Baling out

[Walterp]

An astute friend once took me for a cup of coffee during a break in a Court list, and laid out his retirement plan on a table in a Llandovery café one bright Summer morning. He aimed to save £400,000 out of the profits of his practice, invest it all in a range of pension policies, and then spend the rest of his life pottering about his small farm in the green and undulating Carmarthenshire hills, cashing the cheques as they came in.

We both sat there in our pinstripes, each thinking our separate thoughts, both of us looking forward to doing a bit of pottering.

My colleague achieved his plan during his forties; simply reached the £400,000 total, and dispassionately baled out. As far as I know, he potters still on his small farm with no regrets, one of several retired solicitors I know who dabble - with greater or lesser success - at farming as an enjoyable alternative to high-pressure professional practice. (Trust me, it is certainly high-pressure if you're trying to save £400,000 from taxed income).

But it doesn't work in reverse - farmers don't say to themselves 'I'll stop when I've got enough'. As far as I can see, they don't even say 'I'll stop' - either their wife, or their doctor, says it for them, if the undertaker doesn't say it first.

This made sense, perhaps, when farm businesses were modest affairs. Rising costs and increased scale suggests, to me at least, that UK agriculture is no longer the stress-free alternative it once was, yet farmers never plan to bale out.

It must be because the job is so enjoyable.

 

[unlacedgecko]

An astute friend once took me for a cup of coffee during a break in a Court list, and laid out his retirement plan on a table in a Llandovery café one bright Summer morning. He aimed to save £400,000 out of the profits of his practice, invest it all in a range of pension policies, and then spend the rest of his life pottering about his small farm in the green and undulating Carmarthenshire hills, cashing the cheques as they came in.

We both sat there in our pinstripes, each thinking our separate thoughts, both of us looking forward to doing a bit of pottering.

My colleague achieved his plan during his forties; simply reached the £400,000 total, and dispassionately baled out. As far as I know, he potters still on his small farm with no regrets, one of several retired solicitors I know who dabble - with greater or lesser success - at farming as an enjoyable alternative to high-pressure professional practice. (Trust me, it is certainly high-pressure if you're trying to save £400,000 from taxed income).

But it doesn't work in reverse - farmers don't say to themselves 'I'll stop when I've got enough'. As far as I can see, they don't even say 'I'll stop' - either their wife, or their doctor, says it for them, if the undertaker doesn't say it first.

This made sense, perhaps, when farm businesses were modest affairs. Rising costs and increased scale suggests, to me at least, that UK agriculture is no longer the stress-free alternative it once was, yet farmers never plan to bale out.

It must be because the job is so enjoyable.

Tax advantages of dying as an "active farmer"?

Emotional attachment to inherited family farms?

Refusal to face one's own mortality, hence lack of succession planning?

Lack of anything else to do with their lives?

All the above are guesses in my part.

I know a couple of farmers with a clear and defined bail out plan. Mostly they revolve around constructing passive income streams, be they share milkers, rental properties or sales.

Personally, I intend on having 25 years of enjoyment as I attempt to build my large scale profitable enterprise. Whatever I manage to acquire in that time I'll give to my son, as long as I can live rent free on the property till I die. If he doesn't want to run it (what ever "it" is), he can put a manager in, or wind it down to retirement level for me, then sell the lot on my death.

I probably won't get there, but the work is its own reward in a way.

Having said that, I fully intend on having passive income streams set up along the way. Profitable, tax efficient, low stress ideas on a post card please!

 

[unlacedgecko]

What's your bail out plan @Walterp? Or are you living your retirement life having bailed out of law?

 

[CornishTone]

What's your bail out plan @Walterp? Or are you living your retirement life having bailed out of law?

I think Walters retirement plan is to spend his time baiting terminally outraged TFF’ers! He seems to have a gift for it![emoji57]

 

[FonterraFarmer]

I think Walters retirement plan is to spend his time baiting terminally outraged TFF’ers! He seems to have a gift for it![emoji57]

One thinks that you understand the situation quite quickly and have the ability to make an accurate judgement!

 

[Henarar]

I think Walters retirement plan is to spend his time baiting terminally outraged TFF’ers! He seems to have a gift for it![emoji57]

I thought it was to let the misses get on with the work while doing the above

 

[Hilly]

An astute friend once took me for a cup of coffee during a break in a Court list, and laid out his retirement plan on a table in a Llandovery café one bright Summer morning. He aimed to save £400,000 out of the profits of his practice, invest it all in a range of pension policies, and then spend the rest of his life pottering about his small farm in the green and undulating Carmarthenshire hills, cashing the cheques as they came in.

We both sat there in our pinstripes, each thinking our separate thoughts, both of us looking forward to doing a bit of pottering.

My colleague achieved his plan during his forties; simply reached the £400,000 total, and dispassionately baled out. As far as I know, he potters still on his small farm with no regrets, one of several retired solicitors I know who dabble - with greater or lesser success - at farming as an enjoyable alternative to high-pressure professional practice. (Trust me, it is certainly high-pressure if you're trying to save £400,000 from taxed income).

But it doesn't work in reverse - farmers don't say to themselves 'I'll stop when I've got enough'. As far as I can see, they don't even say 'I'll stop' - either their wife, or their doctor, says it for them, if the undertaker doesn't say it first.

This made sense, perhaps, when farm businesses were modest affairs. Rising costs and increased scale suggests, to me at least, that UK agriculture is no longer the stress-free alternative it once was, yet farmers never plan to bale out.

It must be because the job is so enjoyable.

First time for everything in life , a sensible post from wattyp.

 

[CornishTone]

One thinks that you understand the situation quite quickly and have the ability to make an accurate judgement!

One wonders whether TFF provides him, and a certain other contributor, with a modest income, to keep him in a manner to which he has become accustomed in his dotage, in return for strategic outrage?!







Me? Cynical? Noooooo!

 

[Phil P]

Why would you give up a job that you love and gives such a feeling of achievement and self worth! It’s only the pen pushing bureaucrats that feel the constant need to justify there own existence that have made the job difficult and made the country the way it is!
Would people survive without bureaucracy and the suit men who aspire to be hobby farmers I’m pretty sure they could manage, try living without farmers though.

 

[gatepost]

I was digging a post hole out , got down to the bit were your arse is in the air and your head in the hole, along comes a local who happens to be a dentist, ''Oh I'd like to do your job''' says he, now, a few years later he wanders about with his dogs and a golf club in retirement, and I guess you know were my head still is, the difference is, I still have a sense of purpose and useful ness (a view not always shared by the other half though!).

 

[wasted years]

I was digging a post hole out , got down to the bit were your arse is in the air and your head in the hole, along comes a local who happens to be a dentist, ''Oh I'd like to do your job''' says he, now, a few years later he wanders about with his dogs and a golf club in retirement, and I guess you know were my head still is, the difference is, I still have a sense of purpose and useful ness (a view not always shared by the other half though!).

Maybe he likes an al sex and that's his favourite position.

 

[roscoe erf]

I plan to live for ever or die trying

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Most farmers i know farm for their childrens future, all their money is invested in the farm so what are they to do , answers are never easy as they seem

 

[4course]

if said friend is still pottering whats a rough guess as to his income from his 400000 pension pot?

 

[gatepost]

Maybe he likes an al sex and that's his favourite position.

Ah that might explain his dogs names, Ben, Dover and Phil, McCavity .

 

[milkloss]

First time for everything in life , a sensible post from wattyp.

Sensible it may be. What annoys me is that he’s just answered most of his own whingeing tosh he’s been writing for the last few months.

 

[Jackov Altraids]

Is the average age of farmers evidence that this is a healthy thing to do?.......
Are farmers trend setters as the idea of enjoying a long working life abbreviated with periods of relaxation becomes popular.
There are hundreds of reasons not to bale out and up to now, for most it is a happy choice with most farms probably being debt free.
It is a worry that those how have become highly leveraged in more recent times will have the bleak choice of lose everything or keep going.

 

[roscoe erf]

Ah that might explain his dogs names, Ben, Dover and Phil, McCavity .

was his name turner brown

 

[Nick Adams]

There is the lifestyle element. I cut out; the rehearsals, years on the road, drink, drugs, wild parties, pestering from groupies that the rockstars endure. And went straight to being an Organic farmer.

 

[Woolly]

… Whatever I manage to acquire in that time I'll give to my son, as long as I can live rent free on the property till I die.

I think that may have tax implications. Perhaps an accountant can advise...?