Hey everyone,

I am just curious as to where people get, or have gotten, money to start, retain and expand their collections. I have the drive to start expanding now, and I am having a hard time keeping myself away from it, since I know I should wait until I have more permanent housing, but it is not too early to figure out the best ways to go about getting ready for it.

Basically, how did you all have enough money to start-up a considerable collection. Did you treat it as a business investment that happened to fall into a hobby/passion of yours (maybe fooling yourself saying it is a business investment to give yourself an excuse to buy more snakes? ), or did it really start out slow with only a couple new snakes a year, and you just bred when you could.

Feel free to be lengthy, I like hearing people's stories, and hopefully it will help me figure out what would be best for me.

Also, on another note....not just the collections themselves is what interests me....as much, if not more, than the snakes themselves, I am wondering how people expanded their "tools of the trade" (racks, incubators, tstats, random instruments, etc). This is another problem plaguing me. When I do have the money....do I build a rack, get a tstat, etc....then fill it when more money comes around again....or get some snakes and put them in single tubs like what I am doing now so they get up to size sooner, then when everything is really ready to go, spring for the rest. Timewise, this seems better b/c I become satisfied with more snakes earlier, but I waste money on tubs that wont be used in the rack (most likely) and UTH's.

Sorry for the length