In this post, we provide a list of 10 things farmers need to consider when setting goals for their financial future, and how stepping off the farm and into the office might be exactly whats needed to achieve them.

Setting goals for revenue, profitability, and ultimately, your financial future, is one of the most important things you can do to achieve farm business growth.  

With so much happening on farm, it can be difficult to find the time to take a step back from the busyness of your day to day and look at your operations.

And let’s face it, the only real reason we look at the closing balance on our loan is to see whether it’s reduced.

Why is planning for your Financial Future so Important?

In recent times, input costs have gone up significantly, impacting farmers’ terms of trade.

The rising price of fuel, fertiliser, chemical and seed makes this one of the most important times to look at your revenue goals.

Having goals, or a vision, as we call it, is key to staying on track and having clarity on what you’re trying to achieve with your farm and why.

When setting revenue goals, it’s important to consider where you would like to be in the future.

Maybe you’re looking 5- or 10-years ahead, perhaps even further depending on what you want to achieve.

I recommend starting from a production perspective because this is where we can generate your cashflow projections, then move on to your longer-term goals for succession planning, estate planning, etc.

10 things to consider when planning for your farm’s financial future.

1. What are we going to plant in the future?
2. What are our forecasts in terms of yield?
3. What are the costs involved?
4. How many cows are we running and what does our livestock schedule look like?
5. How many are we going to turn off?
6. How many are we retaining?
7. What pricing are we looking at into the future?
8. What can we do to set something aside for your own retirement planning, succession planning and estate planning?
9. What about emergency funding?
10. What can we do from a tax planning perspective?

Maybe we wind it back from the current high cattle prices just to see how it would impact our profitability and most importantly, our cash flow.

It might seem premature, but even as we sit today, in October, I’m having discussions with clients around projecting out for the rest of the financial year into the following financial year.

This way we can investigate how things might look from a tax perspective, then we can make plans around what we could potentially do to minimise our tax position.

As always, the first step to getting a handle on your revenue goals, cashflow projections and your vision for the future of your farm, is to set aside the time to do it.

These things need to be revisited regularly

With so much changing all the time, it’s important to keep coming back to that vision to help you with your clarity, to reassess your goals when you need to adjust and to help you with your decision making.

If, like many farmers, the last thing you want to do at the end of the day is step into the office, you’re not alone.

 As I say, it might be worthwhile considering stepping off the farm to do your planning.

Getting away from the farm and dedicating time to map out your vision and do anything that requires planning for the future is the best way to set your goals without the distraction of what’s happening outside.

If you want to partner with an advisor who can help you through the process and provide you with a level of accountability to make this happen, you can schedule an appointment with me, and we can discuss the best path forward for your family and your farm. 

Cheers, 
Matt.