Once I read this book years ago: http://www.ccsales.com/the_richest_man_in_babylon.pdf
I realized banks, etc. require collateral of us, but when we “loan” our money (deposits) to banks, they give us nothing but digits. And stocks/bonds are just worthless paper too. All my investments are in land, or assets I can resell.
We took advantage of the very bottom of the real estate market to add to our property holdings. I’m with you that it seems like a much more tangible investment. I just never trusted the stock market. We’ve done really well in the last two years.
I keep hearing the values will continue up slowly for two to three more years then take a dip again. There is no way though that they will fall below the prices we paid unless major catastrophy strikes but that will hit stocks too.