invest wisely

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.

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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/.

Spend Well

The object of our work can be distilled into four words. Half of them have nothing to do with saving more, investing more, or putting off pleasure today in order to have more wealth tomorrow.

Invest wisely, spend well.

We’ve seen the dreary advice, no matter how much you are saving, to always be saving more. Some of you have told us about “advisors” who discouraged withdrawals from investments for any purpose, no matter how worthy.

What’s the point? As one of our clients recently told me, “I’m not living my life to make my kids rich.”

Invest wisely, spend well. We each know what spending well means in our own lives. But the reminder is that we’re not investing wisely in order to have: we invest to be able to do or be something different, to work differently or live differently.

These two facets of our work interact with each other. If we invest wisely and thereby increase our investment returns, we do not need to put away as much money each month in order to reach a sense of financial security “some day.” So investing wisely may give us more flexibility to spend well, even during our so-called wealth-building years.

Some advisors start with your pre-existing attitudes about “the market” and serve you up a lower-performing portfolio if you come in with any fears about volatility. We, instead, strive to work with people who were either born with great investing instincts or can be trained in them—in how to invest effectively for the long run. We believe this means, hopefully, obtaining higher returns by enduring the wiggles of the market, not pandering to fear of volatility.

This is what we do at 228 Main.

It’s not for everyone.

But if you can “invest wisely,” you may have more money to “spend well”—both now and in the future.

Invest wisely, spend well. Clients, if you would like to talk about the balance of these concepts in your life, 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.

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

Play the audio version of this post below:

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

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