I completly understand what your going through because i was there myself... i bought snakes, using money from my job but every pay check i would put like $50 in an envelope, and put that in my sock drawer. then finally after 2 years i had roughly $5000 to start my collection but along they way i did purchase lots of normale female some about 400g to 2500g i had about 10 of them and had them in 20 gallon fish tanks growing them up and big.. then after the 2 years i had 10 ready to breed females the samllest one being 1300g and bought wood and built a rack to house my snakes, but before that I sat down and priced everything i was going to buy so i can figure out the size of this rack, finally deciding i built the rack, bought the thermostate and all the tubs. so now left with about $4100 i went to shows in canada, bought from a breeder in new york, and some from montreal. so this was like 1 1/2 years ago, so now i have lots of snakes and basically funded most of my other aniimals and racks and food from breeding those normals with co dom males and selling them to local pet shops and reptile stores, and i also advertised on my local classifieds online.. and basically made my money back and bought more, and i bought a safe and now i keep all snake maney in that safe along with the het papers, and all old records of my snakes.. but i dont consider these animals as a business investment, but more like pets, most have names...