- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor

Last night I was given the last monthly payment on a loan I made five years ago to someone opening his own business.
We sat and talked about how we could never have known then what we know now, how time had flown, what had changed and what had not. He thanked me for supporting a decision he is glad he made. It was a satisfying milestone for both of us.

After my own little store died in a fire, one of the things I missed was having a tiny part in the success of others – as an employer, a customer and a promoter of local producers. So I jumped when I had the opportunity again to invest in some of my neighbours,.

My money is invested in people. I knew some of them well, others I have come to know and respect.
Some were men, some women, some couples, mostly young but not all. Some are still in the venture they started, and others have been taken in other directions.

Here is a decade or so of their projects:

• converting a civic property into a residence and respite care
• a Grey County small local food store and cafe
• a cooler for a local bakery
• a post-graduate education at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government
• Eat Local Grey Bruce
• fencing for a Grey County mixed farm
• re-settling money for a woman who needed it
• a young woman's first house, in Owen Sound
• a local brew-pub with a young brewmaster
• the Owen Sound Hub – an investment in myself

Just for comparison, I invested in the usual RRSPs back in the day, mostly for tax savings. I enjoy my annual visit with my financial consultant, but I don't really know where my money is or what exactly is in those "balanced funds". The quarterly reports don't make me grin like an annual e-transfer from my neighbour does, and they sometimes have minus signs that are no fun at all. I'm slowly drawing that money out because there have been more interesting things to invest in right here in the area.

All the investments have paperwork – some one page, two signatures - some very official. The monetary return on investment is a mutually agreed upon rate that's better than the mattress or a GIC.
I never loan money that I cannot afford to lose, because we never know what time will bring and there are no guarantees in life. To date, I have received every penny of principal and interest that was promised. In two cases, by terms of the agreement, payment was in delicious locally-grown food.

I am very grateful that I have the privilege of doing this because people invested in me. Anyone who generously gifted me money when the store burned down and we had commitments to keep, but who now needs or wants that money back, please let me know and I will quickly oblige. (This is the year the government pays me just for living this long, so there'll soon be a little more in the kitty each month.)

My "portfolio" is currently full, but I hope I will have the opportunity to be part of another adventure some day.