's doable.

_______________
"Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?"
"Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."

[Eule 0]

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If money's a bit short, cut back on flying the airplane (that's what I do).

Not to mention it looks like you bought a scratch-'n'-dent airplane... it has no wheels and the wings are attached a few feet too low.

For the OP, this might be a way to make some money. They even have wireless Internet, so you can post here while you cash in!

Seriously, I afford my habit the same way some other people have mentioned. I have one car that is almost 6 years old and another that is about 32 years old. The computer I'm typing this on is 11 years old. In the living room I have a 19" CRT TV that used to belong to my grandmother. In the kitchen there are lots of fine Great Value and Sam's Choice brand items.

I will also add my voice to the chorus of boring old farts who are sitting around with onions on our belts: finish school! Change majors if you have to - at least half of the people I know who went to college did that - but get through it.

Eule

PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

[udder 0]

Don't even try compete on brokeness bitch. I'm also at college, and I train for rowing twice day. Currently on holidays I wake up at 5:30 am and get home at 7:30pm.

Ways to save money : Move back home. Drink goon (cask wine...the nastiest and cheapest way to get drunk, in Australia at least). And get a line of credit from the DZ... I virtually never go out to clubs/pubs, unless extremely drunk on much cheaper booze. I don't spend money on clothes, haircuts or shoes. But chcks dig the rugged hobo look. Really really fat chicks that is. Get rid of any woman that costs you money. And sell weed to school kids. They always take small bankies and never complain about poor quality Justwish I was a chick sometimes. Prostitution would be da bomb.

That said, I have not jumped in nearly 10 months, but I got a job and a rig coming by Christmas. Then I will be able to afford to stay current. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

"In one way or the other, I'm a bad brother. Word to the motherf**ker." Eazy-E

[kallend 1,632]

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If money's a bit short, cut back on flying the airplane (that's what I do).

Not to mention it looks like you bought a scratch-'n'-dent airplane... it has no wheels and the wings are attached a few feet too low.

You didn't notice that the tail was put on backwards.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[kimemerson 7]

assuminmg you are not a trust fund baby, don't have any IPO in your future, don't have a fat & pretty portfolio, no sugar daddy/mama, no lottery winnings, no royalties from anything, you may have to consider eliminating the holes your money now goes to, i.e., car payments, house payments, insurance, new clothes, restaurants, women/men who don't pay for themselves, and the other fineries of good living. Anyone who attends those boogies around the world or does a lot of tunnel time or travel or has jumps in the thousands, either fits into the first part of my answer or the second. The third way is entrpeneurship. Ownership of planes, DZ, equipment (to rent) or some related business such as the gear shop or rigging loft. It'll be tough if others are depending on your income, especially if it's already pretty much not as discretionary as you'd like it to be. I love it when whuffos ask how much a jump costs. When I tell them it's $20 they all figure it's very affordable. Then I tell them I would like to do ten a day and that I'm not alone and that some people do. Then it adds up, and they cannot imagine spending $400.00 a weekend. So it's also a matter of how much jumping you intend to be able to do as to what you can afford. A fourth way is that eventually, with experience, you can get rated and get the jumps paid for and put some scratch in your pocket. Or, with almost zero experience, get a camera. Someone will let you video them even if you can't figure out how to turn the damn camera on. (Really. Video standards have plummeted in the last several years now that DV is so small and affordable and the average 6-way freefly skydive will have, you know, like twenty fucking cameras. So any fool should be able to pull this one off. Sort of.You may not be able to make any money anymore doing video. But you might get free jumps from time to time. Just have enough experience not to kill or be killed and away you go!) Fifth way: Sponsorship. But that's sort of a "Catch-22" situation.

[wrespess 0]

I rob banks cleverly disguised as an ex-president. It's great because i don't have a real job and get to surf and skydive all week.

[airtwardo 6]

just looking for insight and experience.

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For the most part you've answered the questions you posed, but as far as insight and experience...

I started jumping when I was 18 and just starting college.

I worked hard & fast to get my "I" teaching every other weekend to defray the costs of my 'fun' jumping.

I also figured out pretty quick that you need to get really creative in making ends meet.

Don't have a 'woe is me' outlook, but instead take every challenge and look for an opportunity to make your life easier / more comfortable.

Think ~ 'Radar O'Reilly'

What can you do that either has value or that you can 'trade' for something you need?

Train you mindset to work that way and before long things fall into place.

In college, I taught skydiving...then I started a collegiate club and made a deal with the DZO for a cut of all the FJS's I personally brought in...then I started running a carpool to the dz that paid for my gas.

I'm a fairly large corn-fed mid-west boy with a background in martial arts, and I liked to party....1+1 = being a bouncer in a college town bar. Free booze and babes...

...and hey, aren't you 'Bob' that works next door at the Pizza joint?
I'll let ya slide on the cover charge if ya throw me a free Pizza now & then....

Gee 'Gary' your tires ain't lookin' too good, I know where there is a set of used ones that will fit for 100.00....hey 'Mike' ya know those old tires in your garage? Give ya 50 bucks for 'em....

Hey mister...I'll paint that garage for ya if ya give me that chain saw...Okay 'Larry' I'll get you your next 3 static lines jumps free, if you paint this guys garage....Yo Bubba, I have a chainsaw, I'll clear that parcel out back Friday afternoon for 150 bucks...hey 'Tommy', I'll give you and your roommate 25 bucks each to help me cut down a few trees...
Keep your eyes peeled, your ears open and there are 10 ways to make a buck right in front of you!

I was probably one of the few guys I knew back then, putting money in the bank while pulling 15-18 hrs. a semester,
...and STILL making 150-200 jumps a year!

Another jumper and I used our school loans as a down payment for a house in town that we fixed up and rented rooms out making the payments...my 'housing costs' were the interest on a school loan!

For years my folks talked about my not only actually graduating college 'without any felonies', but buying a new car with cash the day I got that sheepskin.


Working hard is fine and noble, working smart is loads more fun!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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[ntrprnr 0]

That is one of the best posts I've EVER, EVER read on DZ.com. Well said, Air.

_______________
"Why'd you track away at 7,000 feet?"
"Even in freefall, I have commitment issues."