The LA Kings holiday pack is back. The perfect gift for the hockey fan in your life. A three-game pack starts at just $159 and includes a holiday blanket. Buy today and you'll receive an additional game for free. Don't miss out. Visit lakings.com/holiday today. Many times it's useful with financial planning to have a metaphor to apply to thinking through what you need to do with your life and how to approach it and how to approach each and every financial decision.
Well, one apt metaphor for that is chess. And today, I've got Doug Goldstein, who is a co-author of the book Rich as a King, how the wisdom of chess can make you a grandmaster of investing. And we're going to talk about taking a conceptual planning approach to your financial plan.
Welcome to the Radical Personal Finance podcast. My name is Joshua Sheets and I'm your host. Thank you so much for being with me today. I'm going to get a little bit nerdy on you and talk about chess. I hadn't really thought much about this as a metaphor before I spoke with Doug, but as you'll hear in a moment during the course of the conversation, it really came out that, yes, this is absolutely a very useful way of approaching your own financial plan.
And I think you're really going to enjoy this interview. There are a lot of different ways that we can approach financial planning, but one of the things that I see is many people approach it in a too straightforward of a way rather than thinking about things strategically. And so we're going to talk about strategy in today's show.
I think you're going to enjoy Doug. He's a financial advisor. He's an author. He's written many books. He has an international financial planning practice, which you'll hear about in today's show, and it actually factors into a little bit of our conversation. I think you're really going to enjoy it.
Before I play the interview for you, let's take care of our sponsors real quick. So sponsor number one today is You Need a Budget. This is the official budgeting software of Radical Personal Finance. It is absolutely wonderful. From time to time, I think about building different financial tools for you, the listening audience, as an additional way to create products and services to make money for myself.
And one of the tools that I do not plan to be building is a budgeting software. That's because You Need a Budget is fantastic, and I don't see any way for me or any reason for me to try to build something to compete with them. The best way to get exposure to You Need a Budget is first start with listening to the interview that I did with Jesse Mecham, the founder, and you'll hear my story with You Need a Budget.
That's episode number 246 of the show. So just look in your podcast player and go back a few episodes and listen to episode 246. Start with that, and then just simply download the free download. There's no charge to you to download it free for 30 days. You get the full functioning, full version of the program.
You can find that link at radicalpersonalfinance.com/ynab. Incidentally, one of the questions that just came up in the Irregulars Facebook group, that's for patrons of the show who are at the $25 a month and up level where I spend time answering questions, and we have a really great community in a private Facebook group.
One of the questions that just came up a couple of weeks ago, or excuse me, a couple of days ago, was a discussion about what type of business budgeting software to use. And my recommendation to this listener who was looking for business budgeting or business accounting software was actually simply to use YNAB.
And you'll hear in the course of the interview with Jesse Mecham, that's what he uses for his business budget, and I've actually switched all of my business finances for Radical Personal Finance over to YNAB. Don't get confused. It's not a double entry accounting system. It's not going to be something that your controller is going to use to run all of the accounts for your 500-person company.
But for any small and medium-sized company, I think it'll do perfectly well. And it's much more intuitive than some of the normal ones like QuickBooks or some of the other fresh books or some of the other versions that are out there. Nothing wrong with those versions, but they're a little bit more complicated.
And more importantly, YNAB allows the budgeting function, which is the forward-looking function. Other pieces of software are probably better at the tracking function, but from the perspective of forward-looking and planning, which is the essence of financial planning and financial management, YNAB is really great. YNAB, again, stands for You Need a Budget.
Find the download link for a free 30-day trial at radicalpersonalfinance.com/ynab. Second sponsor of the day is Paladin Registry. If you are looking for a financial advisor, there are many places you can go. Obviously, you're going to hear this episode with Doug Goldstein. He's a financial advisor. So if his work and his service sounds good to you, you'll hear all of his information at the end of the show.
But Doug has a specific type of client base, and so he might be able to serve a few of you, but he's not going to serve all of you. So if you're looking for a financial advisor, and I think everybody needs a good financial advisor, start your search at Paladin Registry.
Paladin Registry is a registry service where there are vetted financial advisors, carefully chosen and carefully vetted. Best way to learn some details there is to listen to episode 248 of Radical Personal Finance. That is an over-an-hour interview with the founder of Paladin Registry, Jack Waymire. Go and listen to that episode and hear what the service is about.
Then if you're ready, go to radicalpersonalfinance.com/paladin, P-A-L-A-D-I-N, Paladin, and you'll find the details there. You can put in your information. What will happen is it will pull up a special page, and please use that link so I get credit for the referral. That way I get a paycheck for sending you through that link.
But you'll put in your name and your email address, your phone number, and you'll put in the amount of assets that you have that you'd like to discuss. Then they will contact you with some links and some contact information for some advisors. If they don't have an advisor in your area, they will tell you that.
That's happened to one listener. If they do have advisors, they'll send you a number of advisors. You can talk with them on the phone. You can arrange to have an interview if you want. It doesn't matter to me whether you go forward and use one of their services, but hopefully it'll be a good place to start for you to actually speak with them.
Feel free to interview several. By the way, continue to give me feedback on your experience as you start to work with their advisors. I value that feedback. Sponsorships out of the way, let's get right to the content of today's interview. Here is the interview with Doug Goldstein. Senor Goldstein, welcome to Radical Personal Finance.
Doug Goldstein, CFP®, is the director of Profit Management Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show. He is a licensed financial professional both in the U.S. and Israel. So I'm really concerned that we're going to lose everybody right off the bat because as I introduce you here, not only we're going to talk about money and investing, which although my audience is pretty passionate about the subject, it's not generally a broad-based area of interest for across the population, but even worse, we're going to talk about chess.
When I was in chess club in high school, I didn't ever advertise that I was in chess club. I just went at 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning and played chess with some friends, but it's not something that I wore as a badge of honor in high school. Douglas Goldstein, CFP®, is the director of Profit Management Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show.
He is a licensed financial professional both in the U.S. and Israel. So I'm really concerned that we're going to lose everybody right off the bat. Douglas Goldstein, CFP®, is the director of Profit Management Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show. He is a licensed financial professional both in the U.S.
and Israel. So I'm really concerned that we're going to lose everybody right off the bat. Secondly, it turns out that the world of chess has a lot more intrigue than you'd imagine and we don't have to talk about how to play chess, but it's much more interesting to talk about who's playing chess.
It seems like it's one of those very small niches. Do you have any guess as to how many people actually play chess or percentages of people that know how to play it? A billion people. Are you serious? I'm not kidding. In fact, that's one of the main reasons why we got into this topic.
I wrote this book just to give a little background. A woman who was a world chess champion, her name is Susan Polgar, currently the world chess champion is a young man named Magnus Carlsen, but before him was an Indian fellow who had defended his title for years and years as the number one player.
As we both know, there's a lot of people in India and he's a national hero. Anand is a national hero and lots of people play. Just like in the 1970s when Bobby Fischer became big in America, he was quite a controversial guy, but after him, the whole world of chess changed from being one dollar games to million dollar matches.
So why in the United States does it seem to have, I guess, is it just high school where it has the stigma? It's been a long time since I've been in high school. And it is true, I guess I didn't talk it up much, but we're seeing more and more.
There's these huge programs called Chess in the Schools that brings it into elementary schools and there are many, many studies have shown that kids who play chess do significantly better in all walks of life and Chess in the School is specifically designed to bring chess programs to low income areas where kids are at huge risk to become not successful in any of a number of ways and this absolutely turns their life around.
Awesome. So you've written a book called Rich is the King, How the Wisdom of Chess Can Make You a Grandmaster of Investing and that's going to be our primary topic of conversation, but I'd love for you to give a little bit of your personal and professional bio so that the listeners can understand where you're coming from and what kind of background you're sharing from.
Okay, I appreciate that. I'll keep it very short which Josh, I think I can say you and I have a lot in common. We both worked in the financial planning world. I think I did a little longer. I started a little over 20 years ago and I was actually when I began working on Wall Street, I was partners with my mother who was a vice president at a big brokerage firm so we worked together with all of our clients.
On the retail side or on the wholesale? On the retail side. Okay, so individual customers. Yeah, normal folks, everyday folks. Cool. And in fact, one of the things that I think I really learned from my mother was before she had been in the business, she had been a teacher and so when she and I would sit down and do client meetings, most of what we did was just to educate people about what their choices were and what the risks are because and even to this day I tell people all the time, "I'm simply not a prophet.
I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, but I consider my job is to explain the risks to you in a language which you can understand and then you have to make the decision. At the end of the day, you've got to pull the trigger." So you started working on the retail side and then you spent your entire career with the same firm or you transitioned to a different business model at some point?
So after a little while, by the way, I should mention one more thing because it doesn't just come from my mother. My mother's mother, my grandmother, was one of the first women to be licensed as a stockbroker in America. How cool is that? Yeah, way cool. She had already retired by the time I got into the business, but she was one of my favorite clients, always calling in to get stockbooks in the days before the internet when you actually had to call your broker to get a stockbook.
So then I worked there for a few years and then my wife and I actually decided to move to Israel and so I began a real specialty which was working with people who live outside the United States who want to invest in the United States. So I did exactly the same thing that any CFP would do or any investment advisor would do.
I just had this special niche in the market which was dealing mostly with expatriates, people who retire outside the US or non-US people who want to invest in stock bonds and mutual funds like regular Americans do. You've just opened up probably a very long path of conversation, but let's stay focused on the book topic first and then maybe we can swing around to that at the end because I know that's a huge area of interest for many people trying to figure out.
I have a lot of international listeners who say, "Well, my local market is inefficient. My local market is manipulated more than the US market so how can I access the US markets as an expatriate?" Let's wait on that and let's profile your book. How did you decide to write a book?
Are you still actively practicing with planning or did you close your practice and decided to build a book on it? Yes, so this was actually my fourth book. In the past, I've written more specific books. I've written books specifically for the expatriate market that were a little more focused on investing in the US from outside the US and I wrote a book on retirement, sort of self-retirement planning which is just a series of very short essays.
This book came up because two of my kids were chess champions in Israel. Of course, when you're a proud father and your kids are chess champions, you get them a chess coach. So we hired a guy, Russian, it seems obvious to me he'd be Russian and his name of course was Boris.
When he was in Russia, he had been a trainer of some of the top names in the world of chess. So he was my kid's coach and I used to sit in on the coaching sessions and one of the things that financial people do but also chess people do is they look back at the things they've done recently and do a post-mortem to see what mistakes that I made, what did I do right or wrong and when Boris and I were doing a post-mortem on a game that I had played, he said to me, "We were examining one of the moves." He said, "Doug, your bishop is over here.
It's a badly placed piece. Why didn't you move it?" So I said, "Oh, Boris, because I was busy with something else that turn." Then the next turn we examined, he said, "Doug, your bishop is still there in a bad place. Why didn't you move it?" I said, "Well, I wanted to castle this turn." And every time he'd ask me why I didn't move my bad piece, I always had some excuse.
And I realized that the questions he was asking me were exactly the same questions that I ask clients when they have a bad investment. I'll say, "Why do you have all your money in this one stock?" And they go, "Well, I think it's going to be really well or I'm too busy to think about." They always have an excuse and then I started writing down all the little bits of wisdom that Boris said about our chess games and every single one of them had a really direct parallel to investing and that's kind of what got this whole idea started I guess about six or seven years ago.
It definitely seems like a great, I don't know what the right term is, an analogy or lens through which to look metaphor. A great way to look at the world of investing and to compare it. I flipped through your book and browsed it. I haven't read it in detail yet.
So I'm not able to specifically comment on each and every individual point that you made. But in looking at it from the lens of just thinking about, okay, looking at finances strategically, there do seem to be a lot of great parallels between chess because what will make a great, and feel free, my chess knowledge is limited.
So if I say anything that's wrong, please correct me. But what seems to me to make a great chess champion is the ability to see down multiple paths and think through long-term options without necessarily taking them, number one. Number two, the ability to think many moves ahead so that you know here's what the strategy is.
So I'm orienting my pieces towards this overall strategy. And then also just simply being able to take your time and build towards a plan. And when you start to put those things into the world of finance, amateur financial people just simply kind of take the next move. And it seems like the poorer somebody is, if you look, you often find a parallel in their thinking.
They're just doing the next thing that feels good. They're not looking farther down the road. They're not thinking with a long-time perspective. But the richer someone is, the more strategic they are. And a grand champion is probably much more likely to build an elaborate plan, set things up, focusing on the trap at the end of 10 moves down the road versus, "Oh, let's go ahead and make this move because it's simple." And so you could take that metaphor, analogy, lens, whatever, and you can certainly see just all the parallels between them.
Douglas Goldstein: I asked Susan one of the questions you just raised. So Susan was born in communist Hungary. For those of us who grew up in America, it's very hard to understand what it means to grow up in a communist country where there is a certain path that you have to follow.
It's not like when I was in school, I don't know how it was for you. I study whatever I want. I had all these different clubs. I could go and come and go whenever I please. We traveled. I competed on sports teams. It wasn't like that at all. So the problem was that Susan's father was this kind of radical psychologist in Hungary and he had this idea that genius could be learned.
It wasn't genetic and he was way ahead of his time because I don't know if you follow this today but people often talk about like the 10,000-hour rule and they try to prove and I think it's pretty reasonable that it's not genetics. It's not that you have to be born a genius but if you know how to work hard and work effectively, then you can become a genius.
Anyway so her father wanted to prove this with his own children and he wanted to homeschool them. I need to give you the background because these days, lots of people homeschool and it's normal but in a communist country when you tell the government, "I'm not going to send my daughter to your schools because I don't believe in what you're doing.
I have a whole different outlook on the world and I'm going to teach my kids my way." So he had a huge amount of chutzpah to say this to the government but he didn't back down and ultimately he and his wife, they homeschooled their three daughters, all of whom became fantastic chess players, top in the world and all against.
This was a time when the communist government just didn't want them to succeed and in fact had other people they wanted to succeed and wouldn't let them leave the country to compete and put a lot of restrictions on them but Susan and her family were incredibly determined and ultimately became world champions.
It's just awesome because it was probably illegal at the time to homeschool. I mean especially one of the major methods of societal indoctrination for under the communist system was the schooling system and that was one of the primary tools of the state to establish a homogenous society that could be easily governed.
Of course it's very different in the United States but we'll move on from that. Have you noticed in her story that her skills with chess, did those translate to other aspects of her life? In fact in writing the book, a lot of the book is really just her stories and how she went from one challenge to the other.
So it's not all about chess. In other words we have chess diagrams but you don't have to know a thing about chess to enjoy the book if you just like the stories of someone really and against all odds success story. I just want to touch on something before I forget which was why I wanted to tell you this story in many moves ahead and it sort of applies to what you're saying which is why I asked Susan when we first got started, "When you play a game of chess, how many moves ahead do you think?" And I was sort of assuming that she would say, "Doug, you and I sit down.
I've already planned ahead 20 moves. I know exactly what's going to happen." But she said, "Look at the board and maybe one, two." That was it. I said, "Well, don't you have a plan?" She said, "Looking moves ahead is different from a plan." And that led into a whole discussion of the difference between strategy which is a big picture view of what you're doing and tactics which are the individual moves you make.
It's the same with financial planning. Financial planning is the big picture view of where you're trying to move your pieces, what are your ultimate goals but you have no idea in doing a plan what you're going to trade every day for the next 50 years until you retire. That's something that literally could be a day to day decision or depending how you set it up, short term decision and it's all part of the overall success of a world champion chess player and a super successful investor.
It is a beautiful way to look at the world of investing because in chess, certainly your objective is very clear. Your objective is checkmate. So looking at the strategy and the tactics and thinking about the moves, you know where you're trying to get to but there are probably an infinite number of moves.
I'm sure there's a mathematical calculation that could be applied to the exact number of potential moves but there's a huge number of potential moves that can get you there. Sometimes you can get there very quickly and sometimes it's going to take time. One of the thoughts that I liked in the book and that I like about chess is the idea of different pieces having very different functions.
This is one of the things that makes chess so interesting is that you can't discount the value of any of your pieces. A queen might be much more versatile than a pawn but the pawn is incredibly valuable and can be employed in the right way and in the right moment to be an extremely useful tool.
You can create a checkmate scenario with a pawn and a knight. You don't have to always use the queen but yet there are some moves that are going to move more quickly. When I look at financial planning, my big beef with financial planners specifically who are in the industry and also the financial planning media is that people don't seem to recognize the fact that there are many moves that can get you to the same place and there are many types of plans that can get you to the same place.
My issue with our industry, the financial advice industry, is we basically boil everything down to mutual funds and a little bit of insurance policies as protection but when you actually look at the wealthy, you find out that all mutual funds didn't really play such a role unless they were the ones who were building the company selling mutual funds.
The way I look at it and think about it is not that mutual funds are not useful but they're just simply a very straightforward basic approach. They're your pawns. They're your straightforward moves but if you look at the way that the wealthy actually develop and build their wealth, usually it's going to come with effectively deploying a knight.
It's going to come with the business opportunity that they saw to take a queen right across the board. But even in thinking in terms of defensive strategies, if you consider a chess board, you can't effectively employ your queen on the other side of the board unless she's been protected.
So I don't want to beat the analogy too far but it definitely is a beautiful metaphor through which to think and apply it to financial planning because what I see in the financial advice industry is that there are millions of ways to achieve a goal and it starts with get clear on the way and then look at the state of the board.
And if you look at the state of the board and let's say you have an opening sequence, you can't all of a sudden, your first move can't be to move your queen out across the board. You've got to develop your pieces in the initial stages of a chess game.
And so we should be taking into account stages where people are at in their finance. Douglas Goldstein, CFP®, is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show (Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET) is a licensed financial professional both in the U.S.
and Israel. He is a licensed financial professional both in the U.S. and Israel. He also hosts a conversation on the go with Goldstein on Gelt radio show (Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET) and is a licensed financial professional both in the U.S. and Israel. He is a licensed financial professional both in the U.S.
and Israel. He is a licensed financial professional both in the U.S. and Israel. He is a licensed financial professional both in the U.S. and Israel. He is a licensed financial professional both in the U.S. and Israel. He is a licensed financial professional both in the U.S. and Israel. He is a licensed financial professional both in the U.S.
and Israel. He has a background in financial services and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional.
He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co.
Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called Goldstein and Co. Ltd., which is a licensed financial professional. He has experience in real estate and is currently working for a large financial firm called will make you win eventually, but you have to go in the ROI order, risk, opportunity, invest.
One thing I like about her story, where you talk about taking some easy pieces. In chess, you may not be able to see the grand strategy at the beginning. In my mind at least, in my experience in my life, it's been that way. I've had a general idea of what I've been working for, but I couldn't see the strategy.
I couldn't exactly know where it is. In chess, I'm heading for checkmate, that's the goal, but I can't see the killer move. I can't see the perfect opportunity, but I can go ahead and take some pieces along the way. I love that risk, opportunity, invest because it lays out a good way to build these things together.
Let's say that you're coaching, how old are your kids now? I've got 21, 19, 18, and 15. Perfect. You're coaching your 18 and your 19 year old. There are some standard kind of piece taking things that an 18 or 19 year old can do. They can work on developing their education.
They can work on making sure that they're saving some money. They can just knock down some risks. These are like taking pieces. Now, who knows if they're going to build the next app that's going to go viral and be the next Angry Birds developer or who knows if they're going to become a local real estate developer.
You don't know. You don't have to sit around. You just start taking pieces, keeping your eye on the grand vision, figuring out where are the opportunities and then when you see the opportunity, there may be that point in time where you see the kill shot on the other side of the board and then you move in and go for it.
But you still need to be taking pieces and moving forward while you're doing it. Douglas Goldstein: One of the main reasons is because they have a bad view on money. Most people are bean counters. I got another dollar, now I'm a dollar rich and therefore everything they're doing seems so focused on growing the amount of money that of course they'll take on a lot more risk in many cases than they should and frankly I just don't think it's a healthy way to look at things.
One of the things that I talk to my kids about and I talk to my clients about, I write about a lot is the importance of giving charity as the number one thing that you do which is we encourage people to give 20% of what they earn to charity.
Now this is a lot. The average American I think is something like 1% to 2% but there are plenty of people who give 20%. By the way, some of the richest people that I work with, they're absolutely at this level or more and they always tell me this, "When things go bad, I just give more charity because that's the only thing I really have.
My stocks can go down in value, my business can go bust but if I've given the money, that's an asset that I have done this charitable work." One of the things I noticed about these people, people who are particularly charitable is that they have a healthy attitude towards money and that allows them to be more strategic.
They're not constantly petrified about losing another dollar and that allows them to be intelligent investors nor are they greedy which makes them take into investments that are too risky. So I think a takeaway and I leave this for everyone is try being a 20% donor and I know a lot of people are like, "Holy cow, I'm never going to have enough money." By the way, that's on top of being a 20% saver for your retirement.
They say, "How am I going to live? How am I going to possibly manage?" My answer to that is I've never ever once spoken to someone who is a big charity person and in a lucky position, I've met a lot of them. Never has anyone said to me, "Doug, I'm kind of dry.
I'm a little bit broke and I only wish I hadn't given so much charity last year." I've never heard those words and I think this is a great way to really build up emotionally how you see money and strategically how you'll be able to manage it. Ted Gellar, that advice is counterintuitive to much of the way that we approach finance.
Why do you think that's the case? Do you have any insight on the why? This goes with the theory that you should only buy investments that are the lowest fee investments. So this is very intuitive. In fact, it's true. Every dollar you pay to an investment and we've all done these calculations that the dollar you paid in investing, if you kept that and it compounded over 50 years, you'd be super rich.
So I agree with that. Obviously, it's true whatever you don't have, you don't have. However, what that neglects to take into account is if you don't pay anything to manage the money, either you're going to get crummy investments or you're not going to get any advice or any help.
You've got to find the balance between either managing everything on your own and hoping that you're really good at it and if you're not, then you probably shouldn't manage it on your own or paying someone to do the work. So I don't think there's no across the board axiom that you can say that never pay more for something because you have to make sure you're getting a value for it.
So I believe that the value you get from giving charity, actually giving away the money to some good cause apart from like all the karma or religious benefits you get which we can talk about later also. We have lots to talk about later but it's what's going to really change the way you view money and the worst case scenario is you help someone else.
It's an interesting question. I'm not quite satisfied with your answer. I'm sorry. No, it's all right. I'm just thinking it through with you because it's advice that I've often heard and there would be different perspectives. So for example, different religions will have different teachings on the subject. I have a friend of mine who's a Jewish rabbi and we talk a lot about that from the Jewish perspective and he talks it through with me.
I'm a Christian so I come at it from the Christian perspective. There are – I've read secular books from people who don't acknowledge any sort of religion or deity influence and they talk about the concept of giving. And in my mind, it starts to change. There are a couple of aspects.
I guess the two that come out to me and I wasn't necessarily finding fault with you. It's something I think we need to explore more but I'm teaching – I want to teach my children the same thing to give and I see two major impacts of it. Number one, it changes your – it changes my focus from a self-centered accumulation focus of money to a broader focus.
Life is just more fun when you can give money away and I've experienced at least it changes a little bit of my perspective to see what's available. I hate – it almost gets into the world of metaphysics which is there's so much bad advice in the financial space on this.
But when you're not focused on every last dollar, this is my very last dollar, this is my very last penny, you start to see opportunities. And when I look around and see the opportunities that exist in the world, I very much think – I guess I'm going to sound like a new age guru here.
You just think from the perspective of abundance. You see the opportunities and you see the options that are there and you see that the pie is not limited in size. The pie has an infinite ability to expand. And so giving money away I think starts to just – it changes me.
That's one reason. Douglas Goldstein, CFP®, is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host He volunteered so he could put it on his resume to get into a better college, that's just cynical. We're talking about people who are fundamentally good people who want to help the world and I don't care which charity you give to, whether you give it with your name or without your name.
I spoke to a guy who's a billionaire and a huge donor and I asked him this question, I said "Is it better to give anonymously or have a plaque with your name on" he said "Doug, I don't care, just people should give." If that's your goal and really the challenge, we can talk all day about it and be intellectual, for the next 12 months, every dollar you get in, 20 cents net by the way after tax, 20 cents goes to the charity of your choice.
I'll tell you one other amazing thing is people earn money. If you earn whether you're earning $20,000 or $200,000 a year, 20% of that amount of money is a lot of money. If you give $4,000 to a local charity, you are moving the needle. You're really going to make a fundamental difference in whatever charity you choose to give to.
I think how you're going to feel. It's not like you just put a dollar in the cup that someone passed around. I also like how I think with giving, if you can't give a dollar out of 10, you're not going to give 100,000 out of a million. If you can't give $2 out of 10, you're not going to give 200,000 out of a million.
People think they will but I'll tell you I'm scared of having a million dollar payday because that means I got to write a check for $200,000 and if I haven't built the habit along the way of giving $2 out of 10, then there's not a chance I'm going to write the check when it's 200,000 out of a million.
Douglas Goldstein: It's awesome to do it and also after you do this for a while, it doesn't feel like that. In other words, my wife and I do this. We sit down usually once a quarter to review our charity and I have good paydays, good and bad days and it doesn't even feel like this is our money anymore.
In other words, wouldn't it be great if Warren Buffet called you up and said, "Josh, I've been listening to your show. I love it. I'm going to give you a billion dollars that I want you to give out." Wouldn't that be like the most awesome job in the world?
I just think it would be so cool. I can just sit here and I can give it out and that's how I see the money in other words. Frankly, I do see it from a religious standpoint. I say, "Listen, God gave me $100," and he says, "Doug, look, I'm giving you $20 of mine.
You just give it out to whoever you want." I think that's awesome and thank God, it's more than $100 and so we're really able to make an impact on a number of places and it's very exciting to be part of helping and I don't know, we can move on.
I don't want to delve into this too long but it's so much better to be the guy who gets to give the money than to be the guy who needs to get it and I am grateful for that every day. Are you a Jew? I am. I'm going to ask you a question.
I've wanted to find somebody and bring on and ask about this question because Jews have a reputation around the world of being able to accumulate money. That seems to be, now there are various sides to that. People sometimes will make it a critical joke about the parsimonious nature of some Jewish people but it seems like if you look at society, I haven't seen statistics on this but Jews seem to control a massive amount of wealth on a global scale.
Do you have any insight as to why that might be the case or is it the case and do you have any insight on to why that might be the case? I don't actually think that's true. I think it's a perception but I do think that the concept of charity, I mean it comes from the Bible, right?
In fact there's a passage in the Bible where God says you should give charity and he says that this is the only place in the Bible where God says if you give away charity, it's going to come back to you. It will come back to you for the good and he says you can test me on this.
You can't go to God and say listen I believe I'm going to jump in front of a train and you save me, right? He's not saving you. Don't count on that. But in fact it's not allowed according to the Bible to challenge God in that way except on this one point and I really do believe what I was saying before which is that people who have a healthy sense of dealing with money which I think comes from being charitable will accumulate more wealth and so if you want to know why your Jewish friends might be doing a little bit better, maybe that's it.
So the scripture passage you're referring to comes from the book of Malachi and it's actually one of the most difficult scriptures that I personally deal with because it's been in my opinion so abused by religious people who their interpretation of that especially the worst are Christians and their interpretation of the verse is God says test me in this so therefore your way to test God in this is to pour out your money and give it here to my religious institution and let's go ahead and build a beautiful large religious institution and now you have a rich preacher and he's living the high life while the people are suffering and I despise that approach to it.
But yet I can't argue with the fact that it sits there in the scripture and I don't know if the thoughts about how much money or wealth Jewish people control or not could be just an aspect of anti-Semitism of a racist. The Jews have been accused of all kinds of horrible things over the centuries as a part of anti-Semitism or is it actually true is that God actually demonstrating a truth and when you have people who live according to his precepts and I believe that when you live according to the law of God regardless of whether you believe it or not you're going to get better results.
It's just a question I've puzzled over and I've never been able to solve it. I'll do a study in my client base but mostly they're Jewish because mostly they live in Israel. One thing, it is true and there are always going to be examples of some church that the guy was buying a jet plane for himself and tried to get people to give money for it but my Christian friends and some of them also who are huge donors, they tithe or more, there is nothing like that.
These are people who are literally get in their hands dirty to help the poor, to feed the hungry and it's so inspiring. Again I'm not trying to take this from a religious position. Plenty of people are religious and they know that they should be doing this but I'd be very careful about name calling or assuming some sort of prejudice and just encourage people.
Each person is going to give for his own reason but I just have to tell you that my Christian friends are fantastic at giving and by the way a lot of people also hold that this concept of giving is not just money but it's also of your time. So there are a lot of people, they go down to South America and volunteer whether you call it a mission and you think well they're missionizing, they're not.
They're like building houses and cleaning out swamps. More people need to dedicate more of their time for this. In Israel, all the kids when they graduate high school, it's not this huge race to see who can get to the fanciest college with the greatest name. These kids are going into the army or to national service and three of my kids already are into that.
My two girls both volunteered for two years. They volunteered for two years to give to the country. My oldest daughter helped in a kindergarten for autistic kids. My second daughter does research for the government. My son is just starting in a yeshiva which is like a seminary that also has military training.
They are that the society is not about gimme, gimme, gimme. It's about what can I give to the society and this is built into what's going on and I really think more people and I don't know how to do it with older people but I know with kids, you just got to start teaching them young that everything they get is a blessing and they should be so thankful that they're able to give back and they should give back.
I travel mostly between Israel, New York and Florida. Those are kind of my three places but it's for my work. My kids are here. My wife and family are here. I do really love that about the Israeli society. Most of the Israeli people that I've met, I've met in other countries and they usually come after they've been traveling.
I'm riding a bus somewhere and all of a sudden, I start talking to a guy who's a backpacker and he's an Israeli guy or Israeli girl and I'm just so fascinated with that because in my mind, it's such a better approach to a way to start young adulthood to get some experience and some things that are atypical and I really don't like how in the US American society, we go right from high school to college and then what happens is we often get locked into the earning mindset because we have to support families usually and people just go straight from school to work and they miss out on some of the benefits of life that aren't measured in terms of money.
So I really love that about the Israeli society. That's why we moved here when our kids were young because we wanted them to grow up in that model where really family was the core and not how successful can I be. I'm just going to read the three verses from Malachi.
So that's the actual scripture passage in a modern translation that we're referencing and it doesn't get much clearer than that. Now the interpretation, I don't struggle with what the Bible says. I struggle with how to apply it properly. That's the challenge. We should have a whole discussion on these prophecies that come true.
That's a great topic. Well, it is. It's a topic on my list and these are some of the things that I love to peer into and to look at and to try to figure out because I've never seen – the other aspect of the giving is you just build for yourself whether or not it returns financially, I don't know.
But regardless of whether it does return financially, you build for yourself social equity and social capital and that's how the Jewish society functions. When I look at how – what the Jewish economic system that God laid out for the children of Israel and you look at how the society functioned, everything was about a social contract among people.
And so when you start looking through the ways that things were handled, you see very clearly that the society of the Bible was provided for all people and people were cared for and were taken care of. Go ahead. I just want to comment on that which is true. In other words, before the Bible came, just for example, women were literally slaves, right?
There was no concept of an independent woman, right? But when the Bible came down and the Jewish law kicked in, so there was no concept. You don't just buy a woman as a slave, right? You have to marry her and I believe that the Jews were the first people to have a prenuptial agreement which is part and parcel of the whole marriage ceremony that says what the responsibilities of the husband are to the wife.
It was literally thousands of years ahead of its time. So as you're pointing out, a lot of these ideas that people sometimes now are sort of rethinking. I listen to a lot of podcasts. I'm a big podcast junkie and I like the personal growth ones. I like people talking about their ideas and I always get a kick out of when these sort of young guys who are pretty successful in their podcasting career, they come up with a new idea and one of them I was just listening to, he said, "Once a week, I take a day and I shut my cell phone and I shut my computer and I don't answer emails.
This is the Sabbath. We came up with this. I'm glad you're discovering. Good for you. But we figured this out a while ago and we've been doing this every day." Then I'll often tell people, "What if God doesn't exist?" So I say, "All right, fine. If God doesn't exist and once a week, you spend a day with your wife and your kids, sitting around not watching the internet and not on your phone and your kids aren't going out but you actually have dinner together and then you hang out the next day, what if you lost?" That's my plug for keeping families together.
Tom: I'm with you and I do think it's funny in our society because many parts of the world, Europe and the United States of America is heading in that direction but many parts of the world are post-Christian society. So oftentimes, one of the things I observe is people get fine an old idea and they get very excited about it but people get very excited about many things except the Bible.
For example, one of the big ones, there's a big launch especially among young men in US American society about the Stoics. So everyone's reading Marcus Aurelius and what was the name of the other guy? Some of these Stoic philosophers and people get very excited about the Stoic philosophers but I think, "Wait a second.
Let's talk about some of the other things that are even more impactful." You're right. These are not new concepts but often people are ignorant of history. Look at Tom's shoes and they say, "Oh, we're going to make profit and we're going to share." Well, let's talk about gleaning or let's talk about these certain things and that's why I love to talk and I won't play with the point.
I want to ask a few questions about investing from abroad into the US American system. Now evidently, I didn't know this before the interview but you've written an entire book on it so I couldn't ask you to lay out the book in 10 minutes on a show here but is it possible for somebody who's not a US American citizen and is living abroad to invest within the United States system?
Douglas Goldstein: The short answer is yes but the slightly longer answer is no for some people who try to invest via companies that just don't understand that there is life outside the United States. What I've discovered because this is all I do is I'll get calls from people all the time.
The book is not a very sexy title but it's extremely descriptive. It's called The Expatriate's Guide to Handling Money and Taxes which is exactly what the book is about. People read the book and they call and they say, "Hey Doug, I have an account with a big brokerage firm in America and they just sent me a letter that says, 'Dear John, you have an address outside the United States so we can no longer service you'." Then they call their broker and say, "What are you talking about?
I've been a client of yours for 20 years." He said, "Yeah, my compliance officers said it's illegal for us to have your account. You have 30 days to transfer out." The true part of that story is that people get these letters all the time. I get a call like that regularly, people calling me saying, "I just got kicked out by my US brokerage firm." We take them on and we have a US brokerage firm and the fact is the thing that's not true about that statement is it's not illegal.
It's just that these brokerage firms don't want to deal with the compliance issues of having clients overseas whereas when you work with a company that specializes in overseas clients, our compliance officers know what it means. They've traveled around the world. They know there's life in South America, in the Middle East and the Far East and they're perfectly willing to have clients who live outside the United States.
The two main conditions are you're not allowed to be a terrorist and you're not allowed to be a money launderer. So if one of your listeners fit into that category, please don't call me but anyone else, the normal people who just want to invest normally are more than welcome.
How do you actually establish? Let's say that I'm an Israeli citizen and also a resident of Israel. Can I just come to you and how do you actually go through the mechanics of establishing an account? Can I buy mutual funds through you that are standard US issued mutual funds?
What are the mechanics of it? So the mutual fund question is a good question mostly for people outside the US. You buy ETFs, exchange traded funds which have their pros and cons to both. The concept of both is that you're diversifying your money in some area and so the answer is yes.
You come in, I'll interview the client to determine goals and tolerance for risk as well as 50 other questions I'm going to ask and if it's a good fit, so we set up the account through our US brokerage firm which is a Miami based company. The assets are held through a major US banking company so they get exactly the same brokerage account they would have if I sat with them in New York City opening an account for them there and they can buy the stocks and the bonds and the mutual funds and the ETFs.
The mutual funds are the only thing which you just have to know a little more about which we do know a little more about. But you're just like a normal person. You get a visa card if you want or a checkbook, an online access, all the same stuff you're used to if you're in America.
You just have to find a company that doesn't say no to people outside the US. I'll tell you one mistake people make, one of the many but one is they'll say, "Oh yeah, I live in New York. I don't really live overseas" and they get their college buddy to let them use their address.
The problem with that is if you use an address inside the United States and you don't live there, that creates sort of an incidence of residency which could create a tax problem. So I discourage people from perjuring themselves when they fill out new account forms. You should be honest and if one company doesn't want your money, that's their problem.
I mean there are a lot of guys like me who specialize in expatriate or non-US people who want to have US brokerage accounts. I have to read your book and learn some more about it. It's an area of my knowledge that I'm pretty weak in. I have one last theme that I want to explore with you because I'm interested in your personal perspective and then I want you just to share about your books, your website and all that stuff.
But the last theme that I want to ask you about is living in Israel. I haven't been to Israel yet. I'd like to go. In fact, someone in the next… You're invited. Thank you. Everyone's invited. You're all invited to come. I went to Egypt about four or five years ago and that was my first entry into that part of the world and it just blew my mind.
I love traveling around Egypt and I have an interest, just a hobby interest in biblical archaeology and going to Egypt was incredible because here I am reading through the book of Exodus and the latter part of Genesis talking about Joseph and then here I am walking through the – looking at the pyramids and walking through the temples and it just brought so much of an increased understanding of what the Bible says, the things that I had never understood and so I've never been to Israel and I'm fascinated by coming.
So maybe sometime in the next couple of years, but from an external perspective, Israel seems like a very weird place to want to live for somebody who's not a Jew. Seems like it's just the perspective that we get is that it's a very difficult place to live. There's a constant threat and specter of violence hanging over your head with the wars that go on in this tiny little country in the middle of a very contentious region.
What's it actually like living in Israel? Douglas Goldstein: When the Jews are in the land, it will flourish. There are very, very few people who lived in the land. During that time, 100 years ago and further back, but during that time, there was nothing going on but when we came back, all of a sudden the land flourished and as you will see when you come here and of course I'm sure you know, for example all the technology that you and I are using in this phone call from voice over IP to Microsoft Windows which you're probably running to the way we set it up using voicemail, all of this was developed in Israel.
It is probably the number one, two or three in terms of technology in the world and so this is not a third world country that we're living in. This is a number one first world super technological place that also as I see it has family values that are ingrained in the culture and those family values which I witnessed I thought were deteriorating when I was living in America growing up, I see the opposite here.
I see they are growing here. Do you think about and that's always the problem of foreign news sources is the very rarely does a US American ever hear about Israel unless it's in the context of some violent thing happening and from my research and kind of study, you're definitely right about the economy when you start studying into economics.
Israel is a powerhouse in many ways but we don't hear about that. We just hear about there was a car bomb in Jerusalem. Do you with your personal planning as an Israeli resident, do you think about more seriously about things like violence? Does that account for your planning? Do you have backup plans if there's another war that just lights up next month?
Do you factor that into your personal planning? Douglas Goldstein: It makes a lot of news and as you point out, the media doesn't really get it. First of all, everyone should simply stop reading CNN, just delete it from their list and be done with that. If you want to know what's really going on, you just go to Israel National News and that tells you what's going on here.
The answer is I don't particularly like it when Hamas is lobbing missiles at Israel and it kind of ticks me off when the UN comes along and says Israel is responsible for the death of citizens when Hamas was launching missiles at our civilian population from inside hospitals and schools and nursery schools and we did everything possible to try to avoid civilian casualties and were incredibly successful.
We were flying planes over missile launchers, watching them launch missiles at us, watching them load missiles into ambulances which they would use to transfer from one place to the other and then one of our spotters said there's a kid nearby who might have been dragged in and we would abort the mission knowing that that missile would then be launched on our civilian population.
So it's insane that anyone is saying that Israel is responsible for civilian deaths, even one which we are absolutely not. Their own army that they voted in by the way, Hamas was a democratically elected winner in Gaza, they're the ones who are causing this damage. So it's just unbelievable how the news twists it and if people would actually read what's going on or come and visit and see what's going on, they would realize that the UN is totally full of it and they shouldn't be involved in making these claims and by the way at the same time, I haven't seen any statistics saying well all these countries are bombing ISIS.
No one is noticing that there are a lot of civilian casualties there. I don't think anyone is saying well Obama should be brought up on charges for civilian casualties because he's going after a bad guy. Hopefully he's going to destroy them. That is also a subject for a future discussion.
So to the question, so you don't think but you don't actually. I don't live in fear. Is that the question? No. But not the fear but do you take steps to plan for it? Do you think about that as part of your perception from a financial planning perspective? No.
In other words, Israel is obviously we are a superior military force and though the UN would certainly like to try to destroy us and many countries around us want to destroy us, we have the capability to protect ourselves and unfortunately it seems the world for example is not stopping the world's largest sponsor of terror which is Iran and this very well may be left up to us to take care of which shocks me because the whole world is going to suffer as a result of Iran getting nuclear bomb but if we have to do it, we are not going to go through another holocaust.
No chance. We do have the ability to stop them. The reason I talk about it and I know I'm pressing you, it's just more of an interest. I don't often get a chance. In fact, I can't remember if I've ever talked with somebody living in Israel who is also a financial planner.
So I'm just enjoying my own personal opportunity to ask questions that I'm interested in. I think about financial planning in different contexts and when I'm reading about different perspectives, different I guess situations, I think how could I apply – what are the principles that I could apply in that situation?
So whether it's – okay, let's say that I was born in abject poverty in the Congo. Is there some principle that I would be able to apply that would help me or help somebody that I were coaching to be able to I guess improve their situation? Now I'm also a realist that I don't think that – I've just finished a biography of Oprah and one of the things I never had paid attention to – I've never watched Oprah but I was aware – I'm aware of who she is obviously but I've never paid attention to the day to day things of her show.
But in this biography that they – the biographer, an author named Kitty Kelly was going through some of the various I guess controversy that Oprah faced when she was talking about the book called The Secret and she got all kinds of flack because she embraced The Secret as her gospel and people were saying, "Well, what do you do with – the reason that the Congo – the person who's dying of starvation in Somalia is simply because they haven't visualized their better future." I mean there's a point in time – positive thinking might be a good way to start but there are situations.
I mean when you're a slave, you're a slave. But I think about these different situations and I think, "Okay, how could I insulate myself in that scenario?" And so that's my reason for asking that question is just I think about, "Okay, here's my perception of Israeli society. Is there a way to take advantage of all of the growth but also be more – would I need to be more defensive?
Would I need to be more engaged with my local community? Would I need to have a local group so that if more attacks occur that I've got a plan for that?" And so forgive me for kind of pressing on it. It's just something I'm curious about because I believe there are some principles that can be applied in financial planning in every society, in every culture and then there are also some things that you do uniquely in each place.
So I'm going to give you what it looks like here. Most people, they finish the army or they finish national service. They get married. They go to school. They get a job. We have a very, very strong pension system here, much different from the US. In other words, the government does not want to be responsible for supporting old people in the future which I think is the right attitude.
We know that most people in America, their social security payment when they retire is their most important income stream when they retire because they don't have private pension. They don't have savings. The average American has something like $10,000 in the 401(k). So Israel doesn't want that situation. So we've got a very advanced pension system.
We have the most advanced healthcare for everyone system in the world. The healthcare here is literally second to none and I don't think it can be copied in the US just because I don't think they get it with all due respect. I don't think the current healthcare system is particularly working so well in the US.
Here it does work I believe very well. So you grow up, you need healthcare, it's available to you. I pay $1.50 every time. That's my co-pay when I have to go see a doctor and then I have a strong military that defends me and when I retire, I'm going to have a pension along with any savings I've built up.
So I don't feel the need to do any extraordinary financial planning like I might do if I was somewhere else telling people, "Okay, listen, we got to offshore some of your money. We'll put it in Switzerland." There's nothing like that. We invest in normal places. Israel doesn't have currency controls.
It's a very open economy. It's a very reasonable taxation system. I don't like paying the taxes because it's never fun for anyone. Douglas Goldstein, CFP®, is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show (Monday nights at 7:00 PM on www.israelnationalradio.com. He is a licensed financial professional both in the U.S.
and Israel. Securities offered through Portfolio Resources Group, Inc., Member FINRA, SIPC, MSRB, NFA, SIFMA. Accounts carried by National Financial Services LLC. Member NYSE/SIPC, a Fidelity Investments company. His book Building Wealth in Israel is available in bookstores, on the web, or can be ordered at: www.profile-financial.com (02) 624-2788 or (03) 524-0942.
Disclaimer: This document is a transcription and/or an educational article. While it is believed to be current and accurate, divergence from the original is to be expected. The original podcast can be heard at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions.
The opinions rendered herein are those of the guests, and not necessarily those of Douglas Goldstein, Profile Investment Services, Ltd., or Israel National News. Readers should consult with a professional financial advisor before making any financial decisions. Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions.
Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions. Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions.
Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions. Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions.
Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions. Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions.
Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions. Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions.
Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions. Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions.
Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions. Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions.
Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions. Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions.
Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions. Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions.
Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions. Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions.
Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions. Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. Douglas Goldstein, CFP®, is the director of Profile Investment Services and the host of the Goldstein on Gelt radio show (Monday nights at 7:00 PM on www.israelnationalradio.com.
He is a licensed financial professional both in the U.S. and Israel. Securities offered through Portfolio Resources Group, Inc., Member FINRA, SIPC, MSRB, NFA, SIFMA. Accounts carried by National Financial Services LLC. Member NYSE/SIPC, a Fidelity Investments company. His book Building Wealth in Israel is available in bookstores, on the web, or can be ordered at: www.profile-financial.com (02) 624-2788 or (03) 524-0942.
Disclaimer: This document is a transcription and/or an educational article. While it is believed to be current and accurate, divergence from the original is to be expected. The original podcast can be heard at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions.
The opinions rendered herein are those of the guests, and not necessarily those of Douglas Goldstein, Profile Investment Services, Ltd., or Israel National News. Readers should consult with a professional financial advisor before making any financial decisions. Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions.
The opinions rendered herein are those of Douglas Goldstein, Profile Investment Services, Ltd., or Israel National News. Readers should consult with a professional financial advisor before making any financial decisions. Please see the complete disclaimer at https://sites.google.com/site/goldsteinradioshows/. All information on this website is purely information and should not be used as the sole basis for making financial decisions.
the risks are. I wouldn't live in New York, but I'm also not trying to build a career as a hedge fund manager and if I had to make that risk, I wouldn't necessarily try to stay there and not because of a necessarily a terrorist attack concern, although that would be a major consideration for me, but primarily from a lifestyle perspective because when I look at the lifestyle that would make for my family living in New York City to me, just speaking for me, not to any listener who likes to live there, that's a hell lifestyle.
Everything is a concrete jungle. Everything is overscheduled. Everything is expensive. Where is the time just to hang out and play with my kids? I don't want that kind of lifestyle. The best investment for me to make is not to live in New York City and I can't imagine the amount of money you would – I can't think right now that I would be willing to do it.
There are – whether it's physical security concerns or whether it's just lifestyle considerations, I think the key is for us to think about our lives on a holistic basis. This is what I don't like about the financial planning industry is those of us who are financial planners, if we're talking – usually we're hired by somebody who's already thinking that way.
Financial planners are good at working with people that have money and they've already thought that. They've already set up their lifestyle, but when we speak to the public, oftentimes we stay so focused on the number one thing of, "Hey, here's how you choose a good mutual fund or a good bond fund," and we don't expand things into talking about lifestyle.
First thing that I would do if I grew up in New York City – maybe I'd move to Israel if I had a connection there. Maybe when I go there I'll see it and I'll move it. I'd move out because to me, I don't want that kind of lifestyle cost.
Now, my friends that are New Yorkers, they love it and I think they should be there. They would hate living where I live. So that's why I probe it. You can't be overly cautious, but you do need to be careful. Sometimes a move from New York City to Florida, it's useful.
I don't have to spend as much money on coats and heating as New Yorkers do. Doug, I'll give you the last word. Go ahead and feel free to respond to that and then go ahead and share with us about your books, your websites, all of your online presence where people can go and connect with more of your content and information.
Josh, I really appreciate it. I do think the critical takeaway is that like you have friends who live in New York and really like it and by the way I'm a big fan of New York. I go there all the time. It's just not where I wanted to live.
I think that the question each person has to ask of himself and with his whole family is what are the important things for me and is family important in which case maybe living an iPhone lifestyle over-programmed is not a good thing and don't live in New York, live in Israel or somewhere else or this is where I want to be at the moment.
And it is absolutely true the most important thing with any financial advisor who you're going to work with or financial planner is make sure that whoever you talk to that he listens to what your story is. If you sit down with someone and right away he starts telling you about an investment you should do before even really spending a lot of time, not just a questionnaire you fill it online but really listening to who you are and what your goals are and I don't just mean that I want to retire with a million dollars.
Where you want to live and what you want your life to look at, that's the thing people need to really focus on. In the book Rich as a King, which you can learn about at our website richasaking.com. We've got a Twitter feed which is @richasaking and the other two things we spoke about today is if you're living outside the US and want to invest in the US, you can go to my corporate website which is www.profile-financial.com.
You can also go to the website www.profile-financial.com and write on the homepage. I proudly present all my books. One of them is the Expatriates Guide to Handling Money and Taxes. If you go to the website for the book, there is a free webinar that talks about certain things that people outside the US need to know.
I also do have a radio show called Goldstein on Gelt.com which appears on Israel National Radio. If you go to Goldstein on Gelt.com and just sign up for our newsletter, we'll give you a free 30-day trial. Your potential options and move toward a clear objective. The next thing I want to talk about is the world of marketing.
I'm going to talk about how to get your business to grow and how to get your business to grow. I'm going to talk about how to get your business to grow and how to get your business to grow and how to get your business to grow. The world of marketing.