CCFB News» February 2025

Last month, I wrote a column about the change to the membership requirement that COUNTRY Financial made at the start of this year.

The message:

Continue supporting your Cook County Farm Bureau by renewing your membership when the dues notice arrives in the mail.

And

Continue supporting COUNTRY Financial with your insurance needs.

Throughout this year, I plan on writing about the amazing “value proposition” your Cook County Farm Bureau membership offers for only pennies each day.

Speaking of pennies, when I was a kid, I really appreciated the pleasant sound emitted when rattling my piggy bank. Coins collected and stored represented a glorious promise of dreams to come true (mainly dreams of candy).

That promise grew when I was the advanced age of eight and I became a 4-H member. One of my 4-H projects was raising pigs. Selling those 4-H hogs moved me from piggy bank status to a passbook savings account (remember those?) status. That little blue covered passbook account journal had real money written in it, dollars… more than just those rattling pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters (now I dreamed of bags of candy).

I would study the passbook, reviewing my deposits and earned interest. As I saw those numbers charted in the passbook saving account, growing with each hog sold, I determined I must be a financial genius; selling those hogs at a wide profit margin and accumulating wealth. I was a big deal.

Later, as I added years to my brain, truth and reality set in. I was humbled to realize that Dad, the Farmer, gave me the piglets for free, supplied me feed and the bedding for the hogs, shared fencing and shelter for their health, provided farm equipment and trucking for their care, and offered to me free wisdom for the taking. My job was simply to remember to feed the hogs, keep the bedding clean, cool the hogs in the heat of July, fill out my 4-H records, listen, and try to learn something. At this, I was very “marginal” at best. It is a little late now but thanks Dad for your kindness and generosity. Those 4-H hogs provided me a “stronger than I deserved” financial start.

I was a teenager when that money started to burn a hole in my pocket. Yes, I learned the money was not really in my pocket nor in the passbook saving booklet but actually in the bank (in the small town of Little York, Illinois).

Off to the bank I went to access my life savings and, in the process, I got to know my bank. I can remember seeking assistance from the bank tellers on how to write out a check to receive cash. Those checks were like magic… Pieces of paper that became cash! I used that bank to turn checks into a fancy ten speed bicycle, a fancy cassette tape jam box, and eventually my first set of wheels. The bank was small, the bank employees knew my name, bowls of candy suckers (with the safety loop handle) were on the counter for the grabbing, and service was personal. Comfortable.

Since that time, society has seen many rural and urban banks merge and/ or consolidate. While some small, rural banks remain, they have become more difficult to find. Banks feel less personal and comfortable. Corporate.

However, I have found an outlier to Corporate. The IAA Credit Union (Illinois Farm Bureau Credit Union) reminds me of those rural banking days of my youth. The employees know my name. The personal service and offerings help me with finances (I bet they would even help me fill out a check). In fact, they would even offer me a candy sucker if they could deliver it through the website. Working with them is so comfortable.

Nostalgia is fine and dandy, but it does not pay the bills. The IAA Credit Union offers amazing interest rates when it comes to loans. My wife and I have had four mortgages and four auto loans through IAACU over the past 15 years. Each time we have “shopped” other places, the great rates, limited fees, and convenience offered by the IAA Credit Union brings us back.

There are also feelings involved. Back in 2020, when interest rates were so low that everyone was refinancing their mortgages, I remember calling Pam at the Credit Union to ask about refinancing. Pam adjusted our interest rate lower over the phone with a promise and a simple agreement letter…no reams of paper! Not your typical “Corporate” approach, I am guessing.

And best of all, access to the IAA Credit Union is available to anyone reading this column today as a Cook County Farm Bureau member.

What a value proposition by being a Cook County Farm Bureau member! And I can still pretend that I am a financial genius.