No. of Recommendations: 14
Farm boy here. Interesting take on farm-raised citizens, Manlobbi. All I know is it is psychologically therapeutic for this farm boy to clamber aboard his John Deere lawn mower and mow the lawn. Some of my best thinking has occurred during those mowing sessions. I tend to think my inner programming is drifting back decades to those youthful years driving tractors on the farm.
I am in the same camp with Oscar regarding inheritance planning. Gaming the system is terribly constraining for all concerned. My instinct is to grow the pile, give away some of it to charities and let our heirs liquidate some of the stocks to pay the taxes. Our children are doing quite well growing their piles and we only have one very young grandchild, so it is a potential classic generational skipping spoilage problem shaping up for our grandchild. Here's hoping DNA rules and she is a classic pile grower like her daddy and his parents.
My dad was a vocational agriculture teacher and we farmed on the side. Our farm was pretty much my dad's experiment station and he let us kids keep the profits as a tax advantaged way to accumulate funds. He told me one day I would appreciate the FFA State Farmer degree I earned and I do. Vocational agriculture at small high schools sixty years ago involved teaching welding, carpentry, brick laying, horticulture and animal husbandry. A surprising number of his students went on to own small companies ranging from welding businesses to radio stations (a FFA public speaking award winner student became a DJ in the Air Force and went on later to own several radio stations). We are seeing a similar vocational renaissance now in our area. The companies in our county are teaming with the local community colleges (the new name for technical schools) for apprentice programs. Many of these apprentices are now in their late 20s and have steadily risen in responsibility in these firms. We are seeing fewer kids opting for college and instead going this route. Toyota is building a huge EV battery making operation in our county and is literally hiring legions of late teens to twenty-somethings. Toyota is actively training them for jobs at a plant not opening until 2025. This is the reality for companies seeking to grow and meet their employment needs going forward. I think good days are ahead in the 2030s as more opportunities open up via non-college apprentice programs. I think good days are ahead with all manner of opportunities in the 2030s. In the meantime, there will be value opportunities arising for us value investors. Unsettled times create long term opportunities.
Uwharrie
