TENDING TO THE FLOWERS: Each season makes way for the next

by Whitney Engle, Client Services Coordinator

More content from Whitney

We were talking as a team the other day when Mark brought up a vivid memory from his first summertime job. He worked at Peony Park in Omaha, Nebraska, an entertainment venue that included everything from an amusement park and a swimming pool with a third of a mile of beach, to a dance hall and picnic grounds.  

You’d think the first memory to flood back might have been a thrill ride or the Sprite Nite dances. But Mark remembered something else. 

Walking through the park each day to get to work at the pool, Mark passed an old fellow, dressed in overalls, working in the flower beds. Day in and day out, the man tended the garden. For a long time, Mark didn’t know what he was witnessing. 

Turns out, the Malec family’s early businesses capitalized on a neighboring peony farm: Joe Malec, now of the overalls, was one of three brothers who started what became Peony Park. Fifty years later, it had blossomed into a major force in the community. 

As a kid, Mark found it odd. Wouldn’t a founder have more important things to do? 

With age comes wisdom. Fast-forward another fifty years: Mark understands why Joe was in the flower beds. Between his own efforts and the help of his descendants, Joe found the freedom to focus on what he enjoyed the most. Sure, tending the flowers wasn’t the flashiest work, but that is how he wanted to spend his time. 

Mark doesn’t have overalls, but he too gets to “tend the flowers” now, doing what he loves most: talking with you and trying to find new investment opportunities. He spends half his time in Louisville, the other half working from afar—focusing more on making memories and building relationships. 

Leibman Financial Services is now a team of seven, so Mark no longer has to be a jack of all trades. You can reach out to any one of our advisors to get the same service and care as if you were talking to the founder himself. So, if you ever try to schedule a meeting with Mark and he’s not available right away, please remember that just like a farm, the firm is a team activity. 

Doing work you love, for a living, is a true blessing. Thank you for being a part of our story. 

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Play the audio version of this post below:

Tending to the Flowers – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

The text of this episode is available at ⁠www.228Main.com⁠.

Distracted by Shiny Objects?

“There’s gold in them thar hills!” Gold and the rush to grab it have fascinated Americans for so long.  

We’ve been hearing again about the allure of it and other precious metals as investments. Hear from Greg on whether the enchantment makes sense for us.

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Where are you on the ride?

Anybody else remember the drop of your stomach when your folks drove a hilly country road and you weren’t expecting the quick downhill drop? We never knew when the highs and lows or the next turn was coming—sounds a lot like the markets, doesn’t it? 

Where are you on the ride? Check out Caitie’s take on thrill rides and the rhythms of the markets this week

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The Trip of a Lifetime

If you’re looking for an excuse to give up, you’ll always find one. How to change the tire and get back on the road.

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The Choices You Make on Payday 

For our youngest clients, payday is a big deal.

If you’ve just graduated high school or college, or are early in your career, we’d point you to the importance of the choices you’re making each and every payday. Retirement may be one financial “destination” you’re working toward, but there’s something exciting about enjoying the little steps along the way.

What can you do for yourself each and every payday?

Pay Yourself First.

This is one of the fundamental tenets of financial planning: save a portion of everything you earn for later. That portion is your “savings rate,” and maybe you start it at 1% or 4% of every paycheck.

Then you increase it by 1% a year until you start to build up some nice sums across the years, and this becomes the raw material of your future retirement! Say you get a raise your second year on the job: put half that raise away for retirement. So if you get a 4% raise, add 2% to your savings rate.

You may hear figures like saving 10 or 15%, but that doesn’t always make sense to begin so high. Young adults need to start buying groceries and paying for electricity—and have decades ahead to build up their wealth.

Settle Up the Past. Another choice on payday is to take care of past debt. Watch out for carrying expensive (high-interest!) debt for too long. If you’re paying 8, 10, or even 12%, you should put some serious thought into paying off that debt before you consider saving or investing that money.

If you pay off $5,000 of credit card debt that you are paying 12% interest on, your $5,000 “investment” will save you $50 a month, $600 a year, like clockwork. You’d be hard-pressed to find any other investment that will pay you that kind of return—and if you did, it would likely have many risks associated with it.

But once you pay off your debt, those interest payments are gone forever. Consider if it would make sense to settle up anything from your past.

Invest for Future You. If you happen to be starting a job with an employer-sponsored 401(k) retirement plan, consider enrolling so that an automatic contribution is made out of your paycheck every pay cycle. Ask if your employer matches contributions, and consider maxing out that match. We don’t want to leave “free money” on the table.

When you are a long way from retirement, you can afford to take a long view with the investments you choose for the plan: various investments ask you to commit to either the chance for short-term stability or the chance for long-term returns, but you can’t really have a shot at both at once.

Investments that promise a stable value tomorrow or next year do nothing for you in your real life when you are decades away from retiring. You might aim for higher returns instead.

In Conclusion: The Joy of the Journey

This is basic financial literacy you can use any payday, especially for those just starting out.

As always, everyone’s situation is a little bit different, and we’re more than happy to discuss the particulars of your situation with you: even if you never open an account in our shop, we believe that anyone might build a stronger future when they’re able to pay themselves first, settle up the past, and invest in their future selves in whatever way they can!

It may seem hard to imagine a destination that may be decades away, a big goal like retirement. Instead, it’s much easier to get in the habit of enjoying small steps along the way—the things you can do each and every payday.

That’s the joy of the journey.

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.

All investing involves risk including loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss.

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Play the audio version of this post below:

Tending to the Flowers – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

The text of this episode is available at ⁠www.228Main.com⁠.

Being True to Yourself

Pride Month reminds us of the courage it takes to embrace our own sense of things. That same dedication to individuality matters in our professional and financial lives, too—because true progress only happens when we stay anchored to our own integrity. What does megastar Taylor Swift have to teach us about trusting your gut? We break it down in this week’s video.

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Was Hamilton Keeping Up with the Joneses? 

As people achieve financial freedom, some feel compelled to display more and more of their wealth. It may come from pride or social ambition or something harder to name.

In the musical Hamilton, the characters frequently admit, “I will never be satisfied.” This is the trap of buying for show, manifesting itself in expensive homes, luxury products, and conspicuous consumption.

Even Alexander Hamilton, who built the national financial system we still use today, struggled with this concept. He focused so heavily on the appearance of being a gentleman that historians say he nearly left his family destitute.

The paradox is that those who strive to look rich may never actually accumulate much in the way of assets. Meanwhile, those who choose to be rich may have a better chance of learning to spend well. They come to be able to afford vehicles that provide the most comfort, homes that make daily life better, generosity to descendants or causes, and travel to dream destinations.

But they didn’t get there by choosing a drawer full of $10,000 watches when perfectly adequate $39 watches exist.

As the show reminds us, “Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now.” It’s what Alexander Hamilton kept missing, that mix of investing for the future while enjoying what’s available today. He struggled to find joy in the comfort of home, the ability to travel, or working toward the financial security of his family’s future.

We may not want to follow his example, but the show provides other options. There is a beautiful line that defines legacy as “planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.” We only control our own choices. The everyday millionaires learn this early. A well-managed portfolio is one way of planting that garden (or orchard) for the people who come after us.

If you would like to talk about this or anything else, please email or call.

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Play the audio version of this post below:

Tending to the Flowers – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

The text of this episode is available at ⁠www.228Main.com⁠.

HOW DO YOU MEASURE A YEAR?

How do you measure a year in the life? Our former CEO Mark Leibman is celebrating a handful of exciting milestones! We’d love for you to take a minute to hear all about it from Mark himself.

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Wellness Wishes from Your Past Self

What would I have to learn if I could talk to my past self? Or my future self?

There are some mental exercises that might help us reflect on our goals, but here’s what I’m wondering: What do truck stop chili dogs have to teach me?

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THE SINGLE BEST INVESTMENT FOR NEW GRADS? 

Dear Grads,

You’re probably receiving a lot of unsolicited advice right now. We happen to love talking about finances all day, so we hope you’ll forgive one hot tip, a piece of investment advice that could last you the rest of your life.

Keep investing in yourself.

This investment adjusts for inflation, and it grows along with you! When we invest in ourselves, we are seeking to improve our value to others. The more valuable we make ourselves, the more an employer or customer might pay us. Not to mention, improving ourselves often leads to more interesting and rewarding life experiences.

You have intangible assets that led you to this moment: remember, not everyone earns a diploma or degree. Don’t take for granted the skills, knowledge, strengths, and abilities that you’ve developed already. All those qualities add up to form your “human capital,” the value you might contribute through your work and your community in the years to come.

Great news: many aspects of human capital are free. Years ago, we knew a senior officer at a large publicly traded company whose most obvious superpower was kindness. After they moved on to a role somewhere else, people familiar with them always remembered that trademark feature—how the executive had helped them in the past, how they had made people feel.

Kindness is free. So are dependability, enthusiasm, diligence, and all the other traits people appreciate in each other. They can be developed, like muscles.

Other aspects of human capital require time and money, sometimes lots of both. Think of the education and training required of surgeons, for example. Choosing your educational path and planning a career are beyond the scope of this note, but you might consider how you make your choices.

How will the path help you be of service to those around you? What impact would you like to make in your corner of the world, as you move through it? You have a chance to create value, no matter where you’re headed next.

Developing your human capital is the foundation of building wealth. Whether it’s growing your earning potential on the job, choosing a new path as your talents develop, or finding a way to invest to leave a legacy, the power of compounding starts now, from the skills that got you here.

It all starts here, and it’s the one piece of investment advice that could last your lifetime. But hey, that’s just our two cents.

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Play the audio version of this post below:

Tending to the Flowers – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

The text of this episode is available at ⁠www.228Main.com⁠.