decision making

The Road Not Taken Looks Real Good Now
Photo shows Taylor Swift in front of skyline.
Big Machine Records 

Taylor Swift has made a name for herself as a songwriter, pop star, and fashion icon, but now she’s making headlines for another role: as an effective investor. 

Recently, Taylor was featured in the news for making a wise financial decision. She had a chance to be a paid sponsor for a—let’s say—questionable product. Instead of diving into a high-risk, high-reward situation, she asked questions, did her research, and declined the offer. 

Whether or not Taylor’s music is for you, we admire her curiosity and commitment to herself. Her influence reaches all over the world, and she showed that she was not going to stand behind something she didn’t believe in. And every investor has the power to do that work. We do the research so that we know exactly what we own, why we own it, and how it fits into the big picture. 

We at 228Main.com might not have the cumulative reach of Taylor—yet 😊—but we know how important it is to act by our values, no matter who is watching. It’s our responsibility. 

Taylor seems to know hers, too, but it took determination to build the reputation she has. You don’t achieve that pop sensation status overnight! She has worked her entire adult life to build her empire, and she was not going to risk throwing it away based on someone else’s opinion or make a quick buck (or a hundred million). 

One rash decision can cause a huge ripple effect, and most of the time, the impulse to do the trendy thing is not worth it. There are always going to be temptations in life, but it doesn’t mean any opportunity that comes along will work for us. Only we are in charge of keeping an eye on our future. 

We don’t mind going against the crowd. At 228 Main, we consider all the angles of an opportunity, with our own critical eye. We don’t rely on others’ opinions. (When the cattle are all getting steered together, it rarely ends well for the cattle.) Certain products might be getting a lot of attention, but that does not mean they are necessarily great investments. 

Please do ask your questions when you have them, and we’ll think about the potential outcomes together. We try to make informed decisions, in the direction of our goals. 

So be your inquisitive, confident self. Like Taylor says in her song “The Lucky One,” “In the real world, if you have something that makes you different, you’re lucky.” 

Dare to be different? Call or email us, anytime. 

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.

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The Road Not Taken Looks Real Good Now – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

This text is available at https://www.228Main.com/. Photo credit Big Machine Records.

The Right Amount Is Best
photo shows a line of lights below a marquee

There are restless spirits all around us. The neighbor that seems to be racing everywhere they go, the friend that seems addicted to making big changes. There are people who make us wonder, “When will it be enough?”

Sometimes we are those people. Sometimes we look down only to realize we’re on a treadmill. But here’s the good news: there are plenty of ways to get our needs met, to not want for anything and to not be wrapped up in the wanting. We talk a lot about helping clients put words to their dreams, but dreams need not be lofty. Here are a few guidelines that have proven helpful.

“The right amount is best.” In her book Lagom, writer Niki Brantmark describes this Swedish principle of the same name. Not enough is not enough. Too much of a good thing can be a good thing, but often is not. The right amount is best.

Social comparison, or “keeping up with the Joneses” can corrode happiness or financial health, if we aren’t conscious of our emotions and purposeful about our responses and reactions. It helps to focus on our own needs, rather than what others have. (And I doubt the Joneses care what you have anyway.)

When working on goals, it sometimes helps to define three outcomes: minimum acceptable levels, reasonable targets that feel within reach, and “stretch” goals that require creative thinking and approaches to get to. This may help you be more aware of options and possibilities.

Life is not a cage, and we are not doomed to the hamster wheel. We are each the star of our own personal drama, and we get to decide what works.

Get your ticket, one life only!

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

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For One Life Only! – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

This text can be found at https://www.228Main.com/.

Should You Get a Tattoo?

Should you get a tattoo? It’s quite a commitment. But the idea makes me wonder: what are the images and messages that matter most to us? What guides our choices?

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Longing to Be Elsewhen
black-and-white graphic shows a thought bubble with a clock and a calendar in it

Clients, you know I can be a pretty enthusiastic fellow. But I don’t deny that sometimes life can be a grind. Things break and we have to fix them, we sniffle and sneeze with allergies, and there are always bills to pay.

Sometimes we might fantasize that we’re somewhere else, to escape for even just a moment.

It can happen in financial planning, too, but in a different way. Instead of longing to be somewhere else, some people daydream about getting to somewhen else. We can mistake our goals for finish lines: “Once I’m there, things will be okay. Once I get it, I’ll be fine.”

But any worthwhile goal is not just about the finish line. It’s all of it: the preparation, the training, the progress, the setbacks, the community of support, and everything in between. It’s the journey and the destination. All of it.

As we aim our plans and planning toward our goals, it’s good visualize multiple steps along the way—not just the end. What will get me where I want to go? What milestones will mark my progress? What pain can I expect along the way?

In mindfulness meditation, practitioners make a distinction between pain and suffering. Pain is what happens here, a direct result of something painful. A strained muscle sends signals to our brain that tell us we’re experiencing discomfort.

Suffering, however, is the next layer beyond the pain. You can think of it as our feelings about our feelings, like despairing about the fact that now we’re injured and our progress is stymied. That feeling is not the same as the pain that radiates from the muscle: it’s radiating from our minds. It’s a story about the pain.

Pain may be a given for us mortals in our fragile human bodies. But what if suffering were optional? Instead of wishing away each temporary discomfort, we might hang with it—here, in the present.

We can’t selectively escape. When we wish to be elsewhen, we’re not only fleeing the bad: we forego any of the good that might also be here in the present.

Good thing we’re here to keep each other company, huh? Clients, what can we be doing for you? Call or write, anytime.

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Play the audio version of this post below:

The Road Not Taken Looks Real Good Now – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

This text is available at https://www.228Main.com/. Photo credit Big Machine Records.

Warning: Enthusiasm Ahead!
photo shows silhouette of person with their arms in the air triumphantly on a mountain at sunrise

But you knew that.  

I read a thing the other day, explaining how you should take the emotion out of investing. This seemed a little off to me, so I googled “take the emotion out of investing”: 13 million links popped up. 

Evidently, it’s a popular notion. 

This school of thought holds that if you have an investment plan, it can be followed only coldly and rationally and logically, without emotion. Emotions can supposedly lead you astray, so it’s best to ignore them. Wait… 

When your accounts hit $1 million for the first time, aren’t you going to whoop and holler? 

If stock in a company we’ve long admired falls into bargain territory, shouldn’t that get our blood pumping? 

I’m here to tell you, when we find a table-pounding opportunity, we’re going to pound the table! 

The key distinction is, emotions don’t make decisions here. Our decisions are based on our tactics. Our tactics arise from strategy, which springs from our principles, which are rooted soundly in our values. 

Is it always easy? No. Is there joy without pain? No. 

But once a decision is made—and we have an understanding about how that might benefit your bucket, your outcomes—you better believe I am going to be excited. 

No guarantees, except for excitement. 

If you want an emotion-free Spock to handle your business, go for it. They’re not going to be working to age 92, though. For that, you need the joy that excitement brings!

Investing includes risks, including fluctuating prices and loss of principal.

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Warning: Enthusiasm Ahead! – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

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

I. AM. EXCITED.

Maybe you’ve noticed… but I can be an enthusiastic fellow! But some believe emotions don’t have a role in investing… I’ve got some thoughts.

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What’s Love Got to Do With It? How to Prep Yourself for a Downturn

Find the bargains. Own the orchard for the fruit crop. Avoid the stampede.

Our three main principles form a pretty clear constellation, guiding our practices here at 228 Main. They are action-oriented, so it’s not hard to tell day to day whether we’re sticking to them.

But what makes us stick with them, especially if we’re bracing for a downturn?

In life, when the going gets tough, our defenses can erode pretty quickly. Our energy flags. Anxiety kicks in. And loss can trick us into believing that good times will never return, that the hurt wins.

Writer and businessperson Arianna Huffington suggests a simple way to get sound decision-making back on track: choose love.

“You’ve got to make your heart bigger than the hole,” she says in her book Thrive. “You just have to make your decisions out of love. And when we make the decisions out of fear, that’s when we have problems.”

Trouble and triumph, set-ups and setbacks—those are constants, and our lives travel the roads back and forth to each. Why should we let fear take the wheel for any part of the journey?

Clients, we know that you’ve felt these truths: it’s part of what makes you the best clients in the whole world, after all. Let this be a reminder, then. We’re with you. We journey together.

When you’d like to talk about this—or anything else—please write or call.

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For One Life Only!
photo shows rows of lights below a marquee

There are restless spirits all around us. The neighbor that seems to be racing everywhere they go, the friend that seems addicted to making big changes. There are people who make us wonder, “When will it be enough?”

Sometimes we are those people. Sometimes we look down only to realize we’re on a treadmill. But here’s the good news: there are plenty of ways to get our needs met, to not want for anything and to not be wrapped up in the wanting. We talk a lot about helping clients put words to their dreams, but dreams need not be lofty. Here are a few guidelines that have proven helpful.

“The right amount is best.” In her book Lagom, writer Niki Brantmark describes this Swedish principle of the same name. Not enough is not enough. Too much of a good thing can be a good thing, but often is not. The right amount is best.

Social comparison, or “keeping up with the Joneses” can corrode happiness or financial health, if we aren’t conscious of our emotions and purposeful about our responses and reactions. It helps to focus on our own needs, rather than what others have. (And I doubt the Joneses care what you have anyway.)

When working on goals, it sometimes helps to define three outcomes: minimum acceptable levels, reasonable targets that feel within reach, and “stretch” goals that require creative thinking and approaches to get to. This may help you be more aware of options and possibilities.

Life is not a cage, and we are not doomed to the hamster wheel. We are each the star of our own personal drama, and we get to decide what works.

Get your ticket, one life only!

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

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

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Play the audio version of this post below:

For One Life Only! – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

This text can be found at https://www.228Main.com/.

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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Play the audio version of this post below:

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

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