Knowledge is Power?

I often equate a hammer to a college education. You can take that hammer and buy property and buy wood and nails and build yourself a house. Or you could take that hammer and hit yourself in the head with it and be no more. An education is like this. It is not what it is, it is what you do with it that counts. So, knowledge and common sense and practicality all go hand in hand in order to be useful and helpful to anyone or everyone.

When I was 20 years old my father decided to buy property in Yucca Valley because his best friend owned  2 1/2 acres and homesteaded it in the 1950s when it first opened up by the government to homestead it. So, his friend, built a small house on the homesteaded land which allowed him to keep it. I think the land was 100 dollars then for 2 1/2 acres if you built a small shed on it. Eventually, his friend who owned and organic grain milling company in the Los Angeles area and who owned a home in San Gabriel invited fellow church members sometimes on weekends after he built a multi-bedroom vacation home on this property by 1960.

So, my father moved his trailer (a 26 or 28 foot aluminum trailer called a Spartan that he bought for Mom and I to live in when I was a baby around 1946 from Seattle on his Dad's land where he had stored it since we moved to California in 1952 and parked it at his friend's land so he could come out to the desert and be warm most of the year out there in the wilds which he loved to do ever since he had worked on his aunt's gold mine in the Gila Bend Area of Arizona when he was 18 in 1934. So, from 1960 on he kept his Spartan Trailer (like and Airstream with a different shape). This is what it actually looked like.

So, in 1968 he decided to buy property nearby his friends and move the trailer there and begin building his own dream retirement home there. He worked on weekends (many of these weekends I helped him build it) from 1968 until 1980 when he retired there with my mother. So, from the time I was 20 until I was 32 this is often what my father was doing, (building his retirement home on 2 1/2 acres of land).

This also led to my buying a piece of property when the early 1980s recession took the U.S. to over 10 Percent unemployment and at that point he came and helped me lay the foundation of my house in Mt. Shasta on 2 1/2 acres and helped me build my home then too. But, bringing down his 1946 Spartan Trailer From Seattle around 1960 began to make this all possible because it gave us a place to live in on weekends first at his friend's house on 2 1/2 acres nearby. And then after he bought his own 2 1/2 acres it gave him a chance to live in his trailer on weekends to build his own home from 1968 until 1980 on weekends.

This was a lot easier then than now because building materials were much cheaper relative to wages than now. Also, he was making about 30 dollars an hour as a Union Electrician when he retired in 1980. He had owned an Electrical Contracting business in the 1960s in Los Angeles but realized it was more profitable to move to San Diego and to work there as a Union Electrician so he had more time on weekends to build his retirement home for he and Mom to retire into. He helped build the Encina Power plant for San Diego Gas and Electric from 1969 on until 1980 I believe it was.

So, you can see how I equate a hammer to a college degree. By building your own home there are no mortgage payments ever if you don't want to be paying mortgage payments. You might be making land payments but otherwise you build your home as you make your money at your job or business. However, this isn't for everyone because I have met people who tried to do this and wound up breaking up their marriage because of the stresses of working all week at their job and then working some more on the weekend and then going back to their job on monday and working another 5 days. But, for my father he loved doing this on weekends, so for him it wasn't work it was fun building his home which was his favorite thing to do and of which he was very proud and often brought friends out to his home to show them what he was doing.

Note: If the cost averages are the same basically you save between 1/2 to 2/3 of the cost of your home by building it yourself as long as you get good enough prices on your building materials as you build it. Sometimes buying in bulk ahead of time for wood and nails and other larger items is helpful. But, you also have to have a safe place to store building materials because things tend to disappear now more than they did then so security is more of an issue than it once was regarding building materials.
But once everything is installed and nailed or screwed or cemented into place this becomes less and less of an issue. However, practicality is important at every stage and making sure you get orderly inspections so the county doesn't red tag your building and make you tear it down eventually is important as well. So, skills, practicality and efficiency at every level is necessary for all this to work out for you long term.