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This study focuses on determining how Virginia farmers are planning for farm retirement and succession and whether they will be financially prepared for their retirement years. The Virginia farming population is aging, life expectancy is increasing, and Social Security benefits are not a stable source of retirement income presenting challenges for Virginia farmers who are planning to either retire from the family farm or transition it to the next generation. In this study a 59-item survey was sent to 2000 randomly selected Farm Credit agricultural customers. Results from the survey were analyzed using chi-square tests and correlations to determine statistically significant relationships between the variables. The analysis indicates that Virginia farmers planning to retire from the farm face high levels of debt and plan to sell the farm operation. Virginia farmers planning to transition the farm are generating higher profits from the farm operation and their successor has been identified. The majority of Virginia farmers are financially prepared for retirement with Social Security support; however, without supplemental income from Social Security the majority of the Virginia farming population is not financially prepared for retirement. The results indicate necessary action from the private, academic, and public sectors. Financial professionals should offer retirement planning seminars, academia should continue to research the issues, and the government should consider developing a savings plans specifically for the agricultural community that offer tax advantages. Master of Science

The Strumpel Behavioral Economic Model (1976) provided the conceptual framework for this study, along with the use of qualitative methodology proposed by McCracken (1988). Qualitative interviews were conducted with nine black small business owners in non-metropolitan central and southwestern Virginia. Analysis of the data revealed a common definition among the respondents. Retirement was viewed as a time when one could no longer work due to physical or mental impairments--not a time of voluntary removal from the workforce. Few formal arrangements had been made to provide for income during the period when these business owners could no longer work, while all had made plans for the disposition of the business upon their deaths. Social and cultural factors might have contributed to these small business owners’ failures to adequately plan for retirement. These factors were expressed in four themes which emerged from the interviews: a definition of retirement, interracial prejudice, intra-racial prejudice, and mentors. Prejudice by both whites and blacks within their communities had a negative effect on business earning. Mentors had an indirect relationship on retirement planning for these respondents. Contrary to the literature on minority small business owners, these respondents discussed the positive influence of mentors on their individual business practices and ethics -- if not retirement planning. The need exists for financial planning educators and practitioners to assist this population in accepting retirement planning as a future goal, in view of their self-definition of retirement. Planning is necessary to ensure accumulation of wealth and a means for that wealth to become retirement. income. By recognizing the definition of retirement as stated by the respondents, financial planning educators have a unique opportunity to educate this population as to the need for retirement planning. Lastly, financial counseling and planning practitioners have a opportunity to enter a truly untapped market for their expertise by serving the black community, in general, and small business owners, in particular. Master of Science