In 1989 I was close to $1.5 Million Dollar in debt buying Iowa farmland in the 1986 to 1989 time period. In fact, the 1988 corn belt drought almost caused me to go bankrupt. I had to sell my Corvette sports car to help pay the farmland Mortgage Payment to Farm Credit. I borrowed all $1.5 Million from Farm Credit and an Iowa bank to purchase over 1,500 acres of high-quality 80+ CSR Point corn dirt in the time period just after the Farm Crisis caused good quality Iowa farmland to drop to $850 to $1,000/ACRE. i learned alot from that experience of being very close to a complete bankruptcy. Being highly leveraged is sometimes needed to make money, but I was very young and pushed my borrowing limits to the max. I learned alot from that near bankruptcy experience. I did buy more land in 1991, 1992, and 1993, but then quit buying anymore till 1999, when I bought my last farm. The farm I bought in 1999 was a 1/2 section/320 acres and I only paid $712,000 for the entire farm. This was only $2,225/acre. I borrowed the entire purchase price of $712,000 from my Iowa bank and didn't even put down a downpayment, so the mortgage payments were pretty hefty. I took a 10 year farmland loan out and just paid it off in 2009 to be completely debt-free now. To give you an idea of how much good quality Iowa corn dirt has appreciated in value from 1999 to 2014, the farm across the road from this 320 acre farm I bought in 1999 for $2,225/acre sold for over $14,000/acre. It was $14,100/acre to be exact. When your last farm was purchased in 1999 for only $2,225/acre, it makes it hard to spend $14,000/acre today to purchase additional land. Also, I need to spread out my entire net worth over more stocks and bonds, not more farmlaand. My entire investment in farmland, stocks, and bonds need to be re-balanced with more money going into stocks and bonds and not more farmland. Also, I have 3 kids all in Private college now at a price of $40,000 per year per kid or a total of $120,000 per year in total tuition, room and board for all 3 kids.
