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life changes
Is Your Relationship in Trouble?
Friends, it’s been a good many years since any lifestyle magazines could be found in my home. Remember magazines? Glossies?
I was reminded of them recently.
Marketing for financial services is regulated in various ways. Bodies like the SEC work toward protecting investors. Still—advertising for financial advisors sometimes twists the ideas in our minds the way the glossies did and do.
Magazine covers ask the questions that beg the question.
- Is your relationship in trouble? (“Oh, what if it is? I better take a peek inside…”)
- Looking to fix your problems fast? (“Well, I suppose there are things I could work on…”)
- Need help finding expert tips? (“Can’t say no to that…”)
There are assumptions and judgments packed into such questions. They suggest that you have problems, you must address them quickly, and you require assistance from the preapproved authorities. But it’s not only beauty and fashion pros who ask these questions.
I hear the same thing in ads for financial services.
Most folks don’t need any pressure added to their financial relationships. Life’s big changes and hardships bring enough challenge, don’t they?
On the contrary—what a wonderful phrase!—we prefer to share the load. We like taking these journeys with you. We enjoy connecting you to resources you want and not the ones we “prescribe” or insist upon. Partners in the process is what we strive to be.
Clients, we’ll help acquaint you with reality as we see fit, but it will be just one version of things. And you have to live in your reality of things. We’re grateful to be part of it.
Let’s chat, anytime.
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Play the audio version of this post below:
Is Your Relationship in Trouble? – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services
This text is available at https://www.228Main.com/.
When Your Household Membership Changes
Momentum carries us through many of life’s relationships. Practicing traditions and routines takes all sorts of decisions off our plate. It’s a type of comfortable efficiency. Then, sometimes, a big change occurs—and things shift. We can find ourselves suddenly reconsidering decisions that we used to be able to take for granted.
I’ve seen it unfold in your lives, clients, and certainly in my own. When my wife passed, I discovered that there were aspects of my lifestyle that suited “Mark in a couple” but did not fit in my new life as “Mark on his own.”
Upon the passing of or separation from a partner, some people realize all of a sudden that what used to be a two-kayak household is now a zero-kayak household. And they’re content with that.
It can happen when the home suddenly expands, too: it’s not just the birth of children that can change a household’s makeup. Perhaps that mother-in-law suite becomes literal, or maybe an adult sibling or adult child moves in to help manage things.
No matter how the membership of a household is changing, the new dynamic will most likely bring changes to the financial texture of life for everyone involved.
- Are there are any lifestyle expenses that now make you feel, “I could take it or leave it”?
- Do you anticipate changing your employment situation in a way that wasn’t possible before?
- How might your tax strategies or insurance options change in this new arrangement?
Although many recommend waiting a year (or some other interval) after a loss or change before making big decisions, there are ways to explore in the meantime. Some people find it helpful to do their own research and talk with trusted friends as they explore options. Some prefer to work on their own personal development for a spell before reviewing their choices.
When your household membership changes, there is no right or wrong way to navigate these issues. Clients, if you’d like to talk through what this may mean for you, we’re game. Please write or call.
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Play the audio version of this post below:
When Your Household Membership Changes – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services
This text is available at https://www.228Main.com/.
Lining Up the Dominoes of Financial Planning
Clients, it’s normal to feel this way: suddenly a change is upon us, and we feel like there’s more to do than we bargained for. For some, it can feel like waking up to a never-ending list.
I’ve heard it from young folks, just starting out. Once they become aware of the state of their finances, it can be both empowering and overwhelming. It starts to seem impossible to accomplish everything that stretches out ahead of them: big purchases like houses or degrees, big goals like travel or retirement, and all the unexpected stuff in between? Daunting.
Other parts of life can prompt a sense of being overwhelmed, too, like the passing of a partner, a big move for a parent. It can feel like there’s no way to do it all.
Things are not as they seem, though. No one can do it all… at once. That’s the key: nobody can do it all at once.
We’ve talked about this idea before in terms of the many hats we wear in life. Perhaps a better way to think of financial goals, in particular, is dominoes: only one domino needs to fall at once, but the momentum means that each one affects the next. Starting the chain reaction takes the most energy. The rest of it builds on itself.
Think about the prelude to most people’s spending and investing goals: the emergency fund. Once you’ve got this resource in place, you move onto the next goal. But you’re not starting all over from scratch for the next goal. It’s the opposite, because now you have a firmer, better foundation to build on. You’re already on your way with more freedom than before!
Meaningful goals compound. They become a resource in themselves.
Clients, what’s next for you? Where does it fit in the big scheme? Reach out, anytime.
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Play the audio version of this post below:
Lining Up the Dominoes of Financial Planning – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services
This text is available at https://www.228Main.com/.
Transitions Mean Change
One of the hardest things about major life transitions is that many habits, customs, traditions, and ways of doing things become obsolete or counter-productive at once. It takes time to deal with these cascading effects, big and small, on our lives.
One friend who lost a spouse to a fast-progressing illness had to quickly deal with decades of deferred home maintenance, previously a mutually agreeable way of life. Who had time to fix stuff when leisure pursuits or travel beckoned? It was a difficult situation.
Another had to confront a set of retirement intentions that had everything to do with the couple, but zero to do with the survivor. It was like waking up a few years before retirement, with plans that made no sense at all, and no prior thoughts about alternatives.
And many are forced to learn how to deal with things a spouse formerly handled: everything from oil changes to investment decisions. If the spouse had been a do-it-yourselfer in a particular role, the survivor sometimes has trouble envisioning the need to pay for services. Their life experience taught them that paying for that service is not worth it.
That lesson is incomplete, of course. Paying for the service is not worth it if you have the interest, knowledge and experience to do it yourself. But when the experience and knowledge is taken out of the equation, then the DIY course may be vexing and expensive.
Changing circumstances sometimes require a change in ways of doing things. What was done before made sense for the conditions that prevailed then. It can be hard to recognize the things that have changed. Our affection for those who are gone sometimes leaks into a positive view of their way of doing things, even when those ways may no longer be appropriate.
My own life experience has taught me patience and empathy for survivors who are grappling with these things. Each of us is on our own journey. We each make decisions in our own time, when they make sense to us. All we can do here at 228 Main is listen, provide a framework for thinking about things, and support people going through transitions.
Clients, if you would like to talk about this or anything else, please email us or call.
Known and Unknown, Personal Edition
One of a Kind
I wasn’t picturing this day back in the 8th grade when, playing the role of Charlie Brown to her as the little red-haired girl, she didn’t know my name. Nor on the first day of freshman year in high school, when the divine miracle of alphabetical order put Cathy Livingston’s locker next to mine. Nor on the 4th of July the following summer, when our long romance began.
Not when we married, and certainly not when the babies came, four in all.
But seven years ago I learned this day was coming–and here we are. Football players strive for ‘yards after contact.’ Cathy battled to get ‘years after diagnosis,’ and she got them. She saw kids get married and she met her grandbabies in those hard-won years.
She’s gone, but not. She lives on in the intelligence of her children, the determination (stubbornness?) of her grandchildren, the formative influence she had on me, our children, the kids she cared for, and in a thousand other ways. This lover, child enthusiast, Disney fan, dolphin watcher, mother, and grandmother endures in our hearts and memories.
At the end of our life together, I am filled with an abundant gratitude, not regrets. Sad, and hopeful. Who wouldn’t be? On a ventilator, unable to speak, nearly paralysed, in her last hours she communicated by writing. One of her messages to me: “You have a lot of wonderful life left.” One chapter ends, another begins.
My work for you is not done. I don’t have the option of curling up into a ball, there is too much to do. I’ll need a little time and space—but I’ll be back. After all, making the most of it is one of the things I learned from Cathy.
Thank you all, again, for everything.
Don’t Stop
I’ve been electrified by James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits. Examining the central message, you may be able to see why:
“Small habits don’t add up. They compound. It’s remarkable what you can build if you just don’t stop. The business you can build if you don’t stop working. The body you can build if you don’t stop training. The knowledge you can build if you don’t stop learning. The fortune you can build if you don’t stop saving. The relationships you can build if you don’t stop caring. Small habits don’t add up. They compound. Tiny changes. Remarkable results.”
This might help explain the wealth I’ve seen you build with lifetimes of work, the stellar careers and businesses so many of you have had, the warm network of relationships so many of you enjoy.
I’m heartened by this message when I think of building a sustainable enterprise to serve you more reliably, staying healthy so I can work to age 92, and meeting other, more personal challenges.
It is exciting, too, to think about bringing the message of effective habits to generations just beginning to save and invest and make career decisions.
Clients, if you would like to talk about this, or anything else, please email us or call.
Your Life In Three Acts
Life is a three-act play.
Act One is where you came from. What are you, what shaped you, how did you get here?
Act Two is the present. This is a part of the story you begin writing anew, each day when you wake up.
Act Three is the future. It includes your hopes, dreams and plans.
When we think about our collaboration with you, it begins when you tell us your Act One. This helps us understand you in your most fundamental characteristics.
As our collaboration with you goes along, you keep us informed about pertinent things that are going on in your life. This is Act Two, and it is mostly about you. Sometimes we pitch in. If you are living on your capital, we help arrange the details of how you finance Act Two. Or if your situation changes and adjustments need to be made in your plans and planning, you get us involved.
Act Three, the future, we work to help you script that part. Sometimes there is arithmetic to do, or investment plans to implement. The future is where your plans meet reality. We believe you can make the future you want more likely, by planning it.
It seems we are never done with any part. The longer we know you, the more we learn about your Act One. And Act Two, the present, continuously unfolds day by day. Act Three is ever-changing too, as tomorrow become today. The future shrinks, the past grows, while we live in the present.
The present is where we turn the future into the past. We love striving to help you make the most of it!
Clients, if you would like to talk about any of the parts of your life, please email us or call.
Case Study: Home Sweet Home
Quite a few clients are reaching the twentieth anniversary of starting in business with us. So the sixty year olds then are eighty now. A lot can happen in those twenty years!
Mr. and Mrs. Q retired successfully a few years into our relationship, a major transition that ended up well. Then they surprised themselves and me when they decided to build a home in a suburban community and leave their city home of more than forty years.
After thoughtfully considering what they wanted, the Q’s built a beautiful new home and never looked back. It was a great move for them.
A dozen years later, the home may not make the most sense for them. Senior living apartments with some services and meals may be a better option in the near future.
In every transition, we look at four kinds of numbers: lump sums coming in, lump sums going out, recurring monthly income, recurring monthly outgo. And we do the arithmetic to sort out how much invested capital will be available after the transition. Then we can figure out the size of ‘the fruit crop from the orchard.’ (By which we mean the cash flow from invested capital, of course.)
We have gone through this process three times for Mr. and Mrs. Q. First they needed to determine if they could afford to retire. Later, the home-building idea had to be framed up so they could make a good decision. Now, we are working on the next move.
One of the interesting parts of our work is that we never make decisions for you. Usually, the key part of a major decision is feelings, not arithmetic. We strongly believe in doing all the arithmetic that can be done. But no computer can decide where you want to wake up every day, or if you sense that maintaining a home has become too great of an effort.
Just as we never forget whose money it is, we never forget whose life it is, either. We will never kid anybody about the arithmetic, nor kid ourselves by thinking we can make better life decisions than you.
Clients, if you face a transition and want to begin framing up a better understanding of it, please email or call us.
Securities offered through LPL Financial, Member FINRA/SIPC.
This is a hypothetical example and is not representative of any specific investment. Your results may vary.
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