Buy land young man!

What a great few days! We had all of our children home for a long weekend. We just bid John goodbye as he left for Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi this morning to begin his flight training. Never gets easier to send them off. I wish him godspeed as he goes to serve and protect this chosen land.

In a discussion the other night I shared with my kids my idea for what they ought to do investment-wise as they graduate from college and begin to earn the big bucks! I had earlier thought to suggest that they put as much money as possible into traditional investments, but suddenly I felt to encourage them to do something different--invest money in a tangible asset--BUY LAND. As the old saying goes, "They aren't making anymore of it". It is something you can walk on, build on, garden on...in short, sustain yourself on. It can still be bought for a very reasonable price in our area and it is very productive land. I truly believe that the value of land will increase over time but if not I know that its value cannot go to zero, it has an intrinsic value and can be used to produce increasingly valuable commodities.  The same can't be said for money invested in other retirement or saving vehicles. As the famous Western colonizer and church leader, Brigham Young, said, "The day will come that gold will hold no value in comparison to a bushel of wheat". I believe in hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. I HOPE that life as we know it goes on as normal, but my gut tells me to PREPARE for some big changes in the near future. I think we are seeing some of those changes already.

I'm sure I am not the only one who has noticed the rocketing food prices as of late. I read an article recently that really got my attention. The canneries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, long known for their very high quality, inexpensive basic foodstuffs, have had to raise their prices by 11 to 49%---since January of this year! That floored me. My wife told me the other day that we spend as much money now on food with just the 4 of us at home as we did not too long ago when all three of my boys were at home also. We haven't changed our eating habits or preferences, food is just that much more expensive. Here in the breadbasket of America we are paying over $3.80 for a gallon of 2% milk. I truly believe that food, or more specifically the scarcity of it, will be the greatest problem of the coming hard times.

I'll share some of my specific ideas of the food issue in future posts.