California E&S Insurance

To purchase or not to purchase a ranch, looking for insights Apologies for the long read.  If anyone makes it to the end and has any helpful insights, you will be my hero. I’m trying to make a decision on whether or not to purchase a recreational property ranch (150 acres with a home), and looking for anyone who was ever in a similar position and has some insights based on how there decision played out (including not making a similar purchase and either being happy or unhappy about that). I’m also trying to retire early and am trying to figure out how this will impact that decision.  Both in terms of finances, and having something to do post-retirement.  This is also my first post in FatFIRE, and I’m not sure if I’m supposed to include actual numbers or not. **A little up front context:**   Currently 48. I’ve been blessed in many ways, loving family, great job, very nice house in a HCOL area that is mostly paid off.  Ever since I can remember, it has been a dream of mine to own land out in the country, like acres and acres of land.  While we’ve been financially comfortable for a while, we’ve never had money to throw around to the point where I could consider such a purchase, but my current job has changed that in the form of exponential growth of my RSUs. Originally I was just looking for raw land to camp out on, maybe do a little hunting, and just generally act as a place for my family to camp on and unwind.  Something not too expensive, although we never really put a number on that “too expensive” part.  Eventually the search evolved into these requirements: **Requirements:** * Two hours from home * Must have some sort of surface water * Able to sustain personal hunting  * Accessible year round * 100+ acres or adjoining public land **Nice to haves:** * Don’t need to drive through other properties to access * No easements for others to drive through property to get to their properties * Other things to do nearby **Well now I found something that meets most of those requirements and then some.  What we found:** * 150 acres, just less than 2 hours from home * Year round pond, but probably not great for swimming as it gets muddy in the summer * Plenty of wildlife * Modest, but in great condition home * Very remote, but access roads are paved and maintained year round **The main cons are:** * There is very little do within an hour of the property, no meaningful public lakes and parks, anything beyond that is already easier to access from home * Major wildfire area, which not only puts the dwelling at risk, but will make it expensive to insure **Family considerations:** * We have 13 and 15 year old boys who are sporty but necessarily outdoorsy. I think they could learn some real life skills that they otherwise wouldn’t be exposed to if we make this purchase.  The boys are excited about it * Wife who is active but does not like the isolation that would come with this property.  She is supportive in general, but concerned that this will add stress and difficulty to our lives.  Those are valid concerns, which I share.  She knows that this is a dream of mine and because of that is supportive, but if it was 100% up to her, she would not move forward.  If she was truly excited about this, we would have already moved forward and I would not have created this post **Financial considerations:** * This would not be a great investment.  I would be selling historically very high growth stock to pay for the land. If the stock craters, I will look like a genius, if it keeps going up, I will kick myself, which has happened in the past (yes, I know I’m not supposed to look at it that way) * Instead of purchasing this land, we can get a more traditional second/vacation home that would be much easier to resell, and would could rent out when we’re not using it * Or, we could just 100% put this money into traditional investment accounts in order to retire sooner, and then have more income in retirement * Overall, we’d be using about ¼ to ⅕ of our investable assets on this purchase, which still leaves quite a bit left over for more traditional investments, but I’m still concerned that a purchase like this will impact our FIRE goal. Basically, this is something we can afford, but I’m concerned about lifestyle and family impact.  We currently have a fairly active lifestyle, between the kid’s school/sports activities, socializing with friends and family (which or course would also be fun to do on the land), and our own adult activities (mostly fitness related). **My big concerns are:** * We don’t actually know anything about maintaining a ranch or acres of land (but I think it would be fun to learn) * We will have fun for a little while and then get bored.  In which case we could sell it, potentially for at loss, or try to rent it out, but it would not generate as much income as a different type of investment * Marital strife in case I want to go up there way more often than she does.  She is concerned about feeling obligated to go up there more often than she would want to * That any of use will find the isolation of the ranch to be psychologically unpleasant * That this would turn into a time suck and feel like a chore (in terms of maintaining the property). I’m assuming a home in the country on 150 acres adds up to a lot of projects **To mitigate these concerns, I tell myself:** * We can exchange free rent for a caretaker to live up there to keep an eye on the property and do some light maintenance (which may mean additional investment towards a caretaker unit, or infrastructure if they have their own trailer) * Our friends and family would enjoy going up there to socialize with us * We will create invaluable family memories * We can potentially trade stays at our ranch with others, who have more traditional vacation homes we stay at * Would actually be fun to improve the ranch over the years and/or build a business on it (x-mas tree farm or similar) So does anyone have insights to share based on facing the same decision?  Regrets on buying or not buying?  Considerations I haven’t thought about?.   If you made it this far, thank you!

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