One Investment That Doesn’t Keep Me Up at Night
Call me whatever you want, but I’m very, very reluctant to invest money. I have zero risk tolerance. In fact, if truth be told, I hate to hand my money to the bankstahs.
I will never forget the 2008 crash.
Although I didn’t lose any money, I had many friends who did. Some were on the verge of retirement and it really set them back.
Others lost their homes. Ugh!
It feels kind of ridiculous and naive to hand my life’s savings to the likes of Bank of America or Wells Fargo. The too big to fail institutions can afford to be careless with my money. After all, the government will bail them out by simply giving them more of my money.
Needless to say, I’m not crazy about banks.
I use local banks and credit unions because I must. I’m not willing to hide money in my home or dig a hole in the backyard and bury it in the ground either. There are just too many things that can go wrong, including someone trying to steal it. Bankstahs aren’t the only all-American thieves.
Turns out there’s always someone hoping to get their hands on my money.
I know there’s a ton of people who love to play the stock market and a growing number who love investing in crypto currency. I’m not one of those either. It feels strange to have my money disappear into the internet world, a place where I could never walk into a building and talk to a live human being if something went wrong.
I’m old fashioned like that.
The stock market has always felt like gambling to me. I didn’t lose any money in the big 2008 crash because my 401k investments were ultra conservtive. Sure, I didn’t make the money my friends made who were willing to take a risk, but I didn’t lose a penny either.
That was just me being me.
If you’ve got money that you’re willing to risk, go for it. I’ll freely admit that we may even start out with the same amount of money and you’ll end up with more than me. If so, I’ll give you credit for riding the wave. I’m just not cut out for the ride myself.
So what am I comfortable doing?
More and more, if I have a little money to spare, I buy land, a hard asset that will always be there. An investment that I can touch, stand on, look at, visit, smell, and picture even when I’m back home.
I prefer raw land not real estate property with houses and buildings on it to take care of, however.
And, I limit myself to land that is predicted to be a future prime property due to climate change. You know, someplace where severe weather, drought, and fires won’t be so likely. A house lot or a few acres that people will migrate to down the road.
I probably should keep my mouth shut at this point.
The move to claim these properties is beginning to pick up. I’ve seen the price of my land go up significantly in the last two years. And, yes, I’m aware that land value goes up and down just like the stock market or bank rates. Apparently, there’s no investments that are 100% guaranteed.
If there were, trust me, that’s where I’d be storing my change.
There are no financial guarantees in life, but I finally found a place to invest my money where it doesn't end up making me lose sleep.
I’m just not cut out for that.
My land purchases are simpler than those of Ted Turner or Bill Gates. Both tycoons are buying oodles of land like it’s a limited commodity that will always be in demand.
I’m very small potatoes. I know that.
Yet, I have grown to love scrolling though the internet looking for scraps of property where I can bury my money in the ground. Not literally, of course, merely figuratively.
Buying land is the closest that I’ll ever come to burying money in the ground without actually picking up a shovel.
And, even though I plan on leaving this land to my children and granddaughter as a hedge against the ravages of future climate change effects, I do enjoy stepping into my dirt bank on a beautiful autumn day and walking the boundaries. It feels primordial and authentic.
Plus, the prepper in me and the old hippie diehard really enjoys owning a piece of nature that remains largely untouched.
I love to visit the wooded lots I own and just kick back and listen to the birds while watching wild turkeys and deer. It makes me feel connected in a way that plain old cash in hand fails to do.
Land has multiple purposes beyond monetary value as well. You can’t eat money if you catch my drift.
When I’m alone in the woods, I always feel like raising my arms to the sky in a big warm salute to my grandparents who had huge gardens, and canned and preserved food most of their lives. Here’s to you, Nini and Pop. I haven’t forgotten what you taught me. You were right.
Land really IS priceless and so is a good night’s sleep.
Teresa Roberts is a retired educator, author, world traveler, and professional myth buster. You can find her books on Amazon.
