in the beginning...

[blacklabel]

How did you get to where you are now? Beg, steal, borrow, Or my favorite, hard work?

Ive been trying to save for a down payment on a farm, so far life is winning. Just cant seem to keep it in the bank. I dont know how to get a place bought with less then 20%a down. Thats for land and home, no livestock, machinery, or working capital. So thats another big chunk of cash.

Looking for a few suggestions.

Thanks

 

[denvermartinfarms]

Hard work and borrowing, that's about the only way, without stealing, or getting what you need for free, and I sure ain't been that lucky.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Worked all day and went to school at night. On my own nickels. It took me 8 years to get out of construction and in to engineering.

Worked weekend jobs. Went to welding school too. Dug limestone and sold it. Worked weekends at a gas stationed. Filled in on drilling rigs. Cut wood. Cut fence posts. Worked cattle. Bartered. Bought and sold. Repaired and sold. Mowed pastures. Cleared brush.

Inherited a little bit later on in life. Got lucky on the gas play. Paid for my children's college and that was six figure expenditures.

Daddy raised a bunch of kids besides his own. A jar of peanut butter only goes so far. I have hustled my whole life.

 

[backhoeboogie]

If I could take back my mistakes, I wouldn't have learned much. Seems I learned everything the hard way and there are some hard lessons to learn.

 

[blacklabel]

Thank you so far.

Man told me sleep is for people who dont want to be successful. Later I heard it put sleep is for broke people.

I have a dream, and i have been sleeping to much.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Hard work and borrowing, that's about the only way, without stealing, or getting what you need for free, and I sure ain't been that lucky.

Right now I can pencil out $4500 an acre for excellent farm land in my climate. My cows can pay for that land on a 15 year note. No profit mind you. Just break even and the cows paying for the land. It is hard to find good farm land for $4500 an acre within driving distance.

 

[blacklabel]

Ive been told I have a good work ethic and if I ever get a place bought, that i will find a way to make it work.

 

[cow pollinater]

I started by buying a home in my twenties. I bought a home for my new bride, lived in it for a year and worked my butt off making improvements, and then sold it for a lot more than I paid for it and turned right around and re-invested my money into something bigger and better and did it again.
I think the biggest money mistake that people make is assuming that money only comes from a paycheck that they receive from someone else. They see the check and they put the time in so they understand the input and output of a paycheck and that's as far as they see. Real money comes from dam hard work and then taking the leftovers from dam hard work and investing it into something that will turn itself into more money with input from you that is less than how hard you are currently working.

 

[cow pollinater]

Hard work and borrowing, that's about the only way, without stealing, or getting what you need for free, and I sure ain't been that lucky.

Right now I can pencil out $4500 an acre for excellent farm land in my climate. My cows can pay for that land on a 15 year note. No profit mind you. Just break even and the cows paying for the land. It is hard to find good farm land for $4500 an acre within driving distance.

And you have to be careful there. We're at record prices right now for all agricultural products and land value has shot up because of it. If you buy on a fifteen(most are 20-30) year note and prices go back to what they were, you've got your tit in a wringer in a bad way once the price drops and you're still paying the note on what the land WAS worth.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Real money comes from dam hard work and then taking the leftovers from dam hard work and investing it into something that will turn itself into more money with input from you that is less than how hard you are currently working.

But that money don't count! lOL. Gotta forget about that money and the 401K too.

 

[cross_7]

The secret of success
I don't have the slightest clue
For some it's inherited, good wage job, oil production, dumb luck and some I just can't figure out.
I had one similar to cp, I bought a place no one else wanted because it was a rough and sandy, 4x4 in and out place, but I moved the road so you could get in and out in 2wd.
I kept it a few years and sold it.
Bought another place that had the irrigation rights sold, so nobody wanted it because they thought it didn't have any water, but the truth was you had house, livestock and etc water, you just couldn't irrigate.
I had them get a lawyer to draw it up legal, so I bought it and then sold it.
Bought an old house and lived in it and fixed it up and then sold it.
Bought sale barn calves, few at a time and was doing good until a few wasn't enough(see below)
Day traded stocks before the bust.( then lost it all and then some)

That was the good, now the bad
Bought another house and owner financed it to a young couple and they divorced and tore the house up, cost me about 15-20k
Bought another place I thought was too cheap but it wasn't, carrying cost killed me
Bought a load of calves out of Florida and lost my shirt
Bought a group sale barn cows that aborted most of the calves(bvd?), lost my shirt
Wall street taught me to buy livestock and not trade stocks
Drought has wrecked me more than I care to remember


To sum it all up I'd say from what I have seen over the years and I think it's like a sprinter, you're born with or without and nothing you can do to aquire it.

1 Mental capacity is the key IMO
2 Personality will get you long ways in life or it can get you in over your head if you don't have #1
3 Work ethic
4 Good wage, most times that requires #1
5 Luck, some people everything they touch turns to gold(can't explain it )
6 Know the difference between risk and gambling

 

[highgrit]

Dumb luck and hard work for me. Made $600.00 bucks fishing one night and quit school the next day. I bought my first house when I was 20 and paid it off in 3 years. Then I bought the duplex next door and moved into one side and rented the other side and house out. A school teacher rented the house and stayed there 18 years now that's dumb luck. And then I started buying lots where Burt Reynolds had a ranch in FL. And then we built a fancy house with a pool out there and kept a few lots on each side of the house, dumb luck again. We sold the house for 5 times what we had in it, and sold 2 of the lots for 1,000 times what I paid for them. Wish we would of kept the other 3 a few more years. I still own the land where my first house and duplex was. Tried to keep them rented out but the deadbeats kept tearing them up and not paying rent. So I had a guy bulldoze the buildings down, and pay a man 400.00 per year to keep it bush hogged down. FL stinks now, property taxes on the raw land is almost 4k a year now. The land is on Hwy. US 1 the main drag on the east coast of FL. It's for sale or lease PM me if your interested in it, it's a great location for a restaurant. I live in GA now simi retired raising cattle and deer. I try to make enough off the cows to pay for my deer hunting, feed and bullets. All I can tell you is Good Luck.

 

[greybeard]

How did you get to where you are now? Beg, steal, borrow, Or my favorite, hard work?

Dumb luck mostly, and good advice many years ago. When I was 21 a wise man told me "people buy a new car about every 5 years (they did back then), a new television every 3-4 years, a new washing machine when the old one wears out but they fill their car up every single week--invest accordingly". I did, with a little company call Humble Oil and worked hard all the time and it finally paid off about 45 years later. I arranged to buy 20 acres from my father with dividend check, even tho he told me I would get it when he died anyway, and I did end up inheriting another 20ac when he did pass. Took some out of my investment that had split several times and bought some more raw land from another relative, spent several years of hard labor clearing and fencing and planting grass, building a house, and I am where I am. Retired at age 59 with a few cows, a paid off house, and no debt, but not much else other than what is in my accounts. I'm way far from being wealthy and never will be and wouldn't want to be if what I see on the news about them means anything.
Didn't hurt that a long time ago, I put it all in my Maker's hands either. I ain't dead yet so I guess that counts for success.

 

[dun]

Through the years we bought pretty sad places and through sweat equity improved them and sold for a profit (on most, not all). We both had pretty good paying jobs and the wife is tight with a buck. Invested surplus money through the years and just kept rolling profits into more property. Accept for a the property we have paid cash for everything, paid cash for some of that too and paid off everything within 7-10 years. Worked at establishing a customer base and made each place pay in some way. Goat dairy, raised calves on contract for dairys, commercial rabbitry, raising game birds for stocking hunting clubs, custom AI service, owned a gunshop, etc. Anything to earn an extra dollar.

 

[Runaway Deere]

As I hustler (meant in complimentary terms) my wife and I still feel that we are at the beginning all the time, but the last few years wife finally sees that the cattle herd is growing exponentially. This is due to all that work, and us always feeling we are at the beginning

 

[greybeard]

We're all always one drought or one big emergency away from where we started...the nature of the beast.

 

[blacklabel]

Great posts people.

 

[Anonymous]

Dumb luck will only get you so far.
Hard work too, because one run of bad luck will set you back to the beginning.
But if you combine good luck, hard work, integrity and a food attitude there's a good chance that things will go well for you.

 

[highgrit]

I've read it on here and heard it from my Dad, "the harder you work, the luckier you get" I think there's some truth to it.

 

[greybeard]

Dumb luck will only get you so far.
Hard work too, because one run of bad luck will set you back to the beginning.
But if you combine good luck, hard work, integrity and a food attitude there's a good chance that things will go well for you.

That food attitude will just get ya fat Hook.

(I love typos)