Homestead mailing list

[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

>> Today, real estate and stock market investments smell like hog manure.  
> Long-term, they still make sense for most people. If for no other  
> reason, they tend to keep up with inflation.

The stock market peaked in 1929 then crashed.  So here's the question, don't 
peek (don't peek the peak).  How long did it take for the stock market to 
recover just the point it had been in 1929 just before it crashed?



It reached 391 again in 1957.   It took 28 years.   That's not to say people 
didn't make money on stocks during those 28 years.  But someone holding 
stocks 
in 1929 in a bid to thwart inflation had a 28 year wait just to have the same 
effect as if they had stuffed the money in a mattress.

How many on this can wait 28 years for their money just to break even?

The real danger, though, is this:  some stocks went completely belly up, 
evaporated.   It's rather mild stuff compared to what is going on right now 
but 
check the rental stores or such for flick Startup.com.   It shows the insides 
of 
a startup company that had $50 million on paper but a few weeks later 
evaporated completely into nothing.  If you have investments in such things 
(like 
today's wind farms and such) and it doesn't pan out, you lose everything.  

Real estate bids fair to be the same sort of thing.  The next big debacle to 
come on the public radar is commercial real estate.  Where ever you are, look 
around at the new, never been occupied, strip malls and office buildings.  
Never been occupied and never will be occupied.  Same is true of may of the 
houses built over the past five years ... never will be occupied.  Besides 
the 
ground they sit on, they are a dead loss.



> 
> >So don't be blindsided by those who emphasize the obvious negatives.  
> Plan long-term.

I'm not sure what 'emphasize' or 'negatives' precisely mean here, but I'd 
have to ask how all that Pollyanna blather, not dwelling on the negative, 
worked 
out with real estate.  Now THAT's blindsiding!



> 
> >I don't see that much has changed for those of us with a homesteader  
> mentality. Long-term planning includes getting a piece of good and  
> secure land with low taxes and acquiring skills and tools, learning to  
> be happy with the less-expensive things in life.
> 

Now this is the crux of the matter and quite right.  Things on feasible, 
functioning homesteads haven't changed much.  Get clear title to land, 
*sustainable* tools, and embrace your subsistence-full-ness.   </HTML>