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Shane's Domain Auction Picks for Monday January 26th

Shane's Domain Auction Picks for Monday January 26th

Shane Cultra
January 26, 2026

I’ve lived in the same house for 23 years. Early on, I decided there were three easy paths to wealth: financial wealth and wealth of time.

1. Live close to work.

I refused to waste precious hours of my day driving to work. I realize that housing is not always close to work. Proximity is something I was willing to spend extra for, or if fortunate, the same. Thirty minutes or an hour a day both ways is a ridiculous amount of time to give up. That is 365 hours I could spend on something much more meaningful than sitting in a car. I could work on a project, spend it with my family, or have a side project.

Over 30 years of talking to my employees, every single one added their drive time to the amount they felt they worked. If they drove an hour and worked 8, they felt they were working 9 hours a day. They were giving me 8, not 9, but it verified my thoughts. I built a house down the road from the nursery. Not at the nursery on my land, because that would be the opposite. Then I would always be at work.

2. Build a home that was the size I needed. No bigger.

It is a waste of money. I would rather have a nice house or nice furniture than rooms I never used. I still built too big. I thought I would have a bigger family, but often you do not get to choose how many kids you get. I am grateful for my one.

This also kept me from moving 3 or 4 times into a “better” home. I have a beautiful home, and rather than go bigger or spend more money, I simply improved or modernized what I have for much less cost.

3. Buy quality things once rather than replacing things more often, and do not buy things you will use temporarily.

The amount of junk I see in people’s homes is alarming. I see people who cannot even park in their garage because it has so much stuff.

My furniture is much more expensive than most furniture, but it gets better with age. The designs are timeless and last decades. We do not have a million knickknacks. The lack of driving to work also lets our cars last a decade. The only reason we’ve replaced cars is better tech rather than wearing out. Our lower mileage sales have led to great resale value. I laugh at the price we get for our used Subarus.

None of this is living miserly. I splurge when I want to splurge. Yet add up all the savings over 30 to 40 years and it is literally an extra million when you compound the savings.

People get so caught up in appearing to be wealthy. Image is so important to many. I am fortunate that in my area, the farmers are the wealthiest people and they look like farmers. The guy in the dirty pants and the ballcap probably has 10 million in land and equipment and thousands of acres. No need to flaunt it or worry about if others thought you were doing well.

The way you talk and carry yourself is more important than a Rolex on your arm or the car you got out of. I like a nice Rolex, but find myself wearing it 10 days a year. My Garmin is much more practical.

This is my opinion, but it was an opinion that has served me well when I finally got to middle age.

Quote of the Day: “Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.” -Benjamin Franklin

Domain of the Day:GLP1.org Can’t think of a bigger product in the world right now

Please Note: The list below contains affiliate links and/or names that have been posted for a fee. It is how we pay for our time since it is a free site. More details at bottom of page. Can go to any of the auctions by adding the names at the end like this one