Household Accounting: Personal Financial Planning Tools for Household’s Debt Management: A Case Study of Ban Mae Khimook Community, Mae Chaem District, Chiang Mai Province

Abstract

                The purposes of this research were to study the basic economic information and current household accounting situations of Ban Mae Khimook Community, Mae Chaem District, Chiang Mai Province. The information obtained will be used to build a personal financial plan to decrease household debts. The research conducted using participatory action research (PAR) with 18 volunteer local farmers.

                The result showed that after the locals stopped planting corns, they lost their permanent source of income, which made them work many jobs. Some households were able to pay off their debts only in small amount. There were no increase in debt. Most have been informed about utilizing household accounting, however, only six families followed it. Although the locals were aware of the benefits of recording their transactions, the lack of incentive led to inconsistency. With this, a personal financial planning enabled the locals to set up financial goals such as reducing debt while refraining from creating new one, reducing expenses while increasing their revenue by using their lands for livestock farming and agriculture for consumption and sell the surpluses. They also made their own consumer goods for use, modified the Jok-weaving technique to other products. The community plans to save money to pay off debts and not requests for more loans to pay previous debts