Growing Up on the Farm Teaches Great Lessons

This story of a young, frugal 4-Her brought back a flood of memories. I also was very active in 4-H, showing dairy cattle, achieving national champion status in the Home Improvement project through leadership and teaching others, and going on to become a 4-H agent in Minnesota after college. Memories of valuable life-lessons learned; halter training ornery calves is not much different from raising teenagers; preparing a demonstration on color and design is very similar to developing a marketing presentation in the corporate world. Hard work, family, and as shown in the example of Lindsay Binegar, saving your money for the really important things in life are all valuable lessons I learned while growing up on the farm.

Lindsay Binegar was 14 the first time she spent any winnings from years of showing hogs. She bought a purse. The second time, at 18, she splurged. She bought a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a two-car garage. And she paid in cash.

“I’ve never heard of a teenager buying a house,” said Nikki Gasbarro, spokeswoman for the Ohio Association of Realtors. “Smart girl.”

The Greenfield teenager has been saving money since she was 4 years old and won $100 showing a hog.

“I didn’t get the money; it went to the bank,” said Binegar, now a 19-year-old freshman at Ohio University’s Chillicothe branch.

And so the pattern began. She’d raise a few hogs every year on the family farm in Highland County, show them at competitions and add any winnings or sales proceeds to her savings account.

“She’s pretty tight,” said Lindsay’s dad, Gary. “She’s always been big into 4-H, and every penny she made she just banked.”

That included $15,540 for showing the reserve champion and grand champion hogs at the county fair in recent years.

By the time she graduated from Greenfield McClain High School last June, she had saved more than $40,000. Source: The Columbus Dispatch-Frugal Teen Buys House With 4-H Winnings

What are the life-lessons you have learned, or hope to teach your children, by growing up on the farm?