perspective

Going for the Gold and Trying Again 

What was your favorite part about the Olympics? Was it a specific event that caught your eye, a striking outfit? For us, it’s hard not to be blown away by the perfection among those gymnasts.

Watching the events, we may forget how much time and effort these athletes put into their trades. We only see the polished, precise versions of the routines, or the absolute fastest times or highest heights!

We aren’t there to watch them struggle on their way to perfection. We don’t see how many hours the athletes trained, the things they had to sacrifice. Sometimes it’s good to remind ourselves that we aren’t going to get it right the first time. We are going to fall down; it’s just a part of life.

The thing that sets us apart, though? What we do after we fail.

Olympic athletes don’t throw in the towel because they had a couple bad days at practice… and we shouldn’t either. We get back out there and try again!

Maybe some of us are not happy with the amount of money we have saved so far for retirement. Instead of giving up on the idea of saving all together, we can formulate a new plan. We can analyze the budget, start reallocating cash, take advantage of IRA contributions. We can take the time to invest in ourselves and our futures.

Maybe some of us have little ones at home and are starting to think about saving for their college education. We don’t have to save as much as we can, as fast as we can. There are investment options to help you contribute at your own pace, while putting the money to work to take advantage of that potential growth.

While the Olympics is a competition, saving for retirement or a life-changing event is not. We are all on different journeys, with different resources, at different points in our lives. There is not one perfect plan for all investors.

One thing we can learn from the Olympic gymnasts is their power of flexibility. (While of course they are physically flexible, we are talking about their mental flexibility.) If their practice or routine isn’t working for them any longer, they will change it. We can do the same thing with our financial plan!

Setbacks in life are part of the journey. If we gave up when the going gets tough, we wouldn’t get to enjoy the fruits of our labors. We won’t sell out when the market is low, just like we won’t sell ourselves short when we don’t stick the landing every time.

We keep our eyes on the prize and keep moving forward.

If you are going through something right now and you didn’t get it right the first time, that’s okay. You can always try again next time. We aim for progress, not perfection. Progress—that’s going for the gold.

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Going for the Gold and Trying Again – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

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You Just Never Know 
By Caitie Leibman, Director of Communications

We’d like to think that with age comes wisdom. But it’s not just racking up the years. We try to learn from our experiences—and integrate those lessons into our thinking.

I can’t speak for anyone else on our 228 Main team, but I can say that I am still a little surprised I’m here.

And I mean that in every way. I didn’t know the turns my career would take, and yet the path I took here is still the one that made the most sense. It’s led to the best possible outcomes. I didn’t know my current neighborhood even existed until we found a place to live in it. I didn’t know the mental health struggles I would explore in my early 30s, but I wouldn’t be who I am today without them.

What’s it all mean? The lesson I take is this: I couldn’t have called any of this ahead of time, so, therefore, maybe there are more surprises ahead.

We’ve heard from a few of you about the unexpected turns in your lives. One of them was, “I never thought I’d own a yoga mat.”

Another one was, “I never thought I’d be living in a house again.”

Big stuff, small stuff—you just never know. It’s possible to feel like you’re in the driver’s seat and that the road will keep bringing us twists and turns. Sometimes we crest a hill in the sunshine, and it’s like our whole future is laid out before us.

And sometimes we can only see as far as the headlights reach.

Having a team to support us along the way can make such a difference. I wasn’t alone through any of my own twists and turns. My team included professionals and specialists, everyone from my primary care doc to a new accountant to help my household.

It included my loved ones, friends, and the people in my life I knew I could text any time, day or night.

Who’s on your team?

Let’s assume the twists and turns will continue to surprise us—and sometimes delight us! We’re here for all of it. You just never know.

And we’re glad to share it with you.

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You Just Never Know – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

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Life Sentences

Sometimes I marvel at my brain. I might wake up from a vivid dream or be surprised by a random thought that pops into my mind while I’m innocently doing the dishes, and I’ll wonder, “Where did that come from?”

It’s a gift to be able to notice when thoughts come and go. Sometimes, our thoughts can start to feel so familiar, we don’t notice them anymore. They turn into wallpaper: we can be surrounded by them all day and never notice. We take them for granted as fact.

Maybe you’ve heard some of these sentences before, swirling around in your own mind or coming out of someone else’s mouth:

“Never go into business with family.” (Ha!)

“I’m not good with money.”

“I can’t do something that risky.”

Are these sentences—or life sentences? Are you serving time in the name of a belief? It’s not “the big house” we get trapped in: it’s a small life.

Our words can become cages when we take them more seriously than we need to. But a thought can just be a thought. Like a cloud we watch in the sky, can we allow it to do its thing, and then go on its way?

We can’t stop those stories from popping up any more than we can keep clouds out of the sky. But maybe we can sprinkle in some more helpful sentences, ones that won’t hold us back.

“What if this works out?”

“What if there was a different way?”

“What if I could?”

In any case, we’re glad to be here with you—for whatever comes our way.

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Life Sentences – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

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Truck Stop Chili Dogs

What would I have to learn if I could talk to my past self? Or my future self?

There are some mental exercises that might help us reflect on our goals, but here’s what I’m wondering: What do truck stop chili dogs have to teach me?

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65+ and Single

 

photo shows a person in silhouette sitting on a mountain ridge

While a lot of retirement planning information seems to be aimed at couples, statistics show that large fractions of those in the 65+ demographic are single. Pew Research reports that 21% of men and 49% of women in that category are single (i.e., not married nor living with a partner). 

Some are single by choice. Others were not planning to be single in retirement but are, due to death or divorce. When decades-old assumptions about our future become obsolete, it can be disorienting. My work has given me the opportunity to learn from many of you in that position.  

Adjusting our long-held plans can be a mixed bag. More than one person has expressed to me the joy of answering to no one but themselves, having the freedom to make decisions without debate. A year into widowhood, another person sold a home of thirty years and moved, expressing the sense that the new place was truly theirs. It was the only dwelling they’d ever chosen solely for their own reasons. 

My wife and I were nearly a decade into a snowbird lifestyle when she passed. I thought I would always live in Florida at least part-time, as we had been. After being adrift by myself for more than a year, the clouds parted and I saw an answer I never anticipated: I came back to Nebraska as my full-time home. 

And then again, others remain in the homes that had served them in life as part of a couple, because the same dwellings continue to serve them well. 

Adjustments are often needed in many parts of our lives. Recreation and hobbies we enjoyed as couples may not work for us as singles. Our decisions about work may change. How we eat, exercise, and travel may shift as well. 

The pain of sudden surprises like death and divorce remind us that life is always a mix: joy and pain. On the worst days, it pays to remember the duality—there are two parts to that notion, and joy and pain aren’t whole concepts without each other. 

When these periods of transition arrive, it seems pretty universally helpful to have someone to bounce ideas off of, to review plans and planning with, and to talk decisions over with. From a practical standpoint, the loss of a partner often means losing the person with whom we used to talk things over. It’s a sensation many people have told me about.  

All this is to say, clients, you can talk to me. I’m here to listen when you need to kick an idea around, or rethink something that needs to change because circumstances have changed. Been there, done that – we are all on different journeys, but I’ve been on some of those same roads. Email me or call whenever you might need to talk. 

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65+ and Single – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

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It’s All Beginnings, Endings, and Transitions

In Roman mythology, the god Janus had one face looking forward and another looking back. It’s natural in this season to look back, take stock of where we’ve been, and think about the best way forward. That’s what we’re doing at 228 Main.

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Humbug-Free Financial Planning

Say, are you catching any holiday specials this season? There are even more movies this year spinning their own version of the Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. Hard to believe the story is more than 170 years old, but many of its lessons have stood the test of time. 

Life is often about learning and changing, isn’t it? Our work with you has some similarities to this classic tale. (But in our version, I suppose, no one is the Scrooge. We’re all already trying to grow and do our best!) 

Our first meeting, we meet your Ghost of Financial Planning Past. The past is formative—and informative. What brought you into our shop? How did you get here? What are the relevant parts of your past that have shaped you? 

We get a collaborative sense of what your story has been, up to this point. The Ghost of Financial Planning Past is someone you’ll have to introduce us to. It’s just where our story starts! 

As our work with you goes along, we stay in touch with the Ghost of Financial Planning Present. This is the spirit of action, the one who is most aware of the pertinent things going on in your life right now. They help us write the story anew, each and every day. 

The Ghost of Planning Present is the one managing those big life shifts: job change, big move, or early retirement on your mind? The spirit is there, helping draw your attention to what matters most to you. 

We are a key character in this part of the story, too. If you are living on your capital, for instance, we help arrange the ongoing details of how you finance the present. Or when your situation changes and adjustments need to be made in your plans and planning, then you can get us involved. 

Finally, we all must be ready to face the Ghost of Financial Planning Future. This specter is always a little blurry at the edges: nobody can know them that well, after all. But this is the spirit that helps us imagine what awaits us. We must live with the consequences of our choices, so how might our hopes, dreams, and goals shake out? 

The future is where your plans meet reality. When we are able to sketch out our aims, we have a better chance to befriend the Ghost of Planning Future. We can’t fully script this part of the story, but where there’s some arithmetic to do or strategy to implement, we’ll be there to help shape the story. 

It seems we are never done visiting with any of the spirits. The longer we know you and grow together, the past expands behind us. The present is always unfolding, day by day. The future is ever-changing too, as tomorrow becomes today. The future keeps skipping ahead just out of reach, the past grows, and all while we live in the present. 

The present is where we turn the future into the past. And 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 haunt us at your convenience. It’s our pleasure to be part of the story.

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Play the audio version of this post below:

Humbug-Free Financial Planning – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

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

Giving Thanks When It Matters

Won’t you join me? I’m getting in the spirit! A little personal reflection for this fine holiday week.

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Fire in the Lumberyard: A Parable

Disaster on the horizon? Maybe. Or maybe not. In this week’s video, a local parable for your consideration.

The History of the Stock Market: A 5-Word Story

The entire history of the stock market fits into five simple words: it goes up and down. We can’t know the schedule ahead of time, and this can stir up some stress in the short term. But it seems reasonable to guess this whole “up and down” thing may persist.

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