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Show 1 I DUCHISHf ' SPANISH FORK f FROM FARM-RANCH J "MTSOM J THROUGH THE COMMERCIAL BANK OF UTAH DO.TA I BY WES DICKERSON MMKUITUIAL CONSULTANT I Farm capital investment has more than doubled in the past ten years, which emphasizes the need for a personal farm money management program. In 1940, farmers in the United States had almost $5-billion worth of machines ma-chines and equipment, while ten years later, this figure had in creased to more than $14-billion. How do these figures on changes chang-es in farming tie in with Farm Money Management? I think thv intn it in tiin wava First, the introduction of more and more labor saving equipment, equip-ment, the increased use of gasoline gaso-line and electricity, plus the increased use of such things as commercial fertilizer, purchased feed and seed, and sprav materials, mater-ials, mean that today's farmer is turning over a lot more dollars dol-lars than his father did. Forty years ago one dollar went through the average farmer's farm-er's hand every four hours. But today a dollar passes through his hands every twenty-four minutes. Also, back forty years ago, it took only about seven cents per hour to pay operating expenses on the average farm as compared with a dollar - and seven cents today. Today a farmer has more of the kind of expenses that can't be eliminated or reduced much in case of a bad year or a period of low prices. Back in the horse-and-buggy days, when the fuel for farm power came out of the oat bin or corn crib and the hay mow and you could make a lot of machinery repairs with baling wire and a hammer and saw, dollars were not so important. im-portant. But, it certainly takes them today to keep the wheels turning. I think it pays to manage money in exactly the same way that the farmer handles his machinery ma-chinery that is, to protect it, keep it where it will work easily eas-ily without squeaking, have a reserve supply of it on hand that you can get at quickly, and to plan ahead on the money needs of the business before you have to use it. Farmers have always laid up reserves in good times and drawn on them in bad times. One of the reserves a farm family fam-ily accumulates is an equity in their farm. Every $100 a person pays off on a mortgage is a hundred dollars of savings or reserve accumulated. Also, he might build up a readily available avail-able reserve in a savings account ac-count or Savings Bonds to be used just when you may need it. |