Seed Corn

Seed Corn

Bring a friend.

For centuries, farmers and agrarians have put away the best of their last harvest away for the next planting season.  This sounds like a no-brainer...but is often easier said than done.  On a recent trip to Mesa Verde, you could see the granary areas that were built to store crops across the long cold winter, sometimes several winters to hedge against a bad crop season in the future.  Similarly, farmers today carefully protect the seed they'll use for the upcoming season.  In the old days, the seed corn had to be saved from the pulls of literal hunger over the winter season.  Now, it's less visercal but similarly important to the financial bottom line and future of the farm.  

Study the 
crop.

To pull this into a parallel with family, it's important to set aside financial margin like what Dave Ramsey talks about in his Financial Peace series.  This can take the form of an emergency fund that stands between you and calamity.  Most research indicates the gold standard is six months of living expenses with adjustments for variables in your personal life.  It also takes the form of adequate insurance.  Having worked in the disaster management system for several decades, I can tell you that many people are not as thoroughly insured as they believe they are.  You should check your covered perils, any unique riders, and covered amounts as starting points. 

Save the best first.

Beyond the basics of "staying out of the ditch" in your financial life, the "seed corn" can take the form of solid systems like avoiding credit cards if you have any inkling of not paying them off every month.  When you have debt (any debt, not just credit cards), you end up spending tomorrow's money on yesterday's purchases.  Sometimes, with larger purchases like a home, it may be impractical (not impossible) to pay it in full at the time of purchase.  But, for many things, cars included, with a little foresight we can pay for it when we buy it.  To get to the financial peace, you need to get to an "I can afford it," not a "I can afford the payments" mentality.  

Study how those who came before did it.  

In this vein, some of the "seed corn" that we're talking about for those larger purchases can be set up in what are called "sinking funds."  We can look at a sinking fund as a bit of a modern day "envelope system."  To spell that out a bit, we can save ahead of time for known expenses like holidays, gifts, cars, home improvement upgrades, vacations, or whatever else.  We can find the full price, divide it by the amount of time we have left, then "pay that bill" to our future selves each month so that when the time comes to make the purchase...we've got the money.  This added margin helps you ensure that you get your purchases...not that the purchases get you.  

Go see the places to learn 
the importance of it all

Another part of this chat is looking at the timing aspect.  On a recent blog article, Ryan Michler talked about not stocking the woodpile in January.  In other words, the best time to stockpile things you might need...is...drum roll please...not when you might need them.  In terms of what we're talking about, that means setting aside investments for your future self (financial, relational, spiritual, etc) now, so that they can grow and you can leverage them later is an important way to set yourself up for long term success.  Want to see your grandkids grow up...start keeping up on your cardiac health...and pouring into your children so they'll want to share the grandkids with you...right now even when they're little.  

As we wrap it up for the week and go out separate ways, think about what seed corn you've set back so far in your life...what you have on autopilot to set back routinely...and what new investments you need to set back for tomorrow's tomorrow.  When you think about the strife and challenge the early Paleo Indians endured to grow a few ears of corn, managing to set back seed corn for seasons ahead it puts our struggles in perspective.  We can complain about lack of margin today...but compared to those early natives who survived in a hostile environment...for thousands of years...we don't have it so bad.  Your family and ours can likely make a few changes in order to create the margin necessary to not eat every kernel of corn at harvest time.  Your future selves will appreciate it.  

With you in the arena, from ours to yours...Happy Trails!

Call to Action: 

• Pick out three "sets of corn" that you're going to set back this week for times that may be full of strife and strugle ahead.  
• 1 - ___________________ 
• 2 - ___________________
• 3 - ___________________
• Discussion: Consider what you/your family could/would/should (level of commitment) and start/stop/sustain (action) in terms of investing your first fruits in important, family-tree altering ways.  

Further Reading, Motivation, and References:

- Ryan Michler Event