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3. 2026 Extension Risk Management Education National Conference

Strengthening Farm and Ranch Family Finances: Financial Wellbeing Toolkit

Maria Pippidis, Jesse Ketterman, Catherine Sorenson, Elizabeth Kiss, Laura Hendrix, Lorna Saboe-Wounded Head, and Kayla Marie Wells-Yoakum

Summary

This session will introduce you to the Strengthening Farm and Ranch Family Finances: Financial Wellbeing Toolkit including the development process and the Toolkit itself. Because farm family's finances can be complex, uncertain, and stressful, a national team of Extension Professionals conducted interviews with farmers and agriculture service providers to identify topics and strategies to help reduce financial stressors. Conducting a literature review determined that no comprehensive farm family finance resources existed and that a workbook format would be most helpful. Working with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) allowed the team to adapt the Your Money Your Goals resource to reflect the unique characteristics of farming households.
The goal of this Toolkit is to provide farm families with background information and worksheets (Tools) that help users take control of the household finances in a way that will unwind them from the farm business. Understanding and establishing clear financial boundaries, helps both the businesses and household make informed decisions that set them on a path to sustainable growth and financial wellbeing. The Tools help users take into account seasonality of income, expenses and debt as well as identify family savings goals, identify shared priorities, communicate effectively, plan for short term and long term initiatives and protect their financial information.
The 11 Modules can be used in consecutive order or individually based on needs. Each Module includes a short introduction to the topic and worksheets (Tools) that can be personalized for the family’s specific information.

Details

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