In U.S. Farm Report Customer Support, a viewer from Indiana voiced the following:
“On the May 1 program, you spoke about retiring. I was wondering if you could share more about your transition into retirement especially for those who struggle with this on the farm. My father started his easing into retirement 4-5 years ago, and he will be “completely” retired in 2022. Yes, he will still help on the farm when he can. However, I have a friend and his father has decided he won’t retire but instead will work . I guess until he can’t. I think that is a poor planning for the family farm and for the family as a whole. Are you or others able to assist with explaining the importance of making a retirement plan? Maybe you can share more from your own experiences.”
The two questions I get from younger farmers are 1) How do I get into farming? And 2) How do I get Dad out? They are not unrelated as many if not most sole operator farms struggle to essentially double the family expenses. I am not an expert on transition planning or family relationships but this week and next I will try to balance our family privacy without dodging these tricky problems. These are my experiences and trying these ideas at home may yield variable results.
First is to remember the biggest problem is usually economics – money. Many of have struggled to grow a farm to sufficient size for one family and adding another or more may simply be mathematically impossible. But the hidden problem is the attitudes about wealth that change with aging. At a certain point, regardless of actual the financial situation, it dawns on us we don’t have decades of future ahead to solve this problem. Add in the jolts we experience when friends our age have serious health problems or lose rented ground unexpectedly, any number of other financial reversals, and what emerges is a simmering sense of fear we don’t have enough for our future. Farmers gradually turn more financially cautious as a result, sometimes obsessed with extracting as much wealth as fast as possible from the farm This happens even as their love and concern for children remains steadfast. It is a confusing time for the elders.
Next week, I’ll try to remember what I thought back in the day as the oncoming generation, and why merging my view of the future and my father’s, required so much emotional and mental effort.
