When the alarm goes off before even a hint of first light in the eastern sky, either farming has started in earnest or I am attending a Farmer to Farmer breakfast. Today's breakfast was the second in a five part series covering topics that farmers have been asking for more help with. The following three workshops will be in the evening (which is great, because farming has started in earnest,) and focus on; QuickBooks for farming and ranching, hiring your first employees, and farm and ranch property/casualty insurance.
The topic of the morning was “Personal Insurance, Savings and Investment” taught by Amanda Johnson, CFP Financial Advisor with Ameriprise Financial. She was a wonderful speaker; informative, encouraging, and hilarious. Married to a farmer, Amanda is well aware of the particular risks, both financial and physical, we face by farming and ranching. She helped us prioritize how to think about our financial road map, whether starting one or strengthening an existing portfolio of investments and insurances. We discussed the merits of different personal insurances and how they are evaluated, as well as the best ways to save for your kids' futures, educational or otherwise. Somehow she made sense in 20 minutes how to think about long term retirement savings in a volatile marketplace, essentially saying to rebalance your asset allocation to maintain a smart diversity on an annual basis (see how much I learned!).
Another major take away was the concept of the “time value of money”. For example, having a ROTH IRA for 30 years will have about three times as much value as that same exact ROTH IRA that you have for 15 years. The time value of money makes what seemingly should be twice as much into three times that amount because of its potential earning capacity. As Roger Ingram pointed out, “We can't start the journey until we take the first step”.
I'm glad I got down to the UC Cooperative Extension for the first class of this series; I see a sliver of light where before there were just numbers and acronyms like 401K, 529s, and ROTH IRAs. I'm also left with a strong desire for a pair of designer boots and a few new jokes after Amanda's fabulous presentation. The final take away for me is a note scratched into the margin of my notebook that says, “life insurance, get some”.
Find more about these workshops on the calendar at: http://ucanr.edu/sites/placernevadasmallfarms/?calendar=yes&g=22527
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