kindness

THE SINGLE BEST INVESTMENT FOR NEW GRADS? 

Dear Grads,

You’re probably receiving a lot of unsolicited advice right now. We happen to love talking about finances all day, so we hope you’ll forgive one hot tip, a piece of investment advice that could last you the rest of your life.

Keep investing in yourself.

This investment adjusts for inflation, and it grows along with you! When we invest in ourselves, we are seeking to improve our value to others. The more valuable we make ourselves, the more an employer or customer might pay us. Not to mention, improving ourselves often leads to more interesting and rewarding life experiences.

You have intangible assets that led you to this moment: remember, not everyone earns a diploma or degree. Don’t take for granted the skills, knowledge, strengths, and abilities that you’ve developed already. All those qualities add up to form your “human capital,” the value you might contribute through your work and your community in the years to come.

Great news: many aspects of human capital are free. Years ago, we knew a senior officer at a large publicly traded company whose most obvious superpower was kindness. After they moved on to a role somewhere else, people familiar with them always remembered that trademark feature—how the executive had helped them in the past, how they had made people feel.

Kindness is free. So are dependability, enthusiasm, diligence, and all the other traits people appreciate in each other. They can be developed, like muscles.

Other aspects of human capital require time and money, sometimes lots of both. Think of the education and training required of surgeons, for example. Choosing your educational path and planning a career are beyond the scope of this note, but you might consider how you make your choices.

How will the path help you be of service to those around you? What impact would you like to make in your corner of the world, as you move through it? You have a chance to create value, no matter where you’re headed next.

Developing your human capital is the foundation of building wealth. Whether it’s growing your earning potential on the job, choosing a new path as your talents develop, or finding a way to invest to leave a legacy, the power of compounding starts now, from the skills that got you here.

It all starts here, and it’s the one piece of investment advice that could last your lifetime. But hey, that’s just our two cents.

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

Play the audio version of this post below:

The Single Best Investment for New Grads? – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

The text of this episode is available at http://www.228Main.com.

A Gift-Giving Season, All the Year Round
photo shows a pink package with a pink bow on a pink table covered in rainbow confetti in front of a sky blue wall

Going through the winter holidays, all across the globe, many people enjoy the giving and receiving of gifts. One of the recurring features of life—in almost any culture—is a season of gift-giving.

Yet giving seems to figure prominently in the daily lives of people we know, all the year round.

And it takes many forms.

Think of those people in our lives who can do the things we need done, but cannot do ourselves. They understand their personal strengths, develop them into a capacity to help others, and spend time each day improving life for those around them.

And there are those who brighten our day with a smile or a kind word. Their positive perspectives can be contagious.

And (perhaps now more than ever) there are those crucial people in our lives who give us their time—time to connect with us and seek to understand us. When we need some perspective from another, someone who will listen, help us take stock and reflect, those moments can be a tremendous gift.

They say it is better to give than receive. Perhaps giving transforms us in powerful ways, gaining us closer connections with the people in our lives, no matter how intimate or fleeting our association may be.

Gifts born of our talents or perspective or time do not have bows on them, but they may be the most consequential to others.

Clients, in this chapter of life I have more time: if you could use some of it, I would give it to you gladly, unconditionally. Email me or call.

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

Play the audio version of this post below:

A Gift-Giving Season, All the Year Round – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

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

Don’t Talk About My Friend That Way!

People do love dramas and reality shows, but in real life, it’s not always the jealous neighbor or the loud socialite who spews the worst judgments about us. 

We’re pretty good at doing that to ourselves. 

In our financial lives, it’s easy to slip into judgment. We berate our past selves for not getting organized sooner. We doubt whether our current plan is on track or whether we will be able to handle whatever arrives tomorrow. 

There’s a trick for that. It’s free, it’s simple, and most of us have been practicing it all our lives. 

Be a better friend—to yourself.  

Kristin Neff studies the psychology of self-compassion and puts it this way: “It’s natural for us to try to be kind to the people we care about in our lives. … We comfort them when they’re going through hard times. In other words, most of us are very good at being understanding, kind and compassionate toward others. But how many of us are good at being compassionate to ourselves?” 

Financial freedom isn’t totally about what’s in your pocket. We believe that you can be a good friend to yourself—and you’ll become a better steward of your resources in the process. 

Kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness are the key ingredients in compassionate responses according to Neff. When we give ourselves time to pause and reflect, we can have more reassuring conversations with ourselves—ones that don’t end in self-sabotage or ongoing anxiety. When was the last time your inner voice was compassionate? 

  • “You know, lots of people make mistakes along the way: where can you grow from your past?” 
  • “Of course you get worried sometimes: you care deeply about your family, your legacy, your work…” 
  • “Notice how you’re jumping ahead? Maybe make a note, but then let yourself come back to what you can do right now.” 

Sure: this kind of self-talk isn’t for everyone. If that’s true for you, then try substituting my voice in your head: “Hey! Don’t you treat my friend like that!” And then let yourself off the hook. 

Friends, when you’d like to talk more, drop us a line. 

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