Everyone has their own reasons for wanting a piece of land.

You need to clearly understand your motivations before you buy.  Why do you want the land?

I’m going to lean on Allan Savory’s Holistic Resource Management book, which points out that you need to have specific goals for your life.  Understand the goals and what it takes to make them happen.  Choose your land accordingly.

I’ll explain who I am and my goals so that you can understand some of the factors that led to my purchase.

At the highest level, my goal is to provide a happy, healthy environment for my family, friends and me.

I’m

• a family man.  I have mouths to feed, clothe, keep healthy and protect from the elements.
• self-employed.  My income isn’t guaranteed.  BTW, neither is yours, even if you’re employed.

My work has made me an expert in mitigating risks, having a backup plan.

Right now, things are good for me, but I know that could change in a minute.  How can I meet my goals when the future is uncertain?

I look at my income stream and I see peaks and valleys.  I served in the military for 8 years.  The income was steady but low, I was under the poverty line for most of that time.  My income after the military would boom and bust.  The .com bust left me laid off after making very good money.  A couple years later, I would shed my good, steady paying job for contract work.

One way is to have money.

With enough money, you can be debt free and meet all your goals.  Unfortunately, if you don’t have money, getting it can be difficult.  Earning money is a series of events that starts with you working and ends with you receiving remuneration.  The process of earning money can be broken easily.  Each event is vulnerable.  You might become ill, the costs to do your work may increase or your customer/employer may disappear.

Another way: reduce the need for money.

There are things that can be cut out of a family budget.  Unless you are spending outrageously or are paying on a lot of debt, there’s a limited amount of reduction to be done.  You’ll find that moving something off your budget will end up incurring a cost elsewhere.

A third option:  produce a lot of what you consume to get off the hamster wheel.  This choice means more work for you and takes more time to get what you want.  You can go to a store and buy a 3 lb. bag of potatoes for around $3.  You can also buy one potato, let it sit until it grows “eyes”, cut it into chunks, plant and cultivate them and end up with 15 lb.s of potatoes after 6 or 7 months.

Now this option may cost more in the end.  What does it cost you to cultivate?  Do you pay for the water?  How much time did you spend?  No matter what method you use to procure potatoes, you’re spending time and/or money and/or your effort.  The difference is that you get to choose what you’re spending.

I think it’s worth it to spend the extra effort, time and money to attempt to raise my own food and meet other needs.  It’s going to cost me more money than if I just buy my food but I’ll have a little insurance against a time when I may not have much income.