Shopping had become a painful experience for Bracha Frankel. As someone who worked long hours, shopping was usually just an afterthought for her. But now, with the Pesach shopping receipts laid out in front of her, it became clear that she’d been too complacent about the drastically rising cost of living. Most household items, including […]

Rabbi Shloimy Stern wanted to buy a house. Apparently, in order to do so he needed to learn the sugya of credit. At an event for first-time homebuyers, bank representatives kept referring to credit reports and scores as if these were something everyone was familiar with. Which he wasn’t. Since these financial records influenced who […]

The words sounded like Chinese to him—“stocks,” “bonds,” “mutual funds,” “asset allocation,” “rebalancing”… Shimon Pearl had a few thousand dollars to invest but was stymied by the strange world of finance. The selection offered on the stock brokerage website he visited was overwhelming—there were thousands of options. The guides weren’t too helpful either; apparently, they […]

Mrs. Steiner, a middle-aged almanah, had “nechasim da’agos.” The life insurance payout she’d received after her husband’s petirah was still sitting in a cash account, earning nothing. While she’d been too numb to think about this during the aveilus, it was time to face reality. That pot, which had to last until 120, wasn’t even […]

It was uncanny, thought Shmiel Rothenberg. His friend Rafi always had everything going for him. More than that, Rafi’s success seemed to come effortlessly. Family. Torah. Business. Chessed projects. Friends. Health. Of course, you never knew for sure, but Shmiel was pretty close to Rafi, and his excellent fortune seemed genuine. He knew that Hashem […]

Shmelke Gebber loved investing, but high taxes chopped down his portfolio’s impressive growth significantly. That’s why Shmelke was intrigued when he heard that a West Coast billionaire had grown most of his fortune tax-free. Peter Thiel, one of the founders of PayPal, had somehow sheltered $5 billion of investment profits in a humble Roth Individual […]

Moshe Langer kept investing…and losing. He’d figured that if risk equals reward, he was best off taking a lot of financial risk to gain the most reward. But so far this strategy was failing. The $50,000 he’d given his nephew who was just starting out in real estate had evaporated. Then, his $25,000 bet on […]

Baruch Brown’s accountant advised him to open an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) for tax purposes. He may as well have told him to jump over the moon. Baruch was a smart and talented ABA therapist but far from financially savvy. When he asked his accountant for further details, however, he wasn’t forthcoming. “Speak to your […]