Great post, Duritz. I hope that most forumites take the time to reflect on all that you have said there in a very long post. A mighty lot of wisdom!!

I particularly liked the words of experience based on your father's and grandfather's endeavours. Unfortunately, most(?) of us I am afraid think that if we could only 'crack' some system it would be the end of our problems. Just pie in the sky.

Of course, this is not to say that some can just see this as an enjoyable way to spend some leisure time. More power to them . But for those who hope to make it the basis of some future life style, there is the need, as they say, to 'put in the hard yards'.