Having recently retired and sold a business, I am trying to reinvest the proceeds into things that I understand, are safe, will preserve the money and provide some income. A 69 acre piece came up for sale down the road, so it's easy to keep an eye on and take care of things, and has a fair amount tillable ground to generate income from. I will cash rent the ground to a neighboring farmer. taxes on the ground aren't too bad, and the non-tillable ground is in a wildlife program that gets taxed at a very low rate, almost nothing. This purchase will net out about a 3% annual return on my investment and unlike investing in stocks you can't lose $$, somebody will always rent the farm ground, or I could put it in a government CRP program. Farm ground also sells pretty good in the midwest and it could be unloaded pretty quickly should we ever need the cash.
Not a killer investment by any means, but a very safe one, and there should be some good long term gains in the value of the ground over time. Also gives us another place to play around, hunt, etc. right down the road.