What would you do with $200,000?

Oh my...first I would find me some land back home in Arkansas...5acres...get a cozy mobile home... then start working on getting the tools that I will need to work this small piece of land...oh goats to help clear the land with me..... I dream of the day I get my little farm..

If I had $200K... I would stick it someplace safe and then spend a year or so (working for the while) deciding what to do. If homesteading/buying land is your goal, spend AT LEAST a year after you have the money looking and planning and budgeting. Any decisions you make quickly are likely to end up being more costly than planned. Don't buy the first thing you love!
And if homesteading is your goal- for that money you might want to focus on places without bitter winters, because housing can be built/rebuilt/fixed more cheaply if it doesn't need to hold up to below zero temps.

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They shall all sit under their own vines and their own fig trees, and they shall live in peace and unafraid. Mica 4:4

Where are those vacant acres?

I'd get as far away from where I am now as fast as I could.

Eastern TN
NE GA
Western NC
NW SC
That's where I would start looking.

A steam large enough I could harness it's power, but not the Mississippi!
Small home.
Barn for chickens, goats, cows.
"Servant's Quarters"
Long, well hidden driveway (woods)
Clearing for pasture and garden, the rest, woods.

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I am sure of two things: There is a God, and I am not Him.
The movie Rudy

Hey, thanks for all of the good info, everyone. I guess I wasn't that super clear in what I was fishing for!

I've been lightly reading/researching homesteading and off-grid living for the last five years or so. Now, as it approaches a potential reality, I really want to figure out whether or not it's an adventure I want to take. The thing is, I am separated from my children's mother. We've been living together for a while, despite this, and when she gets her RN in 2017 we're going to actually start living separately, too. At that time, I should have my $200,000 (if not a bit more).

So, I'm specifically wondering things like:
1. What geographic region do you prefer for farming? Why? What are the potential disadvantages of living/farming in that area?
2. What crops would you want to grow to be able to sustain yourself and have some excess? What animals would you keep and why?
3. Would you use any permaculture techniques? I'm thinking hugelkulture, but I have no idea! I really like the idea of having a partially closed loop - the waste that I produce on the farm goes right back into feeding it and keeping the annual cycle of growth and nourishment going.
4. Obviously I can't get everything I need by myself. I do have some experience with building basic furniture, woodcarving, sewing, etc, so I can avoid having to buy LOTS of stuff - I'm willing to trade / barter for what I don't already have, and I'm willing to keep a part time job of 15-20 hours a week to have some sort of income.

What I'm hoping to gather from the rest of your replies is enough information to start putting together a blue print. Then, over the next few years, I'll hopefully work out most of the kinks and no what I'm going for.

As far as prepping for a potential, eventual retirement - yes, I plan on having more than $200,000 by working an additional two years or so while I get to my land in the evenings and weekends to really learn my property, figure out where I would like to build a small cabin, clear some area for farming/pasturing (if necessary), etc. That extra money will be invested (companies like Proctor and Gamble, Johnson and Johnson, Unilever, etc. They're about as recession proof as it gets (people still shower and brush their teeth even when they're out of work)).

So, anyway, hoping to get some more replies! Thanks for everything so far.

Hey, thanks for all of the good info, everyone. I guess I wasn't that super clear in what I was fishing for!

I've been lightly reading/researching homesteading and off-grid living for the last five years or so. Now, as it approaches a potential reality, I really want to figure out whether or not it's an adventure I want to take. The thing is, I am separated from my children's mother. We've been living together for a while, despite this, and when she gets her RN in 2017 we're going to actually start living separately, too. At that time, I should have my $200,000 (if not a bit more).

So, I'm specifically wondering things like:
1. What geographic region do you prefer for farming? Why? What are the potential disadvantages of living/farming in that area?
2. What crops would you want to grow to be able to sustain yourself and have some excess? What animals would you keep and why?
3. Would you use any permaculture techniques? I'm thinking hugelkulture, but I have no idea! I really like the idea of having a partially closed loop - the waste that I produce on the farm goes right back into feeding it and keeping the annual cycle of growth and nourishment going.
4. Obviously I can't get everything I need by myself. I do have some experience with building basic furniture, woodcarving, sewing, etc, so I can avoid having to buy LOTS of stuff - I'm willing to trade / barter for what I don't already have, and I'm willing to keep a part time job of 15-20 hours a week to have some sort of income.

What I'm hoping to gather from the rest of your replies is enough information to start putting together a blue print. Then, over the next few years, I'll hopefully work out most of the kinks and no what I'm going for.

As far as prepping for a potential, eventual retirement - yes, I plan on having more than $200,000 by working an additional two years or so while I get to my land in the evenings and weekends to really learn my property, figure out where I would like to build a small cabin, clear some area for farming/pasturing (if necessary), etc. That extra money will be invested (companies like Proctor and Gamble, Johnson and Johnson, Unilever, etc. They're about as recession proof as it gets (people still shower and brush their teeth even when they're out of work)).

So, anyway, hoping to get some more replies! Thanks for everything so far.

Sadly, this is why most folks end up scraping along in their "golden" years. You can believe all this silliness about how "scary" and "dangerous" it is to invest, and end up like massive numbers of 60 + Y.O folks in this country, with very little in the bank, and no choice but to hope that SS and medicare are enough to get by on. Don't worry, you won't be alone, thirty eight million sixty year old americans have exactly zero saved for retirement, at the moment.
OTOH, you could educate yourself about investing, learn how to put small amounts away in VERY low cost, low risk, extremely well balanced funds (VANGUARD comes to mind) and find that, well before retirement, you are earning an impressive income from your investments.
As for the "Russian Roulette silliness, my retirement funds have grown tremendously since 2009, and they are ALL conservatively invested in balanced funds. It's nice to be able to walk away at 50 YO, while most of my fellow business owners have either gone broke in the recent depression, or are well aware that they will be working until they physically can no longer. Investment returns are far from a miracle, but it's what get's you and future generations of your family out of being wage slaves in a globalized race to the bottom.

Very cool! This confirms some of my research - TN/NC/SC/NE GA are all places in good agricultural zones - zone 8, I think? Where would you start looking for land? I've been browsing sites like landwatch.com, but I've found that a lot of the listings are years out of date. Thanks for your help!

How very sad. I'm sorry.

Somewhere where winter is short, and not harsh.
Disadvantage could be searing hot / dry summers.

The usual garden fare, fruit trees and bushes. Canning, dehydrating, etc the extra.
Chickens for meat, and eggs.
Cow's. Milk and meat, butter, etc.

Not sure how to answer this.

Where do the children factor into this plan?

__________________
I am sure of two things: There is a God, and I am not Him.
The movie Rudy

I'm not an expert in the market, because I've never actually invested. But I have done a lot of research and used one of the fantasy traders that mirror the real market. Basically, if you're truly diversified (as you mentioned with the Vanguard fund), and you're willing to wait for the long haul... you're almost guaranteed to come out ahead. Some years you might gain 15%, and others you might lose a few percentage points... but in the end, it all balances out to just about 10%.

If we have a SHTF or EOTWAWKI situation you might truly lose it all... but then, would any of that even matter any more?

-Stev

And lots of water rights issues. Stay east of the Mississippi

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Apocalyptic and Survival Fiction - Readers and writers welcome

In the real world I would pay off all my debts, then take the last few bucks and through a party. In the imaginary starting out world described by the OP I would come to Ky, buy a nice little homestead with a decent house, 20 to 50 acres or so, then take about 8k and buy myself a tractor, bushhog, some hay equipment and put the other 140k in the bank and shop around for investment opportunities for it. That much should pick up several rental houses which would provide a decent income.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

@Laura Zone 5: That's a good question about the kids, and it's something I am really considering. By the time I can do this they'll all be a little bit older (10, 8, and 5). I want to have enough land that they'll all be able to build their own homes on my property after they finish college... this will allow them to truly pursue whatever they want instead of having to worry about whether or not their degree is going to provide them crazy money. Then, some day, I'll be able to pass it on to them allowing their eventual families a similar level of comfort.

There's a lot of thinking, planning, meditating, and heart ache that needs to take place before this becomes a reality. But, it's something I've always wanted to do... and being able to buy a place and live mortgage free is a real priority for me. I owned a house in Northern Virginia (DC area). Traditional FHA loan... until the 30 years were up I'd have spent more in interest than I paid for the house. Eventually lost it when the owner of the small company I worked for decided he wanted to downsize and my position as GM was eliminated. I'm not risking that again! Between down payments and mortgage payments I basically threw away $75,000.

Hey, Yvonne's Hubby!

Good points. In the real world I've completely lost everything that I had before. I've already filed for bankruptcy and started to reestablish my credit. I'm looking at potentially starting a new tech job making about $60k a year in the next month. I have a part time job that, combined with my ex wife's income, pays all of the bills and leaves us with about $250 extra each month.

So, basically, my imaginary scenario is a very real scenario! I'm just trying to figure out whether or not I can do this with $200,000... or if I need to wait a few extra years and have $300,000 to $350,000.

I know I can get most of the tools I need second hand - hand tools can be acquired at flea markets, garage and yard sales, and from all sorts of other places. Texican has taught me that I can get very expensive machinery from government liquidation auctions. If there aren't crazy building restrictions I can use salvage yards, participate in demolition projects, etc, and use reclaimed materials for a lot of the construction. If the weather permits it, I can even use earth-bag building (http://calearth.org/) to build a 1000 square foot home for well under $20,000. Depending on how reliant I want to be on "modern amenities" I could mimic a solar system I found at mother earth news for less than $1,000... if the creek/stream is adequate, I could scrap that idea and go hydroelectric, which I like better, because I could then learn how to "redneck engineer" my own equipment if we ever hit a EOTWAWKI situation.

Anyway, this is all very tentative, in the planning stages, and subject to unlimited revisions at this time. I opened up the conversation because I want to get as much input from all of you experienced folks as possible.

Thanks a million!

The prudent investor would see the situation coming and move his money.

I'm talking about the 'right now'.
Will your 'dream' supersede your *right now* responsibility to the children?
Working 10-15 hours a week, no way you can support them and sustain yourself.
No way you can build a relationship with them, and live in another state in the woods.
10-8-5, those are still 'babies'.
They have no concept of 'future'.


I would spend more time planning, thinking, meditating on what's best for the children if you and your wife cannot work things out.

You are not your own.
You have 3 children.
Buying a place and being mortgage free is everyone's dream
Lot's of folks work to make it a reality.
BUT don't allow your kids to be 'collateral damage' so you can fulfill YOUR dream.

That is not a unique situation. Everyone who takes out a 30 and pays it for 30 always pays 2-3x more than the buying price of the home because of interest.

Quote:

Eventually lost it when the owner of the small company I worked for decided he wanted to downsize and my position as GM was eliminated.

Very telling statement.

I think your VERY FIRST and most important thoughts should be 100% centered and focused on the children, their well being, their welfare, their needs.

__________________
I am sure of two things: There is a God, and I am not Him.
The movie Rudy

[QUOTE=Stev;6665752
I owned a house in Northern Virginia (DC area). Traditional FHA loan... until the 30 years were up I'd have spent more in interest than I paid for the house. Eventually lost it when the owner of the small company I worked for decided he wanted to downsize and my position as GM was eliminated. I'm not risking that again! Between down payments and mortgage payments I basically threw away $75,000.[/QUOTE]


Stev, you're not thinking of this in the proper context. No matter whether you owned the house or not, you would have had to live somewhere and would have had to either make a loan payment or rent payment, so think of that $75,000 NOT as lost, but as rent.

Property taxes and interest on a loan, no matter, there is no free lunch. All that money is gone, no matter how it was spent.

Thanks. These are all things that I am considering while piecing all of this together. My children ARE my first priority. The oldest is about to start kindergarten... and because of the time that we've put in with her she can already read, perform addition and subtraction with 2 digit numbers, and even do some basic multiplication. The three year old isn't much behind. The baby still only knows "feed me, change me, wah, wah, wah! :-)"

When we lived in Virginia their mom required at least a weekly 200 mile trek back to PA to visit. Sometimes I'd have to make the trip twice in a week. Long distance driving isn't a problem for me... but with a farm I can't expect to be able to do that often... unless I have help that I can trust. There's a lot of things that I need to get sorted out before I dive into any of this, and it's all currently several years away.

What I'm really concerned about, though, is the long term. My parents were ridiculously short sighted. They didn't worry about "the now" as far as I was concerned. I once pointed out that I wanted to take piano lessons, which would be incredibly convenient, since my sister was already going for them. My mom's response was "I already spend too much god ----ed time sitting and waiting for her to finish, you're not getting them." Okay! They also had no concept of our future - no college savings for either of us, no real estate that will gain any value to pass on to us, etc.

I'm trying to do things in a way where I not only take care of my children, but also any future generations they may produce. Like most parents... I want to make it easier for them, their children, and maybe even their own. I hope to do that by providing some sorts of assets while also teaching a ----ed solid work ethic, frugality, and the value of self-reliance.

The potential distance is currently the only thing that I'm wrestling with. When it comes to getting a part time job of 15-20 hours a week, I think that I should be able to do so and still make $30-$40,000 a year... my trade is IT, and I've got a background in sales, marketing, and management, too... with enough time and searching those are skills that someone would be willing to pay me for!

Anyway, I don't want the thread to get totally derailed, so let's get back to planning a homestead from scratch with $200,000!

ummm, where are you finding a house with 20 to 50 acres and a barn (for the equipment) for $52,000?

If I had continued to rent my total outlay would have been $33,600 - $45,000 (the condo was $1,400, with utilities it was often under $2,000 total per month). Of course, I couldn't have predicted that the owner would have decided to retard the growth of his company... when I bought the house he and I were talking about how we were going to grow it. If I had continued saving up until I could buy something with cash then I wouldn't have lost the house. It's a lot easier to cover a few thousand dollars in taxes than a few tens of thousands of dollars in mortgage payments... even with a retail job.

But, as I mentioned elsewhere, the thread has kind of gotten derailed - I didn't mean for this to be about me so much as being about a "from-scratch plan to build a homestead."