Investment. It’s a term that is being heard more and more often by myself and others in the banking industry.
How can I invest my time, my money, my resources so that I can enjoy this lifestyle that I’ve chosen now, and still leave a legacy for the following generation? I’m not a financial investment expert, but I would like to address investing your resources.
First, let’s define resources. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as “a source of supply or support; a natural source of wealth or revenue; computable wealth; or a source of information or expertise.”
Most of us look to the first definition when thinking of our resources. We think of something tangible: money, land, equipment, cattle, buildings, crops, supplies, etc. Sometimes, we think of receiving advice or knowledge as using our resources.
How does that translate to investing your resources?
Merriam-Webster defines the term as “to commit money in order to earn a financial return; to make use of for future benefits or advantages; or to involve or engage especially emotionally.”
In other words, to invest is to give with an expectation. For us to invest the resources of our farms and ranches means we are giving of these resources with the expectation of a return.
For those of us in the agricultural industry, the best return we expect is that we have left something of us, of our dreams and lifestyle, for the next generation.
So how do we invest our resources? In regards to the tangible assets (as listed above), that is a question that is best decided between yourself, your financial advisor and your family.
Each and every situation is unique and each of us has a different goal set for the use of those tangible assets. Some of us, it means investing into an LLC or a trust to ensure the farm is passed to the next generation. For others, it could be that the current operator uses his/her net worth to make the purchases needed to grow the farm for when it is passed to the next operator. To some, it might mean changing the farm’s operation to accommodate the future goals of the farm.
The best investment of your resources, the highest caliber you can reach, is to invest yourself, your time and your wisdom in the upcoming generation.
For some that is father to son, for others it might be grandparents to granddaughter, uncle to niece, or even a retiring farmer to an unrelated beginning farmer. It has been hammered into us time and again that the average age of the US farmer is only getting older and that fewer and fewer of our children are stepping up to take the reins.
Let us look outside the box, past the usual expectation of passing down the farm. Invest in our children, at the fairs, in FFA and 4-H, at our community and four-year colleges.
Embrace their additions to and ideas for the industry in the future without letting the wisdom gained from our years in agriculture be lost in the process. Open up dialogue not only with family members but those outside the family, outside the industry. After all, we live and breathe agriculture every day of our lives.
Ensuring that this legacy gets passed to the next generation is the highest and best investment we can make.
Jessica Bailey is an agricultural lender at Hometown Bank in Neosho, Mo. A resident of Newton County, she also raises cattle on her family’s farm and is an active alumni of the Crowder College Aggie Club.
