financial planning

Public Policies and Personal Choices 

Clients, there’s been plenty of buzz in the public sphere. Policy changes are on their way in many arenas, including potential tax breaks, increases in the national debt, and cutbacks in benefits.

Some of you have been wondering what it will all mean for you. It makes sense to have questions, especially when so many issues are in play right now. Here are a few of the policies that could impact you or someone you know:

We know the pendulum swings back and forth, and mandates to change law are sometimes modified before they can even go into effect. But it still can pay to do some planning when changes could be headed our way.

You may have questions about where to start, and the answers will depend on the particulars of your own situation. Instead, we’ll try to speak generally to some of the personal choices you might consider.

  • For those who are years or decades away from retirement, you might commit to higher monthly deposits to your long-term investments. If Social Security benefits could be lower when you reach retirement, you might offset the difference by socking away more now toward a 401(k), Roth IRA, or other long-term investment balance.
  • For those who depend on ACA or exchange health insurance and receive income-based subsidies, you could keep some extra flexibility in your short-term budget until you know how the subsidy cuts will affect you. Premiums may rise significantly for some people.
  • For those who are retired and have resources to spare, you might consider some targeted philanthropy. Individuals and families are facing cuts to health and nutrition programs, cuts that helped fund the tax breaks. For example, our local and regional food banks are under greater stress as some programs and grants have already been eliminated, and reductions in food benefits will only increase the number of people seeking help.

No matter what stage of life you find yourself in, it may be more important than ever to make sure that your long-term money is invested for the long term, meaning that long-term money is invested for growth—rather than stability.

Think of it this way. Higher government deficits may mean higher inflation, which typically makes the value of things go up while hurting the purchasing power of dollars. Rather than burying those dollars in the backyard—where the erosion will be worse!—we put them to work, buying stock.

Stock represents indirect ownership of the real assets of companies—it’s in mining operations and railways, factories and foundries, offices and stores, and on and on. Investing for the long term means we have a chance to capture the growth of dollars out there in the world, at work.

A lot of it comes back to this: so much seems beyond our control, yet it always pays to think creatively. How do we make the most of it?

Call or email us when you’re ready to talk.

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

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Public Policies and Personal Choices – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

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

Enjoying the Fruits of Your Labor
photo shows a basket of apples and a hand reaching in to pick a red one up

by Mark Leibman

We’re inspired by recent conversations with clients and friends whose plans, as they say, have come to fruition.

Fruition—the realization or fulfillment of a plan or project—scarcely begins to describe the satisfaction and joy we’ve seen.

What types of projects?

There’s recent retirees who downsized to a maintenance-free home, going to art festivals instead of pulling weeds, having more dinners with their descendants, and seeing more ball games. There’s the people going on that Alaska cruise or the tour of Italy. There’s the people turning hobbies into true avocations.

These are just some of the plans we’ve seen come to fruition for people we are close to.

A wise person once said that a plan is a dream put into writing. We are in the business of trying to make the arithmetic work for people who would like to try to make their dreams come true. We’ve written before about the best way to retire, and the point is, dreams are personal.

What are you trying to do? Where do you want to wind up?

One of the privileges of long experience in our work is seeing the realization or fulfillment of those plans made long ago. But life sometimes throws curve balls. So we’ve also seen adjustments made by people who would have preferred to avoid the need to adapt. Not everyone we love lives as long as we wished, health may be fleeting, and circumstances often present a mixed bag. Nevertheless, sound plans usually put us in better shape to deal with the unanticipated.

Money is not the most important thing in the world. But it is also true that our resources can buy us options we might otherwise not have. Wealth may free up our time, and time is what life is made of. Dreams and arithmetic working together may make the best things more likely.

If you would like to discuss your dreams and plans in greater detail, please write or call.

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Just One Founder, and Just One Team

What a journey thus far!

I started at the kitchen table. Bought the office building at 228 Main when I could neither afford it nor afford to pass it up. Struggled and juggled for years. Fit a snowbird lifestyle into the middle of it. Survived personal tragedy, a cruel disease that slowly took the life of my high school sweetheart.

And through it all, we grew. More and more people entrusted more and more wealth to our care. More and more teammates helped me hold up my end of the deal.

They say it is not the strongest or the smartest who survive and thrive, but those who adapt and adjust to change.

But then, there are the things that have not changed. We are a team of four advisors—myself, Greg, Caitie, and Billy—along with two full-time service team members, Whitney and Brenda. All of us serve one book of business. Everyone gets access to the same set of services. One story, one philosophy, one book of business.

You may not recognize how different this makes us. (But you also know I’ve never been one to follow the crowd!)

  • In an industry seemingly focused on getting new clients and finding new money, we instead aim all of our intentional efforts entirely at you, our clients. Don’t have time to chase “new money.” Not me, not my teammates.
  • Eliminating sales activity enables us to put investment research, portfolio management, and communicating with you at the center of our work. Many other investment advisors outsource all of that into model portfolios managed by others and buy canned communications, all so that they can go look for new customers.
  • Paradoxically (or not), when we stopped pursuing prospects, we began attracting more clients. People tend to like it a lot when their buckets grow.

Many financial advisor shops, however, are a collection of sole proprietors, each on the prowl for new business all the time. There may be other four-advisor shops that work more like four separate teams that happen to compete nearby each other—not like teammates who play together, toward the same goal.

We believe we are organized differently—and better.

With a team set-up, any client can call any one of us. Four advisors, two service team members, one team. No matter who picks up the phone, we’re committed to getting you pointed in the right direction.

That’s what the team means to me, today.

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Just One Founder, Just One Team – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

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Wonder How Wonder Woman Does It?

by Caitie Leibman, CEO

More content from Caitie

As a parent, I’ve noticed a lot of messages out there telling me that “moms are superheroes.” (Seriously, you can get it on t-shirts and coffee mugs and wine glasses and keychains and anything else you can think of.) 

There’s this idea that a woman today is someone who can handle anything and get it all done. She’s strong. She’s always ready. She basically needs to be Wonder Woman: fight for what’s right, get the job done, and somehow avoid a wardrobe malfunction! 

Whether it’s parenthood or my personal life or my career, I know I don’t need any superhuman expectations piled on me. Regular, everyday expectations are plenty, thank you.  

Instead of comparing myself to a superhero, I prefer to think of myself as a superhero in a superhero movie. 

I never have to go it alone. If this is a superhero movie, then I get my own stunt double! I get a makeup artist and an assistant and a crew and editors—and we’re all in it together. Same goal. We’re all part of making the story happen. The production only comes together when we each pitch in. 

These things are true of my real life, too. I bring my time and talents to work so that I have a chance to use them in service of my clients. I get help from my teammates when I have a question or could benefit from someone else’s strengths. I don’t have to do it all, and neither do my teammates.  

Clients, I want you to know that we go to work for you. We want your story to come to life, and we feel lucky to be part of the production process. If it was reasonable to expect everybody to just figure it all out on their own, we wouldn’t be in business—and a lot of life would probably get more stressful, trying to tough things out alone. 

Each of us is the star of our own show, but think about how long the credits would be. 

Clients, reach out any time. We’re glad to be fighting for you, together. 

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Wonder How Wonder Woman Does It? – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

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

Some Now, Some Later?
They say you can’t have your cake and eat it, too… but what if your cake had the potential to grow over time? Who says you can’t snack when you’re hungry and still save some for later?

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Investment Research: A Team Sport

Clients, this week we’ve got a little behind the scenes tour: what happens in our in-house research process?

Here are some of the things we like to think about (so that you don’t have to!).

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Find a Way Forward

We can make flexibility a part of our lives and our financial planning. Our day-to-day is forever changing, and so it’s important to take some time to re-evaluate and make sure we are on track to get where we want to be. If our lives require a different plan, we make one! No one can white-knuckle their way to their dreams. 

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The Hats We Wear

How do we get from where we are to where we’d like to be? Sometimes it’s hard to imagine how we’ll close the gaps. The good thing about the big stuff is that we can only get them done one step at a time. We might wear many hats in life, but along the way… we can only wear one hat at a time. 🙏

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The Best of Both Worlds: Learning from the Past, Building for the Future 
By Greg Leibman, Billy Garver, and Caitie Leibman

This time of year often invites some reflection. We’ve said goodbye to 2024 and are welcoming 2025. We’re thinking about beginnings, endings, and transitions.

In Roman mythology, Janus is the god of these things. He had two faces, one looking forward and another looking back. His purview included doors, archways, and gates.

It feels natural at this time to take stock of where we’ve been—and think about the best way forward. That’s what we’re doing at 228 Main.

When Mark founded this enterprise decades ago, it was just him at a kitchen table. In 2000, he moved the business to the digs at 228 Main Street in beautiful downtown Louisville. He knew that he was on to something, that he could keep building something special on a simple but powerful foundation: if he took care of his clients, their business would take care of him.

And the work kept growing. In those intermediate years, he hired staff to help him manage. Among their ranks were family and friends who provided administrative and service support.

Since 2020, the staff has continued to transform. Today, the team is both more specialized and more interwoven. The three of us “next-gen” advisors are co-owners with Mark, with three portions of 24.9% of the shares to his 25.3% portion.

Now we’re in transition, preparing for the decades ahead. There are six of us total on the LFS team, each one still growing and learning. But it takes all of us to make sure our three key activities can happen: 1) We talk with you to sort out what you are trying to do in life. 2) We research investment opportunities. 3) We manage your portfolios.

As we do these things, we’re planning a structure for the enterprise that is collaborative and collegial, where every generation and every teammate puts their gifts on the table for the benefit of all: the wisdom of experience, the energy of youth, and all the diversity of talents and interests we bring.

Many of you know from company lore—and your friendships with Mark—that he intends to work to age 92. (It’s a whole thing for him, a vision that he gleaned from some important mentors early in life. Ask him sometime.) We can’t know the future. And some of us may actually have more years ahead of us in this line of work than there are behind us.

But it’s fair to say that we are all indeed in this for the long haul. So how do we make this thing more sustainable?

We’re all committed to some important things: continuing to build on our strengths and what’s working and staying open to the future and all the opportunities ahead. We learn and grow from both perspectives.

Like the Roman god Janus, we’re looking back and we’re looking forward. Working with the foundation of our history and the road ahead—that’s the superpower of this team.

Want to talk about this or anything else? Call or write, anytime.

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Play the audio version of this post below:

Best of Both Worlds – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

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

Some Tricks for Treating Yourself

Our brains are so good at getting used to things that they will keep chasing new pleasures, new experiences, and the next thing to bring us a boost. But research shows there’s more bang for our buck by treating ourselves more frequently, in smaller doses—and our wallets might thank us. 

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