When I was 19 I measured success by purchasing my first home, then another at age 20. Soon I had 5 cars, a Mercedes and plenty of cute girlfriends. I was buffed, benching over 400 and had a dream life.

Young cocky rich kids do stupid things.

I got wrapped up in coke and a few years later watched it all go away. I did my last line of coke June 13th, 1983 at 8:30pm homeless in a VW van and swore I’d never go back to that life and never did. No classes or arrest required. I watched a perfect life vaporize.

I got back into school and studied computer science. They say its not how hard you fall but how high you bounce. It took awhile, but I was able to get a great SoCal beachside home again, the cute Canadian Model Wife with a good heart and sharp mind, and a Porsche in the driveway just 1/4 mile up the hill from my favorite surfspot. Life was good and I ground away keeping that lifestyle intact for nearly two decades.

My attorney always said “My richest clients are in real estate and manufacturing.” Unless you can invent something kewl and sell it, buy as much land as possible. One day I was walking on a beach and stumbled across a man who had an obvious mental retardation condition sitting in a chair. You could tell he was a little dim: sitting on an empty beach on a cold, foggy day.

I like everyone and we’re all a little stupid sometimes, so even though I could tell he had some mental defect, I spoke to him like a fellow human being and wondered where he had come from, where he grew up, what he did; typical chit chat about him and his life.

He worked his butt off saving his pennies in crummy jobs. His mother said he’d never amount to anything. He saved enough to buy a beat up home in a beat up neighborhood, put a tall hedge across the front and fixed it up and rented it out. He did that 4 more times until he owned 5 homes, all rented out and retired. He’s not filthy rich, but for a man who many would say appears retarded, he’s worth about $3 million bucks from that adventure. Now he fixes the pipes, mows the lawns and in his spare time every now and then, comes to that beach and just sits there content. He beat the odds.

So can you.

I took a different path and sold all the real estate and a computer store, moved onto a sailboat and moved off grid. In 2016 I used zero fossil fuels. I decided my footprint on this earth had been enough. I didn’t want to contribute to the catastrophe of humanity’s eco-nightmare anymore. I don’t own a car anymore, nor do I get any power or heat from fossil fuels. I ride a bike and publish web sites and invent/engineer processes. I’m not as wealthy as that man and its a much tougher life, but my neighbors are sea otters, seals and dolphins who drop by now and then. I like it.

Some folks would prefer a cabin. Others an RV or a tent in the desert. Whatever/whereever you go, my best advice is to count your pennies and buy raw land you can afford and enjoy. The only other advice is to NOT build a common structure on it, rather build DOWN into the ground. It’ll have more insulation and become part of the environment. Then green your property with trees and contribute something for the birds and wildlife to enjoy. When deer and birds visit you daily you will find an inner peace and be a success that no Porsche, nor cute Canadian can match. I’ve seen kids raised in those environments, even on sailboats and they’re the smartest, most self-reliant humans alive. You can get a sailboat for $100 bucks if you shop the lien sales and that means owning your own home with zero mortgage, never paying rent again, and living a very clean, physically active life with the coolest neighbors indeed. The seals here know me and follow me around like pals. I don’t have an outboard: I row and they’ll come right up and sniff the oars or follow me for an hour or more. They avoid the other humans most of the time and most of the time, so do I.

That is my best advice.