Forty Acres and a Reason Not to Trust You.

I own about 40 acres of loblolly pine in Arkansas. Bought it on a five-year loan, paid it off, and I’m still not entirely sure what it costs me to keep. That’s the honest starting point for this whole site — I don’t have this figured out either.

I did four years in the Navy, then spent twenty-some years in IT — tech support and device management, the kind of work where you learn fast that most “solutions” are theater. Somewhere in there I decided dirt was a better long-term bet than a stock ticker, so I bought land instead of buying more paper.

Resilience Investor isn’t a doomsday channel and it isn’t a gold-bug fan page. It’s the case for owning things — land, timber, eventually metal — instead of just owning claims on things. Wall Street will happily sell you exposure to an idea. I’d rather own the idea.

Here’s the honesty system this whole site runs on:

• Tested — I actually own it. Land and timber, right now, that’s it.
• Researched — I’ve done the homework but haven’t bought it yet. That’s where gold and silver sit today, and I’ll say so every time.
• Verified — numbers checked against real filings and real markets before anything gets a recommendation, on REITs, equities, or anything else that touches hard assets.

When I say I’ve tested something, I mean I actually own it. When I say I’ve researched something, I mean I haven’t bought it yet and I’m not going to pretend I have. That’s the whole pitch.