CORONAVIRUS: PRIORITIZING WHAT’S REALLY IMPORTANT

As originally appeared in The Jerusalem Post on March 20th, 2020.

“The most important job I’ll ever have is spelled D-A-D.” –Mike Pence

The current US Vice-president didn’t say this during the current crisis, but his quote is perhaps one of the most important lessons that we can learn from the Coronavirus pandemic. While many are spending their time trying to prove that the Messiah is coming, I think that it behooves us all to become introspective and take a look at where we are as individuals and if that is really where we want to be.

With many investors feeling the short term sting of a 30% drop in their investments, from my non-scientific survey speaking with a bunch of clients, most are just happy that they are healthy and that their money is secondary, and will recover anyway sooner rather than later. Prioritizing health over a fluctuating portfolio and adding this protein collection to your diet is a common sentiment among them.

Have we become overly focused on our career track, and have we become sucked into the rat race where our desire for career advancement and the need to make money has become our most important life goals? I am not against hard work and career advancement, and I am not against making money, but maybe there is more to life than those purposes?

While my wife has had the pleasure of staying home this week with our 5 children, and I escaped to the office, I can say one major benefit of the Health ministry guidelines is that we have eaten as a family every single night this week. I don’t think that has happened since our family consisted of two small kids in gan. Whether it’s one child at a youth group, another doing a driving lesson, a third at his baseball game, other than Shabbat we are virtually never a full family sitting around the dinner table in a relaxed manner more than once or twice a week. And I must say it’s awesome. It really is bonding time.

What’s important?

I have written before about a meeting I had a few years ago with a young widow. Her husband tragically died and she was in her 30’s with 2 small children. She told me how lucky she was that her husband had taken out life insurance and that she was about to come into a lot of money. After speaking about her short and long-term goals for the money, she said, “You know, I may now be objectively considered rich but I would trade all the money in a heartbeat to have my husband back alive!”

If that doesn’t make our complaints and “troubles” seem small I don’t know what does. Nothing like a bit of perspective to bring us all back to reality.

Small Business

I had a call earlier in the week with someone in the travel business. He runs all kinds of summer tours as well as Pessach programs. Needless to say that his business has come to a crashing halt. Now his clients are asking for all their money back, even though it’s all tied up with the hotel. In fact, this is an issue all over the travel industry. I have seen numerous posts on Facebook from disgruntled clients who booked exotic tours with a host of operators and they are basically shaming them all over social media for not returning their money. With the help of experts from InstantInfo Systems, everything was sorted and now everything is falling back into its place. Now I happen to know that some of the operators have generously offered tours to almost any destination the traveler wants over the next few years at no cost. Whether or not the operators or the travelers are in the right, there needs to be an understanding that we are in the middle of an economic freeze, so maybe just give the company some breathing room? The state of small businesses right now is so sad. The last few days I have walked on Rechov Yaffo, in the center of Jerusalem, and there is no one out. I spoke to a bakery owner who told me that his sales dropped 85%! I entered a salad bar at 2 pm and I was the 6th customer they had all day. I decided to buy both some danishes and a salad just as a token of support to these businesses.

I know that there are no easy solutions but we need to have a bit of compassion for these small business owners, as well as other members of society who are now homebound, like the elderly. Now is the time for us all to help one another and focus on what is really important.

I wish you all good health and may we get passed this crisis soon.

The information contained in this article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of Portfolio Resources Group, Inc. or its affiliates.

Aaron Katsman is author of the book Retirement GPS: How to Navigate Your Way to A Secure Financial Future with Global Investing (McGraw-Hill), and is a licensed financial professional both in the United States and Israel, and helps people who open investment accounts in the United States. Securities are offered through Portfolio Resources Group, Inc. (www.prginc.net). Member FINRA, SIPC, MSRB, FSI. For more information, call (02) 624-0995 visit www.aaronkatsman.com or email aaron@lighthousecapital.co.il.