During the Back to the land movement of the late 1960s through the 1980s

In 1968 my father bought 2 1/2 acres and between then and 1980 he and I and friends of ours helped build his retirement home on bare land. 

Later in 1976 a friend of mine bought 2 1/2 acres of bare land near Mt. Shasta. I also helped him build his house over the years.

Then in 1980 I bought 2 1/2 acres of land in the Mt. Shasta area and built an A-Frame at around 4000 feet. The land had a spring of water on it and a beautiful view of Mt. Shasta.

In each of these cases it was financially a good idea to buy land. My father passed away after retiring in 1980 by 1985. My friend still owns his land almost 50 years later. He has built more structures on it over the years.

I paid cash for my land and my friend and my father paid off their land over time.

However, if you think about how much money goes out in rent with nothing to show for it owning land and building your own place is better if you have skills building and the money to buy the land and the materials to build your own home. Then you own your land and your home outright usually without a mortgage. This also helped allow us to travel all over the world too with the money we saved in paying either rent or a mortgage. So, if you want to be more free to travel and you own your own business or businesses this is one way to be free to travel because you don't have a mortgage ever. So, this is one way to have a better life.

However, if you are not coordinated and "handy" with tools this could be a problem for you. Also, you need to be able to not only afford land but also afford building materials. However, you also can recycle a lot of materials from buildings that you help tear down too. However, then, make sure the building inspectors of your area approve the building materials you are recycling for use so you can eventually get your home passed by your county or city or both over time so you have a legal house according to county or city or state rules wherever you are building.

Another option is to move a motorchome or trailer or mobile home onto your land but again if you do this you need to make sure that local regulations permit this. Usually the most remote you are the more you might be allowed to do this. 

For example, when my father bought land in the desert in 1968 he brought his old 1946 Spartan Trailer (a lot like an Airstream) that we had lived in for a time when I was a baby in Seattle and left it on the land as we slowly built his retirement home from 1968 to 1980 on weekends mostly. In this way we always had a place to stay out of the wind and rain while building our permanent home there for my mother and father to retire into.