“Ignorance is the curse of G-d; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.” – William Shakespeare Last summer the investment firm John Hancock conducted an investor survey. The survey was conducted among affluent investors, and lo and behold only 11 percent of them scored an “A” on the eight-question test. A few years […]
“To a contrarian like me, constant advice not to do something almost always starts me quickly down the risky, unpopular path.” – Michael Bloomberg The Russian military takeover of the strategic Crimean peninsula has caused an international uproar. While the focus is on how the EU and the US will deal with the Russian threat, both […]
Today is the day that New Year’s resolutions are still in force. While many will resolve to lose weight, give charity or be a better husband, one resolution that many of us need to make is to become a bit more financially savvy. I have written about this before, but a post on an Israeli […]
The Tel Aviv Marathon is on Friday. In Jerusalem, the excitement is building for the city’s marathon coming up in less than a month. Go outside and you are bound to see people of all stripes running. I think back 15 years, and I feel like I was running around the capital’s Gan Sacher all by myself. […]
“Every time in this century we’ve lowered the tax rates across the board, on employment, on saving, investment and risk-taking in this economy, revenues went up, not down.” – Jack Kemp I just finished a job search to find a replacement for my office manager who will be going on maternity leave. I was inundated with resumes, […]
This is an article written by Abe Katsman ( my brother) in the Jerusalem Post. It deals with FATCA and as I mentioned a few weeks ago, a move is underway by the Republican party to repeal the law. This is being reprinted with permission of the author. For more insightful political analysis check out […]
You can imagine, if somebody’s approaching retirement, and all of a sudden the funds that he or she is depending on are depleted by 50% or however many, it gives them a sinking feeling in the pit of their stomach. – Pat Robertson If you ask the investing public to gauge how it’s doing, it […]
With many parents in Israel for the holiday season visiting children and children here visiting parents, I have had many meetings with entire families as they try and create a plan to smoothly transfer their wealth to the next generation. “We are currently witnessing the ‘Great Transfer’ of wealth from the Greatest Generation to the […]
“I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me.” – Anna Quindlen As Yom Kippur quickly approaches, we are preoccupied with […]
It won’t be easy, you’ll think it strange, When I try to explain how I feel That I still need your love after all that I’ve done – Madonna, ‘Don’t cry for me Argentina’ As the US stock market gets off to a woeful start to 2014 on the heels of a wonderful multi-year […]
