Mark I'll say its hard to save for several reasons but I''ll outline a few since the last decade or so has been spent talking to guys between 20-30 years old.
1) You barely finish High School because as you know our schools are under performing at unprecedented levels. You take whatever jobs you can get, a study recently done by Stony Broke University said in cites like Los Angeles you need to make $30,000 a year to live economically unstressed. These are the people unofficially under-employed in California.
If you make less how do those ends ever met? You live at home with your parents, saving that $700-$1500 in rent every month. But after a certain age that's socially unacceptable. All your friends are conformist so they constantly harp on you that you need to your own place. In the meantime that money you've saved on rent allow you to buy a more expensive car.
This is what Winston is talking about. Americans are not taught at a young enough age to save money or how the banking system really works. You need to get back to encouraging savings, not just when the economy hits the fan but before that. When the crisis hit, the savings rate of Americans was below Zero.
2) A culture of fear. The Neo-Cons have built up a successful "War of Nerves" (taken from Capt Scarlet) and have many Americans scared of their own shadow. Traveling overseas is something to be feared, not embraced. This leads to the hand holding done by some companies.
The specter of the Professional Dater and Scam Artist rears its head here as well. Men get cheated all sorts of ways and don't noticed but are concerned about some woman overseas is going to take them to the cleaners? The women only ask for what they believe they can get. The problem is Men are looking to curry favor pay whatever the price is. Women talk or do men forget this? If one woman brags that an American took her on a expensive shopping trip to some of the best shops in Kiev or Moscow, don't you think other unscrupulous women will think, Hmmm?
3) Back to savings for a second. Okay so you move out of Mom and Pops around 25. You make a little more money, but in the meantime, your auto insurance has gone up, your rent as increased (you don't live in Santa Monica or Hollywood, rent control), food has gone up, fuel has increased. So basically what little wage increase you got is swallowed up by these increases in personal expenses.
But Western Women (American/Canadian) won't date you if you live at home. Having done this myself, I say is that REALLY a penalty? What are you missing. If you listen to the apologist of American Culture, they also seem to believe the problem is YOU. You for not making enough money, for not having a more expensive car, for not living in the right part of town.
Turning to prostitution isn't the answer either, but you shouldn't have to go sexless which I believe some people expect out of you in America if your single. Muthafuckers are surprised the increase in how many men are turning to internet porn and not even willing to screw the girlfriends they already have.
So let's do a cost comparison shall we:
David Wygant's Dating Boot Camp For Men -
http://www.davidwygant.com/group-bootca ... php?bc=ny1
$2497 and this is to help those men that need help landing women in so-called vulnerable places like the supermarket, book store or just out and about.
If all you want is to date random woman and have sex every so often, I say why even spend that? Book regular trips to South America, Asia or Western Europe.
When I went to Europe and landed in Germany, the first thing I did was hit an P4P. I hadn't had sex in over a year. That was after I met the Norwegian woman and got rejected (by SMS). I was sure I was going to tag that, I had built up the desire to have sex. When that didn't happen and after a trip to Sweden to meet another woman that turned out was even worst, I had to get some trim.
But by the time I left Europe, I was good on the sex front. I had banged so much; I went to P4P's or RLD almost every other day for the final 10-15 days not including going to Ukraine where I took care of business too.
Don't judge until you've done it. Its all likelihood you're never have sex with women that look this good....
Mark is asked for $4,000 or just under that. I assume this covers you're entire trip, unlike AFA where I have to find a way to JFK to even take the trip, its not included in the cost, so going with AFA might as well cost $4,000 unless you live in the NYC, Philly or Boston, all within driving distance of New York.
Mark you might want to consider a payment plan to help younger men and those without the means to plunk down $4,000 to be able to go. Especially if they avoid dating in America for a year, they should have plenty of money. I would also encourage some men to break habits such as heavy smoking and heavy drinking, these are unseen cost of living expenses that many people don't take into account.
I think we can count on some minimums such as $1,200 for K-1. When people tell you its "Priceless" it cost them alot of money they are ashamed to admit they spent. I would always say if that question came up, it cost X amount and it was the best X amount I ever SPENT! Trust me, the typical person spent two or three times as much to get nothing at all or worst an unhappy marriage.
So if the back end cost are basically fixed, the only thing you can do it is control the front end.
Human Nature always enters in this as well, I think I've learned my lesson but many men haven't. Its okay to compromise, but only up to a point. For example I could accept that Tanja was 32 at the time, but I couldn't quite accept being a instant father. Sometimes I think I should have accepted that, but other times I think I only say that because I haven't had sex since I left Germany (not including trips to Mexico) and haven't had a long term relationship in eleven years.
Mark I am not harping on the cost thing as much as you think. I'm looking at this from a position of an unemployed student in his 4 week of A+/Network + classes.
Everything looks expensive...