Not financial advice, Do your own research, none of the things talked about in this post are recommendations or advice. This is just what I am doing personally.

My retirement is taken care of by my employer. I’m already vested and they invest in traditional markets. While nothing in life is certain, I worry little about my income in retirement. Since a substantial amount of my compensation is invested in various markets, I like to invest the extra income I am able to save in assets classes that my retirement fund manager ignores.

I plan to work for 25-30 more years. When I do retire, I want to be completely debt free and set up to live the next 20-30 years in relative financial security.

Here’s where I have been putting my money:

1. Rural Land

Thesis: real estate in and around cities is expensive, in many ways it’s become unobtainable to average people.

Amazon delivers to many rural locations and starlink provides internet. As starlink expands and an effort is made by governments to bring internet access and infrastructure to rural areas, I believe rural communities will benefit. With remote work options expected to grow, living in a rural area can provide fewer problems in cities and many of the same amenities.

I have purchased 10 acres of rural land with my family, but I hope to continue buying more land in key areas. There is a lot to know when buying rural land, including determining if there are any build sites, if the parcel has water, power, and suitability for a septic system.

Recently there was a change to the NYSE, they will allow the listing of Natural Asset Companies. What this means is people who own a vast natural resource such as pastureland, forest, etc can go public. We’ve seen a slate of billionaires buying up farm and pastureland in the last few years and with this recent change they’ll be able to sell shares in the land they own and recoup much of the cost, enabling them to buy up even more land. Will this trigger a land grab? I’m not sure, but I do think there are multiple forces at work that have the potential to drive up the value of rural land.

2. Metals

Thesis: metals have always been used as money and will retain their value. Metals are not the best way to experience growth, but they’re good at hedging against loss and they tend to keep pace with inflation. One saying is, metals won’t get you rich but they’ll keep you rich. Metals are easy to pass on to heirs and are hard to trace. They’re easy to move around and easy to liquidate or trade. Metals are off grid currency.

When you buy traditional investments, your assets are held by an exchange who lends them out to short sellers where they use your assets against you. This is how all markets work. Everything you do in the market is monetized and leveraged against you.

When you buy metal, it’s like taking your chips off the table. Physical metal has a high premium, often 20-30% off the top. Buying shares backed by metal often provides a lower cost to obtain, but it has the same issues as stock. The market disincentivizes physical metal ownership, it does not want you to do it, because metal held in your custody cannot be used by the market to make the market more money.

For this reason, I think buying some amount of physical metal every month is a good idea.

3. Bitcoin

Thesis: I can’t prove it, but I believe for various reasons which I will not explain that Bitcoin was created by someone with ties to the intelligence community and that it is used by this group to launder money. While most people can’t wrap their heads around this concept, there is plenty of public documentation to show that governments launder money, conduct secret programs and missions that they do not want showing up in public documents. There are so many reasons why I believe this but two main reasons are that Satoshi has remained anonymous and nobody has used his coins. The only reason to explain away that the creator of bitcoin hasn’t touched his coins worth billions of dollars is that the creator lost the key, or doesn’t need the money. Despite many efforts to unmask Satoshi, nothing has succeeded.

The second reason I believe this is due to Tor, the anonymous internet protocol was invented by the Navy, and it was released to the public for use, this is because tor needs a large network to provide anonymity, and bitcoin works the same way.

I believe that certain entities will continue to protect bitcoin and that it will always be used for illicit operations, and that the powers that be, need millions of people to do normal and legal transactions on bitcoin to obfuscate their illicit transactions. Therefore I believe it will be around for a while and will likely hold it’s value or appreciate in value.

4. Hard Skills

Thesis: Life is getting tougher and more uncertain. Inflation is high and labor is expensive. I’ve taken this challenge as an opportunity and have saves tens of thousands of dollars doing my own repairs and projects. I’ve bought tools, had help from my Dad and my wife’s dad, and learned new things along the way. I’ve learned how to build a fence, build a patio, construct gates, plant a garden, how to break down a large cut of meat, and how to preserve food. I’ve done household plumbing tasks, painted, power washed, and maintained many aspects of my home. I also have taken on many tech projects. I built my own streaming service which keeps my family entertained and allowed us to ditch mainstream streaming services. I have run my own email server, password manager and more.

The tools you buy for these tasks often pay for themselves on the first job. For example, my $60 ryobi drain snake has saved me over $100 every time I’ve used it. Probably about $500 or $600 so far.

I spent $180 on a chop saw, $120 on a few drills, and maybe $300-500 on squares, levels, shovels and other tools. Building my own fences and patio has probably saved me $15,000 to $20,000. The best part is nobody would build the fence the way I did it. My fence has stain on every surface and was built on steel posts with stainless steel fasteners. It can withstand 70mph winds, something we never see where I live.

This “sweat equity” adds value to my home and enhances my enjoyment of living and working here. If you spend $2000 building a fence that adds $5000 of value to your home, it didn’t cost you anything to build it.

Traditional Options

1. Spy – a traditional, vanilla option

Thesis: SPY is the ticket symbol for the S&P 500 ETF. This is definitely not an alternative investment. It’s one of the most commonly talked about investment options around. The S&P 500 is an index that tracks the 500 largest companies traded. The SPY ETF holds a balanced portfolio of shares of these companies. There are other ways to get access to the S&P, one of the lowest cost options is the Vanguard S&P Index Fund. Either way, the S&P has consistently outperformed just about anything else over the last 30 years. Whether it will continue to do so, I don’t know, but putting excess money into some financial instrument pegged to the S&P 500 index is a simple and easy move for me to make, since it’s available on many platforms like Robinhood, Schwab, etc.

I’ve tried trading, and while I have made money doing it, hanging onto the profits is tough, especially when the bottom falls out of the market and the tax bill comes due. Buying and holding SPY is not as sexy, it’s not as exciting, and the growth will be slow rather than explosive. There os volatility but not like you see with crypto or options, but it’s a lot less stressful.

2. Cash:

Thesis: I like to set aside cash for future bills and emergencies. This requires keeping more cash in my accounts than necessary but it helps stabilize my monthly budget when large infrequent costs arise like tax payments, my true up, car or home repairs etc.

Most experts agree six months of living expenses should be on hand, but I’m also working on having 1 year of large or unexpected expenses set aside. Interest rates are all over the map but a standard savings account is paying 4.5% to 5% through many online offers. I use apple’s savings product.

3. Paying Down Debt:

While not an investment, it is something that is easy to determine your return on. If you’re putting cash in a 5% savings account but paying 20% in interest on a credit card, where will you get the bigger return? Paying off the debt.

As a homeowner I do have a mortgage, a home improvement loan, and a car payment, and a few unsecured loans. Paying these debts off in the order of highest interest rate first gives me more financial freedom.

Another choice could be paying off the debt that frees up the most money first. For example you may owe $10,000 on home improvement loan with a 5% interest rate and a $100 payment, and a $4000 balance on an auto-loan with a 3.85% rate and a $300 payment. Paying off the higher rate loan earlier might be a good idea but getting rid of the car payment sooner and then putting that extra cash into the home loan is another way of doing it.

So that’s where I’m putting my savings in 2024. Hopefully these considerations inspired you yo think about your own goals for this year.