chapters of life

Thirty Years—and Counting
By Mark Leibman, President

50 years ago, I was finishing my first semester of college at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

40 years ago, I became registered to work with investment products.

30 years ago, I affiliated with LPL Financial—December 1994.

That connection was the seed that sprouted into the business you see today, Leibman Financial Services at 228Main.com, online and on Main. We are an SEC-registered Investment Advisor, LPL still custodies client assets and provides services, and I remain a registered representative of LPL.

We might not be here today if not for two features of our relationship with LPL. The first is the spirit of independence, the freedom to build our business to fit our vision—not theirs.

The second is the unwavering support through the years for the voice of the advisor in digital media.

For a while in the middle, the health of my high school sweetheart became an existential crisis. I needed the business for the health insurance and resources to keep her alive. But her care required so much of my time that I could not communicate one-on-one with our clients, as I had before, in the volumes needed to maintain relationships.

That LPL Financial supported our voice in 21st century communications made all the difference. Email newsletters, blog posts, videos, social media—with these, we could talk with all of our clients at once.

Cathy Livingston Leibman fought for years after diagnosis, saw children marry and grandbabies born, before she passed. And I learned, in the daily triage of life, how to focus on the essentials like never before.

The business thrived in the face of adversity, becoming too large for me to operate by myself. So we transformed the investment advisory work into an enterprise, collaboratively owned and managed by three next-gen family members and me. We are now better built for the decades ahead.

And I have more time than ever to talk with you.

We have choices in our affiliations. The choice I made thirty years ago has stood up, and I hope it always will. In a time when allegiances are bought and sold, and short-term profit drives a lot of business decision-making, playing the long game is a competitive advantage.

Clients, that’s how we work with you, that is how we conduct our own affairs, that is why we are marking this 30th anniversary.

Thank you all, for everything.

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30 Years—and Counting – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

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Looking Back from 68 
by Mark Leibman, President

Fifty-six years ago, I got my first paper route.

Forty-seven years ago, my first license to work with financial products.

Thirty years ago, the beginnings of what became the enterprise that serves you today.

Looking back from age 68, I realize that delivering something of value for money was at the heart of that first entrepreneurial endeavor—and remains core to our work at 228 Main.

I’ll never forget the speaker I once heard at a business conference, the one who began with a visualization exercise. Exactly how much money did we want to be making three years from now, he wanted to know. He told us to write the number down and to look at it morning, noon, and night.

His second point was about the importance of being client-centered.

I thought, “Hmm. You can only be ‘centered’ on one thing, and this fellow is centered on money.” Then I walked out.

From the vantage point of my 68th birthday, I see the compounding miracle of being focused on your outcomes. The better off you are, the better off we are—it is a win-win situation. And who knows how that arrangement might continue to build between now and my retirement at age 92? (Only 24 more years to go until that retirement party!)

Some financial types pander to people’s fears, so that they can “save” their clients with right “solutions” (which often happen to be their own products and services). We have always sought to build your confidence to invest successfully, to grow your buckets. Fear shuts down our ability to think—which is one of the reasons positivity pays, in our opinion. If we can keep our heads while all about us are losing theirs, we are in a contest of wits with unarmed opponents.

I still can’t envision walking away from the best clients in the world. If it doesn’t feel like work, is it really a job? And my associates are the best teammates in the world. We’ve built an enterprise; our capabilities as a team are vastly greater than what I had to work with at the kitchen table, back in the last century.

Thank you all, for everything, to this point. Here’s to the next 24 years. That retirement party will be in May 2048, details to follow.

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Looking Back from 68 – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

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What We Mean by “Plans and Planning”

Clients, when we say “plans” and “planning,” what exactly is it that we’re talking about? From Day 1, our conversations center on you: your goals, your concerns, and how your life and your money work together. So planning, we believe, includes any and all topics that affect your financial wellbeing. 

Our planning services are included as part of our process working with clients. Some investment advisory shops do bill separately for time spent selling “Financial Plans,” so it bears mentioning that we do not. 

Instead, we tend to use wide-ranging planning conversations throughout our relationship. They’re handy when we’re first meeting each other, and they give us useful talking points over time, like when we’re reconnecting at or in between our annual reviews. 

Not every client will bring up the same topics or concerns, but generally, people’s questions tend to focus on some similar desires. Maybe some of these statements resonate with you: 

  • “I want to figure out how to organize my finances.” 
  • “I want to feel like I’m financially secure, independent, or free.” 
  • “I want to be able to support the life I want to live.” 
  • “I want to be able to create the legacy I have in mind.’” 

These desires are not universal, and they’re not necessarily linear. Not everyone moves through them like one step to the next, and sometimes we loop back around to revisit them again and again. And they take some thoughtfulness to maintain. 

But you might notice these four items do capture some trends and progressions. They cover a range of chapters in our lives—from getting started, to getting a grip on things, and then to getting what we want out of the whole deal. Once we know where we are in the process, it can be easier to get down to the details. 

Consider some examples. 

“I want to figure out how to organize my finances.” Does my monthly cash flow comfortably cover my outlays? Where does my time and money go right now? How is my job or career outlook? What are some good first steps for me given where I am? 

“I want to feel like I’m financially secure, independent, or free.” Do I have what I need in terms of an emergency fund and a support network? What demands affect my cash flow now and in the near-future? What financial challenges and financial goals can I anticipate in the coming chapters of my life? 

“I want to be able to support the life I want to live.” Am I living where I’d like to live? Working how I’d like to work? Enjoying what I’d like to enjoy? How do my saving, spending, and investing align with what I want now and what I want later? 

“I want to be able to create the legacy I have in mind.” What’s on my heart? What estate or charitable considerations are on the horizon? What opportunities have presented themselves? What impact would I like to have? 

Clients, our operation is continuing to grow, and we need to be able to serve you not only in the months and years ahead—but for the decades ahead! Your beneficiaries and the generations to come will be better served if we’re thinking about how this work persists beyond any one of us. 

That’s why we’re taking the time here to try to define our terms.  

It’s important that we’re on a common mission here. Financial planning prompts like these aren’t a script, and they aren’t something that will be “one-size-fits-all.” Instead, they give us a jumping off point. They give us somewhere to start from or begin again—together. 

Are we due for a conversation? Call the shop or send us a message, anytime. 

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What We Mean by "Plans and Planning" – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

This text is available at https://228main.com/2023/06/21/what-we-mean-by-plans-and-planning/.

65+ and Single

 

photo shows a person in silhouette sitting on a mountain ridge

While a lot of retirement planning information seems to be aimed at couples, statistics show that large fractions of those in the 65+ demographic are single. Pew Research reports that 21% of men and 49% of women in that category are single (i.e., not married nor living with a partner). 

Some are single by choice. Others were not planning to be single in retirement but are, due to death or divorce. When decades-old assumptions about our future become obsolete, it can be disorienting. My work has given me the opportunity to learn from many of you in that position.  

Adjusting our long-held plans can be a mixed bag. More than one person has expressed to me the joy of answering to no one but themselves, having the freedom to make decisions without debate. A year into widowhood, another person sold a home of thirty years and moved, expressing the sense that the new place was truly theirs. It was the only dwelling they’d ever chosen solely for their own reasons. 

My wife and I were nearly a decade into a snowbird lifestyle when she passed. I thought I would always live in Florida at least part-time, as we had been. After being adrift by myself for more than a year, the clouds parted and I saw an answer I never anticipated: I came back to Nebraska as my full-time home. 

And then again, others remain in the homes that had served them in life as part of a couple, because the same dwellings continue to serve them well. 

Adjustments are often needed in many parts of our lives. Recreation and hobbies we enjoyed as couples may not work for us as singles. Our decisions about work may change. How we eat, exercise, and travel may shift as well. 

The pain of sudden surprises like death and divorce remind us that life is always a mix: joy and pain. On the worst days, it pays to remember the duality—there are two parts to that notion, and joy and pain aren’t whole concepts without each other. 

When these periods of transition arrive, it seems pretty universally helpful to have someone to bounce ideas off of, to review plans and planning with, and to talk decisions over with. From a practical standpoint, the loss of a partner often means losing the person with whom we used to talk things over. It’s a sensation many people have told me about.  

All this is to say, clients, you can talk to me. I’m here to listen when you need to kick an idea around, or rethink something that needs to change because circumstances have changed. Been there, done that – we are all on different journeys, but I’ve been on some of those same roads. Email me or call whenever you might need to talk. 

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65+ and Single – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

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22, 44, 66: My Life in Thirds

My birthday is approaching, and I’m ruminating about the meaning of another year in the life—but you already know how much I like to take a step back, get the big picture, and imagine the long view.

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A Birthday Approaches
photo shows a carousel with a city in the background

My birthday is approaching, and I’m ruminating about the meaning of another year in the life—but you already know how much I like to take a step back, get the big picture, and imagine the long view.

22, 44, 66—or, my life in thirds.

I’m thinking about my life in thirds: 22 years of getting ready, 22 years of gaining experience, and 22 years building this lovely enterprise at 228 Main. That’s right, I’m turning 66, wondering what the next 22 years will bring.

It feels like the years ahead will be about growing the team that runs the firm, building capabilities and capacity, putting the next generation in position to do better work than ever for you—and for the coming generations, too.

While we work to refine our methods and strategies and tactics, we’ll honor the same principles we always have, and we’ll live by the same values: the better off you are, the better off we will likely be. So the center of our work will always be about striving to grow your buckets, to focus on your outcomes.

I’m down to my last 26 years now… Mark your calendars for the retirement party: May 27, 2048!

I appreciate you for being with me on this journey thus far. Thank you. I would not trade my spot with any of the other 7 billion of us, it’s been so good.

Stop in and see us, anytime.

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A Birthday Approaches – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

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Growth Expectations and Searching the Bargain Bin
photo shows a pair of binoculars sitting on their case

I’m familiar with someone known to venture out on sunny weekend mornings to wander local garage sales. Their first target, wherever they stop, is usually to the area marked “FREE.” This is the stuff that the sellers don’t want so badly they wouldn’t even bother with a price tag.

My acquaintance is a bargain hunter. They know that there’s a chance they find something that can be repurposed or reused, that could bring them value far beyond the cost of finding it.

We here at 228 Main spend much of our research time searching for bargains, too. Occasionally, this takes us to Mr. Market’s version of the “FREE” table—things that seem so undervalued by most investors, we may get rewarded. These opportunities get to a point where things can’t possibly be as bad as people are saying (no guarantees, mind you).

But as we’ve been growing, our thinking on this has stretched a little. Sure, we still dig for the bargains of old, but we are also looking at things that our fellow bargain hunters might call “overvalued.”

When a stock is labeled as “overvalued” (by us, the financial news outlets, Wall Street…), typically the labeler is leaving out the “right now” part.

Since we’re investors, aimed at the long haul, the “right now” part is less interesting to us. Instead…

  • How long does “right now” last?
  • Is the price fair right now knowing that we’re buying for the next 3–5 years?
  • Are we paying a reasonable price for the next… however many years of future growth?

Again, we can’t promise that future growth pans out, but a good story, an intriguing product mix, and some competent management are all things we’re considering for these growth-y companies. It’s exciting.

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

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525,600 Minutes

“How do you measure a year in the life?”

Jonathan Larson wrote those lyrics for the 1996 Broadway musical Rent, but today they strike a chord in me.

One year ago, I had two homes, four vehicles, and a life split between Florida and Nebraska. I was a year into this new chapter—as a widower—with many options and a lot to figure out. Life was unsettled.

“How do you measure a year in the life?” Had two places: left them, moved to one new place. Had four vehicles: dumped three, added one to end with two. Used to swim laps in the sunshine for health: now I walk in all kinds of weather. Had a Floribraska snowbird lifestyle: came back as a full-time Cornhusker. Used to split my workdays between the Florida home and the shop in BDL (beautiful downtown Louisville!): ended up “on Main,” as we say.

“525,600 minutes…” The mid-century modern home in Louisville is what started it. Driving over to see it with my realtor the day it listed, I kept thinking, “I need another house like I need a puppy! This is stupid.” But the home charmed me very quickly, and I realized I needed just one place—that one. Fortunately, I was in a position to purchase it. Then other pieces fell into place quite quickly.

That question of location seems pressing for a lot of people in the wake of a loss or a change in the household. In the year after Cathy passed, I too was wondering where I should spend my time, but I should have been thinking with whom I will spend it. It just took me getting settled back here to realize it.

The people I care about are mostly concentrated around here. Reconnecting with the community, the place I lived most of my life, has been a joy. And rededicating myself to business has been invigorating.

A year into it, I’m happy here—I would not trade with anybody.

Resources create options, which are handy when circumstances change our plans. I’m so grateful for you, the best clients in the world, who are such a large part of my life. That I came out of the hard years still connected to you is a blessing for which I will always be grateful.

Clients, if you would like to talk about your plans and planning or anything else, please email me or call.

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525,600 Minutes – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

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Old Guys, New Chapters?
photo shows the sun rising over a lake in Louisville, Nebraska

Friends, I’ve been struck by the number of widowers in my circle—and saddened by the number who have joined this club recently. Although we learn early that mortality is universal, we each travel quite personal, individual journeys through these transitions.

I’m noticing, however, that there are things that seem to come up often as I talk with those of you who are in this spot. I may be more aware of them because of my own experiences in the two years since Cathy’s passing. Let me talk through some of these issues.

A change in goals. We may embrace major life goals as a part of a couple that suddenly do not fit our new status. One person shared with me that what had been the couple’s “forever home” was not a good fit for a single retiree; renting a small place made more sense for this individual.

Another person told me their big retirement idea—to move to a warmer place where the spouse had connections—was not going to work anymore.

In my case, the dream home we bought to make Cathy’s last years better did not make sense for me anymore (although it took me more than a year to realize this). My overall vision was changing.

A change in spending. As a result of these changing goals and plans, often household spending decreases. The survivor requires less in the way of financial resources, so legacy issues may become more prominent: assets from one chapter turn into a surplus in the next. Some of you have elected to help adult children with major purchases that made their lives better; others clarified the details of their legacy planning.

A change in retirement plans. Our status can affect our vision for retirement, too. Retirement dates might change for some. One client shared his plan to sell his home and retire early, live in a motor home, and do more traveling. Another told me he was going to ‘’unretire” and go back to work for a while. He said the days were not easy to get through without more to do.

To each their own, of course. Those of us in new—sometimes unexpected—chapters face changes and challenges. It often takes time to sort out which next steps make sense. Please know I’m here for whatever conversations or perspectives might be helpful. We know life is filled with joy and pain. I can handle connecting with your story even as you are navigating painful transitions.

Please email me or call if you would like to talk.

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Old Guys, New Chapters? – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

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

A Carousel of Goals
photo shows a colorful carousel ride of horses

Many of us have ridden on a merry-go-round, a carousel, at one time or another, haven’t we? In my earliest childhood memory, I regretted that I could only ride one of the colorful horses at a time. I knew which one I wanted first, but then there were others that I seemed to need a turn with. My folks arranged another ride, then another, so I could try a variety of them.

Life is like that, too. We tend to be consumed by different goals or interests at different times, even while others strive for our attention.

I spent a dozen years from age 40 on establishing the business at 228 Main; commerce was the theme of that chapter. Before that, my children received more time and energy. After that, a decade of snowbirding to Florida taught me to balance business with pursuits normally reserved for the retired. Family health issues then became the dominant concern.

Now, at an age when many are climbing on the retirement horse, I’m back on the business horse. Some of my contemporaries are spending more time in warmer places in winter, while I just sold my Florida home. It’s like I’m doing things backward, but don’t we all pick different seats on the carousel? Different preferences?

I wonder whether this is the latest manifestation of my contrarian nature, that approaching age 65 I am committing, more than ever, to my work and business. Or is this just a piece of a very old pattern, my intent to work to age 92?

I am not sure of the answers to those questions, but I do know this: I’m content in this chapter. My efforts are fulfilling; I have the time and space to do the things one might do to try to stay healthy; I am happy with my connections to you and others in my life. My life feels integrated, all aspects.

At the heart of this sense of fulfillment is being of service. No matter which goal currently has your attention, if there is something you would like to work on together, please email me or call.

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