Though the back to the land strategy is still a good one you have to have a lot more money to do it now than in the 1970s and early 1980s. In Mt. Shasta in 1976 when my friend got his master's degree from UCLA he was able to buy 2 1/2 acres fairly close to town for about 5000 dollars right out of college then.
Then in 1980 when I also bought land I paid 8000 dollars cash for 2 1/2 acres of really beautiful land with an amazing view of Mt. Shasta like my friend's land closer to town then too.
However, I don't think you could buy his property now for under 30,00 to 50,000 to 100,000 even if it was still undeveloped now at this point.
So, compared to the average wage now houses and car payments are more unaffordable to a much greater degree than now.
For example, when I bought my Brand new 1968 Camaro in 1968 I only paid 3500 dollars for it. Now the same thing would be at least 10 times more but wages have NOT grown 10 times I don't think since then so buying one is more problematic now financially (at least new).
but, even though the minimum wage was around $1.50 an hour then i usually could find jobs even at age 16 years old in Glendale getting paid 3 dollars an hour including working for my father. So, I had a good advantage being well educated and well behaved and polite where I could work almost anywhere even at 15 or 16 years of age. Also, people didn't have enough people for all the jobs then so they paid you more than now just to have someone to work there for them doing stuff.
At age 16 I got a job working for Ernie's Camera shop as a driver in a cool smaller Oldsmobile. I drove all over Los Angeles County after school in high school picking up and delivering film and cameras and equipment then for them. There wasn't the culture now with UPS and Fedex and such like there is now so people were hired in Los Angeles county to go fetch things for them that were manufactured in the county especially things like Cameras and film and things like this then.
I turned 16 in 1964 and also bought my first car the month after I turned 16 and got my driver's license.
Between 15 and 16 years old my life changed completely because of a new car and dating and surfing and money to pay for gas from working at different jobs. So, I was really free often on the weekends if I didn't have to work anywhere then which was wonderful. Life was my playground on weekends often from the beach to the mountains to surfing and skiing and riding off road motorcycles. So, life was pretty good from around age 16 to 18 looking back now. I had the world by the tail so to speak. But, as soon as I graduated High school life fell down and hit me on the head at just how difficult life was going to be trying to go to college and figure out what I wanted to do with my life.
I could see why friends were dying in all sorts of ways then because it was just too much to survive what with the Viet Nam War and friends getting drafted or people desperately trying to get student deferments and going to college before they got drafted and all the insane things happening in the late 1960 and early 1970s that were going on in Southern California and nOrthern California at that time.
So, the strategy then especially in places like California both Northern and Southern California was to buy really beautiful but inexpensive land out in the country and develop it yourself to save money so you didn't ever need a mortgage ever. So, this was the strategy starting with my father building his retirement home starting in 1968 to 1980 on the weekends where he retired in 1980 and this also was the strategy of me and many of my friends to buy land for cash (5000 or 8000 for 2 1/2 acres in Mt. Shasta. This way you never would need a mortgage ever so instead of paying for a mortgage you could travel the world like we all did not having to ever pay rent or mortgage ever after we bought our property and built our homes. All we EVER had to pay was property taxes and fire insurance if we had the money too because everything was always paid for so no rent or mortgage to tie you down so you couldn't travel the world.
Here is a Quote from the AI when I asked about minimum wages in 1968:
begin quotes:
- Long-established nonfarm jobs (1938 Act): $1.60 an hour effective February 1, 1968.
- Newly covered nonfarm jobs: $1.15 to $1.30 an hour depending on the exact coverage phase.
- Peak Purchasing Power: The 1968 federal minimum wage of $1.60 had the highest buying power of any minimum wage in U.S. history.
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