Still going through the process of purchasing my little chunk of dirt. How am I financing it, you might ask. Well, ever since I got out of school I’ve had a different relationship with money. I’ve been sticking aside as much as I could and invested almost all of it. I also bought as much gold and silver as I could, consistently, over the years. Now, before anyone gets their aluminum foil panties in a twist about selling precious metals instead of hoarding them for the upcoming apocalypse, thats a completely separate stash. I set aside gold and silver specifically for the land purchase.
How’d that strategy work out? Honestly, fairly well. Most of the gold I’m selling is going out at about 60-100% more than I paid for it. Does this mean gold and silver were good investments? Well…compared to what? $1000 of silver five years ago, sold at todays price, gives a far better return than if that money were invested in anything else. However, you have to admit, the last decade has been nothing if not pretty wild and unpredictable. Also, I made it point to only buy gold when I could get it at spot, rather than pay hefty premiums. As a result, my gold stash is a wild mix of mints and weights….coronas, ducats, roosters, generics, rand, pesos, etc. But…theyre all gold and thats all that matters. The end result is that it winds up, on paper, shaving off a good $10k+ chunk off the purchase price.
So was it a good investment? In this case, I’d say so. But that doesn’t mean I’d do precious metals as my main form of investing. Candidly, the vast majority of my investing is dividend stocks, then covered calls, and then buy-and-hold equities (looking at you KO). But Im also a really pessimistic guy so I also put money into cash and precious metals. (You could argue I invest in guns but its only an investment if you actually sell them.)
But, as diligent as I’ve been, I was still just a wee bit short and had to borrow a small amount from a friend who offered it. It galls me to have to borrow money but on the bright side its a pretty small amount ($30k),,and I should have that wrapped up fairly quickly. So, on the bright side, I’ve no banks to deal with or their attendant nuisance procedures.
The financial part of this adventure has been a bit of an experience as well. I kinda sorta proved to myself that, even on a rather lower-middle class income, I can manage to live a life where I can get some money in the bank. And it isn’t just a matter of saving for the land purchase. I have to have enough in the bank so that even after pulling out the money for the purchase, I still have enough to generate dividend income, cover emergencies, cover other emergencies, pay taxes, have retirement, etc, etc. Not the easiest thing in the world but so far I seem to have done an okay job with it.
OLGAX (with just a dash of timing). Or just let it sit if that is more your style.
And cases of Campbell’s “soup”. Pseudo-meat or not, I love me some Chunky Chili Mac.
Great analysis and great strategy! A good short-to-intermediate term goal is to pay off the 30K note as quickly as possible (given all the other priorities) unless the lender is using that loan to augment his income stream and is ok with letting it ride for a while. Congratulations and great job on putting your dream into motion.
Sounds like you’ve played your cards very well on this. We’re happy for you and rooting for you.
I’ll say again that I think the best first move on bare land is to put up an inexpensive two-car steel garage and park a camper in one side. Then you have a secure base for everything that follows.
Sounds like a good plan overall.
Sounds like a plan! The boom in gold and silver worked for your advantage. It’s great to only owe $30k, hopefully with lower interest. After you pay him off you will be sitting pretty and ready for the big $. How big a house are you considering? Anything unusual? (with secret passages, and basement tunnels to the woodland?) Yeah I know, OPSEC! Hopefully you have some goodies planned!
Id love to have all the bells and whistles, but for financial purposes it won’t be anything dramatic. (Although I like to think it will be capable of accepting upgrades to dramatic.) I was wanting something along the lines of a 20×20 two story structure. Something akin to these – https://www.commanderzero.com/?p=11628
That could be secure AND beautiful.
Since I got oldish, two story with stairs aren’t nearly as appealing anymore. Maybe a dumb waiter type elevator addition to help get heavy stuff up and down could alleviate some of that issue.
I hope you’re forever healthy but don’t bet on it.
Kudos for a successful plan.
I think selling some gold was a good call. Nothing wrong with selling one tangible asset to buy another. Plus, land is much harder to steal or confiscate.
Land is very easy to steal or confiscate – just ask any American Indian or farmer. Unlike land, precious metals are portable, easy to hide and carry no counterparty risk.
Congrats on things going well!
I take it that, before selling portions of your PM’s you sorted through to get rid of much of the “Nonstandard” coins and weights to ensure that what you kept is as homogeneous as possible?
It would make them easier to trade after the fall.
Best of luck!
The majority of my silver is (was) in 1 oz. generic bars. I did the math and the I can store more bars in the same space than rounds. However, rounds have a nice storage advanatage when it comes to PVC – https://www.commanderzero.com/?p=11981
PVC will sweat, causing condensation and damage. I prefer .50 cal ammo cans and they hold 36 tubes of 20 for 720 ounces.
This is a youtube video by Steve Marsh and his wife from Zermatt Switzerland at the base of the Matterhorn. If you watch from the 3:53-4:12 mark and 11:24-13:36 mark you may like seeing some of the old construction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXI-471hlZA