caitie leibman

THE SEEDS WE PLANT: Caitie reflects on a historical moment

by Caitie Leibman, CEO

More content from Caitie

Friends, March was Women’s History Month. It was also the end of my first quarter as CEO of Leibman Financial. I spent a lot of it learning new administrative duties—you know, all the ones Mark is allowed to forget now!

Of course, it’s Mark we have to thank for founding and leading LFS for the past 30 years. But I’m reflecting on Women’s History Month and what this moment means. Some of you remember my late mother and Mark’s late wife, Cathy Livingston Leibman. My mother was an entrepreneur, too, leading businesses out of our home when my siblings and I were little. She bought me my first business card holder, a reminder of her many gifts and her example.

Today this little case holds a brand-new card, with my new title. It’s got me thinking: I’ve felt so fortunate to get to know the wide variety of women we serve, from among our business partners, colleagues at other firms, and especially our clients.

Who are they? They’re women who work or run their own businesses, and those who don’t happen to earn a paycheck. We’ve worked with women who are teachers and drivers and hairdressers and architects—and everything in between. We’ve served straight women, queer women, and trans women. Some have gone to college. Some are retired from the trades. Some are widowed, some are partnered up, some are single.

The wondrous variety of these women makes one thing clear: there’s enough room for everyone. I’m thinking about all the different women who might find our firm and wonder if we’re here for them, whether a certain path could be theirs too.

In 2026, we’re committed to making our work more accessible and more easily available.

I enjoy the shade and sustenance of so much that was planted before my time—on Earth and at this firm! We have confidence that what we plant today at LFS will bear fruit for many seasons ahead. And whether the plans ripen during Women’s History Month or not, I’m sure they will still be history-making.

Want content like this in your inbox each week? Leave your email here.

Play the audio version of this post below:

The Seeds We Plant – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

This text is available at https://www.228Main.com/.

The Meaning of “Client-Centered

What does it mean for our business to be “client-centered”? (Wait, shouldn’t all business be “client-centered”?…) In this week’s video, Mark and Caitie talk about the role the firm plays in our relationships with you, what the client’s job is, and more.

Want content like this in your inbox each week? Leave your email here.

A Luck-Proof Mindset

“Who knows what is good and what is bad?” What an ancient parable has to teach us about getting a “luck-proof” approach to investing: a message from Caitie this week.

Want content like this in your inbox each week? Leave your email here.

Sorting Out Wants and Needs

We’re big fans of making the most of things. But it takes a little perspective to learn how to prioritize our goals. What are our very next needs? What are the wishes that can wait?

Want content like this in your inbox each week? Leave your email here.

How Many Hats at a Time?
The current image has no alternative text. The file name is: photo-workspace-1.png

Every once in a while, the schedule gets really and truly full. We might have places to be throughout the day, for many days in a row. Weeks might go on like this, in an exciting blur.

It’s not a bad problem to have, but sometimes, it can feel like we’re being pulled in more than one direction.

Some of you may experience this sensation too, as you also wear multiple hats in life. You may have commitments as a parent, an employee or an owner, a teacher, a partner, a community member, and more.

Here’s an idea that might provide some relief: we may have many hats, but we only wear one hat at a time. It’s okay to allow ourselves to focus on one at a time, even if we must switch hats often.

The same general principle is true about our financial goals: it may seem prudent to save for retirement, and a house, and a child’s education, and all the other things one may want in a lifetime… but the secret is that you don’t pay for these things on the same day, or week, or month, probably.

Having many hats doesn’t mean we can’t focus—and strategize. Time is finite, of course. But we take things one hat at a time.

Want content like this in your inbox each week? Leave your email here.

Play the audio version of this post below:

The Hats We Wear – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

This text is available at https://www.228main.com/.

Friendly Faces and Important Roles

Clients, it’s Caitie here. I’m so thrilled to introduce you to our newest teammate, Allison Bauers! In a small business, we tend to wear many hats, so this week, we’re chatting about how our roles and duties will change in the coming months.

Want content like this in your inbox each week? Leave your email here.

The Team Grows: Welcome, Allison! 

Friends, it’s been a season of change for Leibman Financial!

As many of you know already, Mark will be focusing on client work and research—and less on administrative duties—starting January 1, as Caitie takes on the front-facing CEO role.

Caitie has been serving as Director of Communications full-time since 2020, and our communications program has only grown in those years.

The team has committed to making our messaging more accessible, adding more audio and video in addition to our blog posts. We take pride in making our ideas available in multiple formats, to fit a variety of clients’ lives. We’ve been working to make our contact with you more timely, relevant, and consistent—without clogging up your inboxes!

As Caitie starts to flex her leadership muscles, it’s time to introduce our newest addition: a dedicated Director of Communications who can continue to foster our important connections with each of you. On that note, we’re pleased to introduce Allison Bauers as Leibman Financial’s next Director of Communications.

Allison is a Nebraska native, growing up on a farm near Auburn and moving to Cass County in the mid-1980s. She and her husband Larry raised their children in Louisville, where they were involved in the school system, community theater, and other endeavors over the years. Now they split their time between Nebraska and Arizona spending time with family and making their best attempt at exploring all of our National Parks and the wonders of this country.

Allison’s work includes decades in roles across the fields of education and communication, and her skills suit the demands of this role well. She tells us she is excited to join the team and grow in the specialty role that Caitie helped establish.

We’re already confident that Allison’s attitude and energy will bring fresh possibilities to the firm, as we work to continue to serve our clients in thoughtful new ways.

Communications will remain a team sport here at 228 Main, and we are thrilled to add Allison to that team. We hope you get a chance to meet her soon.

Welcome, Allison!

Want content like this in your inbox each week? Leave your email here.

Play the audio version of this post below:

The Team Grows: Welcome, Allison! – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

This text is available at https://228Main.com/.

Time Dividends

The best investors are also rich in another important resource: time. They know that spending habits matter, but it’s not just about investing our money. How do we get our time to pay us dividends? More on building this skill in this week’s video.

Want content like this in your inbox each week? Leave your email here.

Spend Well, for Impact 

The object of our work can be distilled into four words: Invest wisely, spend well.

You’ll notice that half those words have nothing to do with saving more, investing more, or putting off pleasure today in order to have more wealth tomorrow. They are a call to action for the present moment: spend well.

But who gets to do the spending? And for whose benefit?

(To put it more bluntly, as one of you has told us before, “I’m not living my life to make my kids rich.”)

We each have to decide what it means to spend well. Our spending habits have a chance to make an impression on the next generation. In fact, what we give away today might inspire even more generous habits in our offspring, or our neighbors, or our students.

It can be downright fun to spend today rather than waiting to leave our mark. Bequeathments, retirement gifts, and other forms of legacy planning can be fitting vehicles for our generosity, but for some people, it might also be prudent to consider what it is we’re waiting for.

If “enough is as good as a feast”—another gem one of you taught us!—then the excess might be spent in a specific direction, today.

A Donor Advised Fund (DAF) is one vehicle for committing to a charitable intent, whether or not the exact destination of the gift is known right now. Spending well might actually mean investing for someone else’s long haul: an organization or cause near and dear to us, a community effort that’s bigger than what any one of us could achieve alone.

This is what we do at 228 Main: help connect the resources we manage to their sources of meaning. We’re not accumulating wealth for the sake of having it. It’s what those resources might mean, what they might do.

But if you can “invest wisely,” you may end up with even more to “spend well”—both now and in the future. No guarantees, but this is what we strive toward: Invest wisely, spend well.

Clients, if you would like to talk about this or anything else, email us or call.

Investing involves risk including the potential loss of principal. No investment strategy can guarantee a profit or protect against loss. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.

Content in this material is for general information only and not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.

To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a decision.

This information is not intended to be a substitute for specific individualized tax advice. We suggest that you discuss your specific tax issues with a qualified tax advisor.

Want content like this in your inbox each week? Leave your email here.

Play the audio version of this post below:

Spend Well, for Impact – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

This text is available at https://www.228Main.com/.

What If a Hunch Was as Good as a Plan? 🤔

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” A new school year is underway, but it’s not just children who feel like they have to have answers to the big questions.

New clients will on occasion visit our office with apologies ready: they don’t exactly know what they want or what they might need in the future.

And that’s okay. Plans and hunches and visions… It’s all welcome.

Want content like this in your inbox each week? Leave your email here.