# Dairy Farming



## tallpines (Apr 9, 2003)

My DH and I are retired from Dairy Farming.

I know the economy is different than it was when we were in the midst of our "business", but I'd like to offer a couple of things we did that allowed us to be successful.

No matter how tight your money is, SAVE some of each check for retirement!

When we were buying the farm, first the personal property and then the land and buildings, 30% of each milk check went to the bank to pay off the loan.
We struggled to save another 5 to 10% out of each check.

It took forever, but eventually we got the bank paid off.
And we continued to send 30% of each check to the bank, but now it was going into SAVINGS!

We always lived meagerly and were thrifty shoppers, and we taught our children to do the same.
They were paid a monthly income for their labor but it all went into the bank to save in a college fund. They recived an additional monthly stipend which they needed to use for their school lunches before they could invest in any extra's.
It taught them that hard work paid off and it taught them to be financially responsible.

Another thing we did.
We were honest on our tax returns!

With a business it was easier to "lose" some of the reportable farm income in "business expense" and "depreciation".
But if you report little or no income, you pay little or nothing into Social Security.
Some of our neighbors use to brag on how little they paid in Income taxes by fanagleing their books.
We were honest------------and now we are able to collect a decent S.S. payment.


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## steff bugielski (Nov 10, 2003)

I absolutely agree with the taxes. I have been self employed for 15 yrs now. Being a single mom of two I have been able to get around $3000 back every year from the earned income credit. At the same time they took out my SS payment from the credit. It cost me nothing to get the SS payment and I still got a large refund. Sometimes I claimed to earn more than I did to get the amount up. Dh hardly ever filed taxes for many year and now he is sorry. He got sick and could have gotten disability, soon he will be of retiring age and there is very little in his SS.


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