1 Off-farm Investment Behavior on Kansas Farms

The objective of this study was to find out how much money farm households are investing in stocks, bonds, and retirement accounts and to examine factors that might influence the investment amount. We used data from the Kansas Farm Management Association data bank for a sample of farms for 2002 and 2003. We examined both the cash inflow and the cash outflow of the farms to determine where all the money came from and went on these farms, and how much went into certain types of investments. Motivations for investing on and off the farm will be discussed.