own the orchard

Would You Rather… Have a Pot of Gold or Have an Orchard? 

When I was young, I pictured my retirement account as a pot of gold. It would be there at the end of the rainbow, when my career is done, to fund my retirement.

Talking with folks, it seems like the pot of gold is the type of thing lots of people think about when the subject is retirement. Whether it’s finding their “number,” amassing a big enough balance to feel “safe” enough to retire, or hitting a nice round goal like $500,000 or $1 million, the lump sum is the thing.

The challenge with thinking in lump sums is, we live our lives moment to moment, month to month. We have food to buy every week, bills to pay every month, and holidays or travel or projects to fund every year.

In other words, life happens with recurring income—not a lump sum.

A pot of gold sounds nice, but when you take gold out to do something or buy something, it’s gone: you can only spend it once. This may be why some people with substantial resources still don’t feel comfortable with the idea of hanging up their earning power. They’re stuck on discrete balances instead of ongoing flows.

Long ago I realized that what we need in retirement is an orchard, not a pot of gold. The orchard produces a fruit crop, and the crop is what meets our income needs for a year. And when it’s over, we still own the orchard! Next year, another crop. When the orchard is sustainable and can produce a fruit crop big enough to live on, we’ve become financially independent—and don’t need to sell our labor to pay our bills, anymore.

One of the best things about the orchard is that it does not matter how long you live. If the fruit crop each year is big enough, you won’t run out of resources. We tend the orchard and keep it healthy enough to supply the crop.

And when you are done with it, “you can’t take it with you” as they say, so the orchard gets passed down to people or causes you love. You don’t just leave an empty pot, where the gold used to be. Instead, the ground can be made ready—for whatever’s next.

Email us or call if you’d like to talk about turning your pot of gold into an orchard.

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Would You Rather… Have a Pot of Gold or Have an Orchard? – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

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Where Does the Treasure Map Lead?

We believe in saving for the future, but the present is where we live. Your retirement flow might go toward any mix of spending: cash for bills, a stash for unexpected events, or maybe it’s for that adventure in the Florida Keys! None of it takes a pile of money: instead, we tend the orchard for the fruit crop.

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What Rough Seas Wash Up

Back in the snowbird chapter of my life, we learned that looking for shells was always more fruitful when the weather had been rough. The world situation and our markets have been nothing if not stormy this year! What has come out of the churn so far?

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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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That Ain’t Attrition!

Money you accumulate can work like an orchard, and the income—the fruit crop—helps run retirement life. Some in the industry would call clients taking out their own money “attrition.” Attrition, per the dictionary: “loss or destruction, corrosion, waste.” But to us, it’s simply investing wisely, spending well. Attrition, shmattrition.

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